La guerra di Piero (The war of Piero) is a song by Fabrizio De André included in the album Volume III (1968). The music was composed by Vittorio Centanaro.[1]
With La guerra di Piero De André speaks again about war, after La ballata dell'eroe. De André's reference for the style was Georges Brassens, but here the inspiration come from his uncle, Francesco Amerio. The remembrance of his return from the concentration camps, his story, the rest of his life adrift, deeply impressed Fabrizio, who remembered him many times.[2]
In De Andrè's lyrics are present many echoes from other poems. Amongst all, emerges Le Dormeur du val, a poem by Arthur Rimbaud (Cahier de Douai, 1870), which was taken up by many artists, e.g. Léo Ferré who sang it in 1955.[3]
A quatrain reminds the poem Dove vola l'avvoltoio written by Italo Calvino in 1958 and put in music by Sergio Liberovici.
The text of the song is narrated by two persons: the narrator and the main character, Piero. About the text content, the author doesn't refer to any specific war in particular, but to war in general.