Auschwitz (song)

Last updated

"Auschwitz"
Single by Equipe 84
from the album Io ho in mente te
A-side " Bang bang "
Released1966
Genre Folk
Label Dischi Ricordi
Songwriter(s) Francesco Guccini
Equipe 84 singles chronology
"Io ho in mente te"
(1966)		"Auschwitz"
(1966)		"29 settembre"
(1967)

"Auschwitz" is a song composed by Francesco Guccini , and originally performed by Equipe 84. [1] [2] It was first released as the B-side of a cover of Sonny & Cher's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)", and later included in Equipe 84's album Io ho in mente te. [1] Although the song was written by Guccini it was credited to Lunero and Maurizio Vandelli as the author at the time was not a member of the SIAE. [1] [3]

Contents

The following year the song was later recorded by Francesco Guccini and included in his debut album Folk beat n. 1 , with the title "La canzone del bambino nel vento (Auschwitz)" ('The song of the child in the wind'). [1] [4]

Guccini's authorship of the song was officially recognized only in 1967. [1]

Inspiration and content

"Auschwitz" was the first Italian song about the Holocaust. [1] Guccini was inspired to compose the song after reading the Edward Russell's essay The Scourge of the swastika: A Short History of Nazi War Crimes (translated into Italian in 1955) [5] and the autobiographical novel by Vincenzo Pappalettera Tu passerai per il camino [6] where Pappalettera recounted his memoirs about his imprisonment in the Mauthausen concentration camp. [1] The song includes several citations of Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". [1]

The lyrics are narrated by two voices: the protagonist, a child who in the Auschwitz concentration camp "died with another hundred, passed through a chimney and is now in the wind", and the author, who poses some rhetoric questions to which there is no answer.

Track listing

  1. "Bang bang" (Sonny Bono – Alessandro Colombini and Miki Del Prete) – 2:25
  2. "Auschwitz" (F. Guccini) – 3:47

Notable covers

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Pistone, Federico (2020). "Auschwitz (La canzone del bambino nel vento)". Tutto Guccini: il racconto di 161 canzoni (in Italian). Arcana. ISBN   978-88-6231-835-8.
  2. ↑ Discografia Nazionale della Canzone Italiana
  3. ↑ Francesco Guccini, Un altro giorno è andato: Francesco Guccini si racconta a Massimo Cotto, Firenze, Giunti Editore, 1999, p. 59, ISBN   88-09-02164-9.
  4. ↑ Discografia Nazionale della Canzone Italiana
  5. ↑ Lord Russell, Il flagello della svastica, Feltrinelli, Milano, 1955
  6. ↑ Vincenzo Pappalettera, Tu passerai per il cammino- Vita e morte a Mauthausen, Milan, 1965 (You Are Going Through the Chimney – Life and death at Mauthausen )


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