The Sun Also Rises
My third CD is going to be disruptive for all the good reasons
Yesterday I went to the recording studio to record the second piece of my third CD. It will be an album of Simon & Garfunkel covers, all played by me on acoustic guitar(s), with my friend Small, a fellow tenor from the choir; I consider us similar in range and tone, but I also play guitar and he is better at harmonizing on vocals, and it should be titled something like From Città Studi to Queens and Back.
Why would I want to record such an album at an age when my children don’t even know who Simon & Garfunkel are, played with acoustic guitars, which nobody plays anymore and sung with harmonies which are not taught at school?
Because I made my decision, like Ivan Locke in the 2013 Tom Hardy movie: you choose your road, you stick to it, and you live with the consequences, without listening to advisers of any sort.
What follows is a diary of my journey towards this record — the ups, the downs, and hopefully a happy ending before Christmas.
Part I – The Sun Also Rises (8 April 2026)
Yesterday’s session was half a disaster, at least for me.
I recorded the guitars — the same part I already recorded when I was twenty‑one — without major issues. Original key, E minor, capo at the seventh fret. But it still took me two and a half hours, lots of mental energy and fingers were hurting already.
Then Small recorded the lead vocal, the melody, and I think it was good enough.
Then it was my turn to record the vocal harmony, the one I’ve been trying to learn ever since I was twenty‑one. It was already 22:30 when I started. It just wasn’t working: both the notes and the timing were off. I had to interrupt the session abruptly and go home in a really bad mood. Little sleep for me last night.
It’s a real pity, as I had been prepping for this moment for weeks, possibly years. In the WhatsApp group I told the lads that, to quote Ligabue, mine is una vita da mediano: I have to study more, grind more, accept that I’m the one who runs and covers, not the striker who scores on the first touch.
The only real consolation is that now I have Small’s melody underneath me as a solid base; with his line already tracked, it will be easier to study my part properly. The song is “The Sound of Silence”, and if there’s one thing I learned yesterday, it’s that you don’t mess with that kind of harmony. I need to know the notes, one by one, by heart. I chose this song partly because my wife keeps telling me that, in the morning, I talk too much without saying anything; that line about people talking without speaking is the perfect summary of that feeling.
In the morning I woke up and realised the President had not wiped out Iran after all, which was good.
So I went running on the cyclopath at 6:30, I called my friend from the countryside (we alway chat before sunrise), went to see the red shoes for the victims of uxoricides on the Ortica bridge. They were all still there, in place — as “all right” as they can be, considering. I have in mind a song to honour their memory; it will be my own Spoon River / Non al denaro, non all’amore né al cielo rendition. I will explain further when I get closer to the recording date. That song will be called “The Highwomen”, and for once I will be able to rest a little.
Today some of the lads who witnessed my “spectacular failure” are encouraging.
Dear @Zangri, what you’re doing is, in my opinion, one of the most complicated things. Even professionals fall in acoustic work. There are no tricks and no shortcuts, just a lot of patience… but it’s an incredible gym, and you’ll see the fruits of it in the future.
The sun also rises.