Hi, many thanks for the post. Some notes:
Gen Rosso is not a Switzerland-based “band”. It has (always) been more a collective, fueled by the universal character which the experience and vocation of Chiara Lubich brought out: to restore an eartlhy unity as it was actually practiced by early christian communities, in a modern time. Of course, in an eschatologic perspective, to avoid the illusion of stopping themselves to earthly ideals.
The actual title of this song is “Pay with my Life” (thanks for it, it would be great to have the others as well, and it was included later on at least in two albums. The first is “Chante le vrai visage the notre terre” (1973), a French release, the other is “Das Gesicht unserer Erde”, a German album (which I think is also live), which stands between “Venite alla festa” (their 1973 studio album) and “Senza Frontiere” (the 1975 studio album).
As you see, the international form of the releases, reflects this universal vocation.
Also, as you say, in recent years Gen Rosso took on a more marked “poppy” approach (but it’s been a development since they steered towards the “rock opera” form in the early 1980s), but this is just one of the many sides of the coin, as they always evolved and recent years showed the emergence of a new model, which took the form of school (and generally youth) workshops, of which the most interesting is the “Stark Ohne Gewalt (Strong Without Force) project, promoted in Germany since 2006, which marked the beginning of activities steered toward a cultivation of human respect and refusal of violence among youth people, as a basis for any dialogue, albeit founded in catholic faith magisterial teaching.
I know personally Mario De Siati, which has been one of the leading singers of GR since 1966 up to 1984; recently I put on YouTube a pair of early videos. See here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1G__R2K4XCU