My head is on the pillory
The sense of guilt [drowned] in the Cognac
The paranoia swallows me up in the evenings
Like a glass of Nero di Troia 1
I'm drawing Goya's black paintings
As if I don't deserve what I've got
As if I only matter because of the hair I've got 2
I got used to the annoyance
They throw shit at me and I don't even try to dodge it, call me Steve, Oh! 3
I'm living a surreal dream like Dalì
Someone asks me "Michele, 4 tell me, what's it like up there?"
Up here? Unlike anything anyone has ever seen
What a blast! Without diethylamide nor mescaline!
Let me give you a tip: hang me on a wall like a Magritte!
Put my face up there and write below it: "Ceci n'est pas une pipe!" 5
Or whatever you want, it doesn't matter!
I'm listening to a voice that talks softly!
Do
Do it
Do it yourself
Be the canvas 6
And let the people paint you, as they can!
As they must!
As the want!
People!
We all have something to say about people...
As if we weren't part of it, we always exclude ourselves! Always!
We want perfection, but that can't be
To be: 7 we can't do it right, like passport photos
Doubts!
I wonder if it's a bastard!
I wonder if it's castrated!
I wonder if it was enought!
Hiding madness, I wonder if I'll found it out!
Mantegna teaches us to transform arrow shots into icons, like saint Sebastian! 8
Vague suspicion
Vague spectre from "A Christmas Carol"
But you can't get out of Escher! 9
And I find myself here, once again from the start, trapped in my vision of life, my dear!
Me, with my Frida Khalo eyebrows
I bend over
My head on the pillory
The sense of guilt [drowned] in the Cognac
The paranoia swallows me up in the evenings
Like a glass of Nero di Troia
I feel full of anguish like in Utoya! 10
Do
Do it
Do it yourself
Be the canvas
And let the people paint you, as they can!
As they must!
As the want!
We're like canvas!
We're like canvas!
We're like canvas!
We're like canvas!
We're like canvas!
1. typical wine from the Italian region of Apulia, where the author of this song was born. It literally means "black of Troia", Troia being a city in that region.2. I'm not sure about this verse. I guess it means that Caparezza feels like everyone know him just because of his eye-catching hairstyle.3. Reference to Steve-O, from the show “Jackass”, thanks to Snoblade for the explanation.4. Caparezza's actual name is Michele Salvemini.5. I suppose this is a pun on the famous Magritte painting (a picture of a pipe with the words "this is not a pipe" written below it) and on the Italian word "pippa", meaning "jerk, worthless, failure".6. the phrase "fai da te" ("do it yourself") becomes "fai da tela" ("be the canvas").7. i.e. "to live, to exist".8. Mantegna (Italian artist, born in 1431) authored a famous painting about the martyrdom of saint Sebastian, killed with arrow shots. A painting depicting a holy figure is called "icon", and in Italian "arrow shot" also mean "cheap shot", "cutting remark".9. reference to the famous endless stairs and other visual effects created by the artist M. C. Escher.10. reference to the terrorist attack carried out on July the 22nd 2011 on the Norwegian island of Utøya by Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people.