Alice non lo sa

The historian Cesare Grazioli writes that De Gregori became the acknowledged "prince" of songwriters, inspired by Bob Dylan, a melancholy narrative voice expressing the doubt, ambiguity and human crisis of the times, with Alice no lo sa his first album.^[6] The album gained for De Gregori an undeserved reputation for being obscure.^[7] The album indicated De Gregori's innovativeness: the title song, "Alice", broke with the past with its elegant lyrics and visionary quality,^[8] still esteemed a generation later.^[9] The album was not an immediate commercial hit, but it had great artistic value with its evocative poetry and sophisticated melodies, and it proved to be the first of a series of masterpieces of popular music.^[10] Mariano Prunes, reviewing the album on AllMusic.com, notes that while only the title track is recognised as a classic, several other songs deserve to be. The album, writes Prunes, is influenced by Leonard Cohen, and "Marianna al Bivio" actually refers to Cohen's songs "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne", the lyrics throughout taking centre stage rather than, as was de rigueur in Italy at the time, making the singing openly personal or political.^[11]