Le nuvole: Don Raffaè

Io mi chiamo Pasquale Cafiero e son brigadiere del carcere oinè io mi chiamo Cafiero Pasquale sto a Poggio Reale dal '53 e al centesimo catenaccio alla sera mi sento uno straccio per fortuna che al braccio speciale c'è un uomo geniale che parla co' me Tutto il giorno con quattro infamoni briganti, papponi, cornuti e lacchè tutte l'ore cò 'sta fetenzia che sputa minaccia e s'à piglia cò me ma alla fine m'assetto papale mi sbottono e mi leggo 'o giornale mi consiglio con don Raffae' mi spiega che penso e bevimm'ò cafè A che bell'ò cafè pure in carcere 'o sanno fa co' à ricetta ch'à Ciccirinella compagno di cella ci ha dato mammà Prima pagina venti notizie ventuno ingiustizie e lo Stato che fa si costerna, s'indigna, s'impegna poi getta la spugna con gran dignità mi scervello e mi asciugo la fronte per fortuna c'è chi mi risponde a quell'uomo sceltissimo immenso io chiedo consenso a don Raffaè Un galantuomo che tiene sei figli ha chiesto una casa e ci danno consigli mentre 'o assessore che Dio lo perdoni 'ndrento a 'e roullotte ci tiene i visoni voi vi basta una mossa una voce c'ha 'sto Cristo ci levano 'a croce con rispetto s'è fatto le tre volite 'a spremuta o volite 'o cafè A che bell'ò cafè pure in carcere 'o sanno fa co' à ricetta ch'à Ciccirinella compagno di cella ci ha dato mammà A che bell'ò cafè pure in carcere 'o sanno fa co' à ricetta ch'à Ciccirinella compagno di cella preciso a mammà Qui ci stà l'inflazione, la svalutazione e la borsa ce l'ha chi ce l'ha io non tengo compendio che chillo stipendio e un ambo se sogno 'a papà aggiungete mia figlia Innocenza vuo' marito non tiene pazienza non chiedo la grazia pe' me vi faccio la barba o la fate da sé Voi tenete un cappotto cammello che al maxi processo eravate 'o chiù bello un vestito gessato marrone così ci è sembrato alla televisione pe' 'ste nozze vi prego Eccellenza mi prestasse pe' fare presenza io già tengo le scarpe e 'o gillè gradite 'o Campari o volite 'o cafè A che bell'ò cafè pure in carcere 'o sanno fa co' à ricetta ch'à Ciccirinella compagno di cella ci ha dato mammà A che bell'ò cafè pure in carcere 'o sanno fa co' à ricetta ch'à Ciccirinella compagno di cella preciso a mamma Qui non c'è più decoro le carceri d'oro ma chi l'ha mai viste chissà chiste so' fatiscienti pe' chisto i fetienti se tengono l'immunità don Raffaè voi politicamente io ve lo giuro sarebbe 'no santo ma 'ca dinto voi state a pagà e fora chiss'atre se stanno a spassà A proposito tengo 'no frate che da quindici anni sta disoccupato chill'ha fatto cinquanta concorsi novanta domande e duecento ricorsi voi che date conforto e lavoro Eminenza vi bacio v'imploro chillo duorme co' mamma e co' me che crema d'Arabia ch'è chisto cafè Don Raffaè © 1990 Fabrizio De André/Mauro Pagani/Massimo Bubola "Don Raffaè" is based on the Italian crime boss Raffaele Cutolo, who has spent most of his life in prisons since 1963. Through his charisma and relational skills he was able to build and control a crime organization from within prison, and was also able to lead a remarkably comfortable life, complete with a personal chef to supply him his daily meals of lobster and wine. The chorus makes reference to Domenico Modugno's 1958 paean to coffee, "'O ccafe'", and to the importance of coffee in the cultural life of Naples.

My name is Pasquale Cafiero and I’m the prison C.O. Sergeant. My name is Cafiero Pasquale, I’ve been at Poggio Reale since ’53. And by the hundredth deadbolt of the evening I feel like a wet rag, lucky that in the special wing there’s a brilliant man who speaks with me. All day long with four villains – robbers, pimps, bastards and lackeys – all the hours with this rottenness that spews threats and that rags on me. But in the end I seat myself pope-like, I unbutton, and read me the paper. I consult with don Raffaè. He explains my thinking, and we drink coffee. Ah what great coffee – even in jail they know how to make it, with the recipe that cellmate Ciccirinella’s mama gave to him. Front page, twenty news items, twenty-one injustices, and what does the State do? It’s dismayed, it’s indignant, it makes a pledge, then it throws in the towel with great dignity. I puzzle over it, dry my forehead, luckily there is one who answers me. Of that man, immense and most refined, of don Raffaè I ask for his consensus. A gentleman, who has six children, requested a house and they gave advice, while the alderman, may God pardon him, raises minks inside these trailers. From you, one move, one voice is enough, for this Christ they take away the cross. With respect, it’s three o'clock, do you want the juice or do you want the coffee? Ah what great coffee – even in jail they know how to make it, with the recipe that cellmate Ciccirinella's mama gave to him. Ah what great coffee – even in jail they know how to make it, with the recipe of cellmate Ciccirinella, exactly like mama’s. Here there’s inflation, devaluation, and the stock market has it, whoever has it, I don’t hold a sum save for that salary of mine and two lottery numbers if I dream of papa. Add my daughter Innocenza. She wants a husband, she has no patience. I don’t beg for mercy for myself. Do I shave you or do you do it by yourself? You hold a camel hair coat that at the Maxi Trial you were the most handsome, a brown pinstripe suit, so it seemed on TV. For this wedding, I pray of you, your Excellence, lend it to me to make a good appearance. I already have the shoes and the vest, do you like the Campari or do you want the coffee? Ah what great coffee – even in jail they know how to make it, with the recipe that cellmate Ciccirinella’s mama gave to him. Ah what great coffee – even in jail they know how to make it, with the recipe of cellmate Ciccirinella, exactly like mama’s. Here there’s no more decorum, the prisons of gold - but who ever saw them, who knows? These are crumbling, for this reason the bastards keep their immunity. Don Raffaè – you, politically, I swear it, you'd be a saint. But here inside you have to pay, and outside these others are amusing themselves. Speaking of which, I have a brother who for fifteen years has been unemployed. That one’s done fifty competitive exams, ninety applications and two hundred appeals. You who give comfort and work, Your Eminence I kiss you, I implore you: that one sleeps with mama and with me. What cream of Arabia this coffee is! English translation © 2014 Dennis Criteser It took six years after the tremendous success of Creuza de mä for De André to release his next studio album, Le nuvole (The Clouds). In the meantime, he and Mauro Pagani explored several avenues of musical collaboration which did not come to fruition. De André had this to say about Le nuvole: "I realized that people are just pissed off, and since Le nuvole is a symbol of this dissatisfaction, the transference, the intermediary for this general discontent, I would say that the album was welcomed almost as a banner, like an emblem of the anger in the face of a nation that is going to the dogs, and certainly not through any fault of the citizens." Additionally, Mauro Pagani said the album was a fantastic description of Italy in the 1980s, with parallels to Europe in the early 1800s: "Italy in the early 1980s was like Europe in 1815: the Congress of Vienna, the fall of the Napoleonic empire, the sharing of the goods among the winning powers, social classes built on wealth instead of aristocracy, a society of fake Christianity . . ." The title of and inspiration for the album came from the comedy of the same name by Aristophanes, whom De André greatly admired.

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