Gino Paoli and cats: life companions, alter egos, and a manifesto of freedom

He loved them. Very much. So much that he dedicated two pieces to them: "The Cat" and "Crazy as a Cat". The relationship that Gino Paoli had with cats was almost "philosophical": he probably saw them as mysterious, free creatures carrying a wisdom different from that of humans. In that first famous piece, the Genoese singer-songwriter who has passed away today, recounts a period of his life with a cat, Ciacola, who lived with him in an attic near the sea in Boccadasse during the somewhat bohemian years of his existence. In that song from 1960, the cat is almost an alter ego: against the backdrop of a poor but poetic life, the animal becomes a silent companion who shares the refuge, the guitar, and that tiny miracle made of stars, purring, and a window to the sky. Nostalgically, Paoli, later an established singer-songwriter, laments the simplicity of that time.

Paoli also recounts that the real cat of the song was one of the first "travel companions" when he left home, a sign that, for him, the bond with the feline was inseparable from the birth of his artistic journey.

​The album Crazy as a Cat

In 1991, the title Crazy as a Cat became the manifesto of an entire album, where the cat is not just a pet but an image of lucidity masked as madness. In songs like Crazy and Coward and in other lyrics from the album, Paoli contrasts the nature of animals – which kill only out of hunger – with the human madness of wars, promoting the idea that being "crazy as a cat" actually meant being wiser or more coherent than humans.

In this perspective, the cat assumes an almost ethical role: it is the other that, precisely because it is nonconformist, challenges our certainties and gives us a more authentic sense of freedom and responsibility.

Cats defend themselves like this

In 1995, in the album "Amori dispari", Paoli dedicates "Cats defend themselves like this" to his beloved four-legged friends: a tribute to the sensitivity of cats that seem detached from everything only apparently "as if their heart did not listen to anything, as if a caress were not important". He had chosen the best way to "feel them" and describe them, exactly as if they were human. Or perhaps better.