ANDY WARHOL

Nel 1971 esce Hunky Dory, “Il primo album in cui si avverte il talento di David Bowie”, scrive il malmostoso Scaruffi che cita tutte le canzoni dell’album, meno quella dedicata a Drella.   

Like to take a cement fix

Be a standing cinema

Dress my friends up

just for show

See them as they really are

Put a peephole in my brain

Two New Pence to have a go

I'd like to be a gallery

Put you all inside my show

Andy walking, Andy tired

Andy take a little snooze

Tie him up when he's fast asleep

Send him on a pleasant cruise

When he wakes up on the sea

Be sure to think of me and you

He'll think about paint

and he'll think about glue

What a jolly boring thing to do

Andy Warhol, per gli amici Drella [“Dracula+Cinderella]: amato/odiato. C’è chi vuole ucciderlo, come i Simple Mind in Killing Andy Warhol:

Killing Andy Warhol

They say the rain in Europe

Cools you down and helps you think

Water, water everywhere

Nothing you can drink

Kissing Andy Warhol

Non fanno sconti a Andy gli Stereo Total che in Andy Warhol, senza neppure una punta di umorismo lo dileggiano [Andy è un artista che fa ridere] e concludono che i suoi estimatori sono semplicemente patetici. Ma il synthpop del duo franco-tedesco è fiacco e non arriva a bersaglio. Un brano finto-ironico  di un duo altrove di discreta fattura. Meglio va il video. 

Andy Warhol

Quand on est artiste humoristique

La pire tragédie

C’est quand d’autres, pathétiques

Soudain vous prennent au sérieux

Anche i Warrant, - che Scaruffi liquida da par suo come band che “hanno forse coniato la forma definitiva dell'heavymetal da classifica, trasformando il genere di strada per eccellenza in un genere domestico… in feste di stereotipi per adolescenti di buona famiglia”, - dedicano un pezzo un po’ troppo lezioso Andy: Warhol Was Right.

A conti fatti, bisogna concludere che tra tanti omaggi al genio della pop art solo David Bowie ha scritto una song memorabile, - sono passati 43 anni e il suo Andy Warhol è il miglior tributo. Inizio e fine: la morte di Warhol nel 1987 a 67 anni segna la fine della Pop Art. Ma il genio creativo dell’artista, regista, performer continua in nuove forme: anche nell’arte niente si distrugge. Il testamento è scritto in un album leggendario, Songs for Drella, tributo di due grandi artisti che erano vissuti ‘alla corte’ di Andy Warhol, Lou Reed e John Cale. Mai così risparmioso, il solito Scaruffi scrive che l’opera è “un insolito requiem per Andy Warhol”. A noi basta ascoltare due song, - la polemica con i classicisti e il saluto finale, - per renderci conto del valore di questo capolavoro. 

The trouble with a classicist he looks at a tree

That's all he sees, he paints a tree

The trouble with a classicist he looks at the sky

He doesn't ask why, he just paints a sky

The trouble with an impressionist, he looks at a log

And he doesn't know who he is, standing, staring, at this log

And surrealist memories are too amorphous and proud

While those downtown macho painters are just alcoholic

The trouble with personalities, they're too wrapped up in style

It's too personal, they're in love with their own guile

They're like illegal aliens trying to make a buck

They're driving gypsy cabs but they're thinking like a truck

I like the druggy downtown kids who spray paint walls and trains

I like their lack of training, their primitive technique

I think sometimes it hurts you when you stay too long in school

I think sometimes it hurts you when you're afraid to be called a fool

I really miss you, I really miss your mind

I haven't heard ideas like that in such a long, long time

I loved to watch you draw and watch you paint

but when I saw you last, I turned away

[...] 

Hello it's me, that was a great gallery show

your cow wallpaper and your floating silver pillows

I wish I paid more attention when they laughed at you

hello it's me

Pop goes pop artist, the headline said

Is shooting a put-on, is Warhol really dead

You get less time for stealing a car

I remember thinking as I heard my own record in a bar

They really hated you, now all that's changed

but I have some resentments that can never be unmade

You hit me where it hurt I didn't laugh

your diaries are not a worthy epitaph

Oh well, now Andy, guess we've got to go

I wish some way somehow you like this little show

I know it's late in coming but it's the only way I know

hello it's me

Goodnight, Andy

Goodbye, Andy

Splendido tributo di The Vandermak 5 [http://www.scaruffi.com/vol5/vanderma.html] a 

JOSEPH H. LEWIS 

MARIO MONICELLI

ANTONIN ARTAUD

DEREK JARMAN 

FRITZ LANG

[Sito ufficiale di Le Chapelier Fou: http://www.stylobrique.org/chapelierfou/index.html]

PIER PAOLO PASOLINI

[suggerito da Winnie dei Pooh]