70's

Incredible sound for 1977. Way ahead of it's time. 

An old classic from 1977. 



I've also found a really good lyrics translation in here

Samarkand

Laughing, laughing and laughing once again,
war isn't scary anymore.
At night, uniforms burn in bonfires
and plenty of wine burns the throats,
sounds of tambourines until dawn,
a soldier who had been dancing all night long,
saw that lady in black (ie the Death) in the crowd,
he saw she was looking for him and got frightened.

"Save me, save me, your Highness,
help me escape from here.
She was standing next to me during the parade
and she was giving me the evil eye".
"Give him, give him an animal
bred from lightning, worth of a king,
faster, faster, so that he can escape
give him the fastest steed".

"Gallop, horse, gallop, I beg you
I will guide you to Samarkand,
don't stop, fly, I beg you
run like the wind and I'll be safe...
Oh oh horse, oh oh horse, oh oh horse,
oh oh horse, oh oh..."

Rivers, then fields and then a purple dawn
the towers he finally reached were white,
but that lady in black was in the crowd,
and he was tired of fleeing and bowed his head.
"You were there in the crowd in the capital
I know you were giving me the evil eye
I ran away among crickets and cicadas
I ran away and I meet you again here!"

"You are wrong, you are mistaken, you are wrong, soldier,
I wasn't giving you the evil eye
It was just an astonished gaze,
what were you doing there the day before yesterday?
I expected you to be here in Samarkand today,
you were so far away two days ago,
I feared you'd stay and listen to the band,
and you'd never arrive here on time."

"Samarkand is not so far away,
gallop, horse, gallop in that direction...
I have been singing with you all night long
run like the wind that will get there.
Oh oh horse, oh oh horse, oh oh horse,
oh oh horse, oh oh..."

The really short spoken part at the beginning is not easy to understand, but the sang part is actually quite easy to follow (that's a standard north Italian accent). But it can also be a problem of audio quality, this is a quite old record. 
I also know this song really well because during the middle school we used to play and sing it during music classes.

In here local singers used to sing nearly for the 100% in Italian (or some regional dialect) since 1990-2000, while in the last few decades there are something like a 5-10% of singers-bands who sings in English. Also, many famous singers decided to re-singed their songs in Spanish (the Italian - Spanish translation is easier than to translate into English for example) and who became quite famous in Spain and Latin America. 

The most of these singers are mainly followed in here (apart from some Opera-singers like Andrea Bocelli), and have a quite large number of fans too. For example, Vasco Rossi last year did a concert in Modena with 225,173 sold tickets (link ), even if he is evidently too old for continuing to sing. Also Ligabue is famous for his extra-large concerts, he reached 151,395 spectators in 2015 (link). Both these concerts are quite high also in international rankings.

Lommaren, this is a singer with a really peculiar pronunciation:


This song is from 1976, and has quite interesting lyrics too.