The Pope and the hit parade

John, Paul, George, Ringo — and John Paul II

Charlotte Metcalf

10 November 2007

A musical DVD starring John Paul II is released this month

Messina and Boswell go back to 1981 when Messina was working for RCA, the biggest music conglomerate in Italy, subsequently bought by BMG and then Universal. Boswell was on tour with his rock band, Live Wire, and Messina persuaded Boswell to produce for him. Hits followed, including Via Tagliamento by Renato Zero, still Italy’s biggest-selling album. Messina then introduced Boswell to Dario Argento, famous for his horror films, which have influenced directors like David Lynch, David Cronenberg and Quentin Tarantino. It was Boswell’s flair for scoring horror that really convinced Messina of his brilliance.

‘I’ve gone from Hell to Heaven, if you like,’ laughs Boswell from his London studio. He admits that he knew virtually nothing about John Paul to begin with but was swayed by the power of his voice. ‘It often has a trancelike quality that begs to be set to music,’ he says. ‘Besides, I was touched by his humility and ability to speak to so many.’ He also enjoyed finding numerous similarities between John Paul’s philosophy and John Lennon’s: ‘They’re both basically on about world peace.’

When it comes to this project, John Lennon has a lot to answer for. ‘After Lennon died, the Beatles made “Free as a Bird” using Lennon’s voice,’ explains Messina. ‘That got me thinking — if the Beatles can do it, why not us? Every time the Pope speaks it’s an emotional sensation and the Beatles showed that we didn’t need to get the Pope into a studio to use his voice.’ So in 2003 Abba Pater was born, a CD that set some of John Paul’s sermons to music.

Originally, visuals were added to Abba Pater but the Vatican did not approve the DVD for release. ‘Let’s just say they didn’t like the association of some of the images with the message,’ Messina says evasively when I try to press him on what exactly they disapproved of. ‘So I decided to scrap that one and start afresh.’