Brazzil

The partnership between Caetano and Gil is one of the most fertile and lasting of Brazilian music, although they’re not formally a duo. Tropicalismo, for example, is a term inextricably linked to Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil.
By Kirsten Weinoldt

1942 in Bahia saw the births of two boys who would grow up to have unprecedented influence on the culture of Brazil. Sixty years have gone by. Undoubtedly, any Brazilian you ask, will have some comment on the significance Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil have had on his or her life. We will take a look at the creative genius of the two, which appears to be greater than the sum of them. Such is the way they complement one another.

A few months ago, both of them rounded the age of sixty with no sign of slowing down. As this is being written, Caetano is on an extensive tour of the United States, and Gil is enjoying the success of his recordings of the music of Bob Marley—a project, which has been in the planning stage for several years but finally saw the light of day.

Much has been written about each one, individually, and the accomplishments and accolades they have achieved. This article, however, focuses on their collaboration and how they seem to grow creatively when finding themselves in the same studio or on the same stage. The ripple felt in Santo Amaro da Purificação and Salvador, the respective birthplaces of the two friends, spread out across Brazil and then the world, touching so many people along the way and changing the way music was perceived and played.

Caetano Veloso

Caetano Emanuel Vianna Telles Velloso was born in Santo Amaro da Purificação, about an hour from Salvador, on August 7, 1942, the last son of Dona Canô and Zeca Velloso. When Portuguese spelling was changed to eliminate double consonants, except for the sake of pronunciation, Caetano was the only member of his family to change the spelling of his name, thus making it Veloso.

As a teenager he was first introduced to the music of João Gilberto, listening outside a bar in Santo Amaro. "Chega de Saudade," ("No More Blues"), with its innovative bossa nova beat was a turning point in Caetano's life. The following year he moved to the Bahian capital, Salvador, where he studied the guitar. His interests were diverse with a fascination for visual arts and film making. In fact, he long aspired to become a film critic. He took courses in philosophy at UFBA, Universidade Federal da Bahia, where he met Gilberto Gil and Gal Costa, who would become his life long friends.

In 1965, he moved to Rio to accompany his young sister, Maria Bethânia, who had been invited to join the cast of the show Opinião. Having won prizes in two Paulista music festivals, he recorded his first record, Domingo, in 1967. The same year, Caetano and Gil were an outstanding presence at TV Record's Third Festival Popular da Música Brasileira, as leaders of the Tropicalismo movement, which united re
gional rhythms and electric guitars. The following year the group launched the record Tropicália or Panis e Circensis.

Imprisoned by the military dictatorship, Caetano went into exile in 1969 in London, with Gil, where he stayed until 1972. His first album since returning to Brazil was Araçá Azul, Blue Araçá—a tropical fruit—in 1973, a controversial and experimental work, which ended up being withdrawn for absolute commercial failure. Another controversial work was his incursion into film making with the feature Cinema Falado, Talkie, in 1986. In 1992, the year when Caetano turned 50, the album Circuladô received the Sharp Prize for best song, interpretation, and visual project.

In his private life, he has been married to Dedé, with whom he has a son, Moreno, and later to Paula Lavigne, with whom he has sons Zeca and Tom, the latter born on Tom Jobim's birthday, January 25, and named for him.

"Caetano and Gil continue being fundamental figures for understanding and thinking Brazil."
Anthropologist Santuza Cambraia Naves, coordinator of the Nucleus of Musical studies of the University Cândido Mendes and author of the book Da Bossa Nova à Tropicália, From Bossa Nova to Tropicália.

Gilberto Gil

On June 26, 1942, Dr. José Gil Moreira and his wife, teacher Claudina Passos Gil Moreira, saw the birth of their son, Gilberto, in the city of Salvador in the state of Bahia. Little could they have foreseen that their bright, little boy would go on to have a great influence on the music of the world as well as the culture of Brazil. Shortly after his birth, the family moved to the interior of Bahia, where he spent his childhood. He grew up listening to the musical "duels" of violeiros, a kind of musical battle of blind singers and guitar players, at the local markets, street bands, and on the radio.

He was 8 when he moved back to Salvador, where he was influenced by the trios elétricos, bands on trucks used mostly during Carnaval. Inspired by the baião, rhythm of the northern part of Brazil, by Luiz Gonzaga, he started playing the accordion. Toward the end of the 50's he was playing forró in a group called Os Desafinados, the Out of Tunes. It seems Gil was listening to the same radio station Caetano was, and he too was impressed with João Gilberto, so much in fact, that he decided to learn to play the bossa nova on guitar.

The bossa nova influence shows through in his first song "Felicidade Vem Depois", Happiness Comes Afterwards. Gil started composing commercial jingles while studying business administration. In 1964, he participated in Salvador in the show Nós por Exemplo, Us for Example, featuring bossa nova and traditional Brazilian songs. It was here that he got to know Caetano, Maria Bethânia, Gal Costa, and Tom Zé, who were also part of the show.

In 1965 he moved to São Paulo, where he had his first hit with his song "Louvação," Praise, sung by the already famous Elis Regina. He then recorded his first album by the same name. He went on to be one of the leaders of Tropicália along with Caetano, Gal, Tom Zé, the conductors Rogério Duprat and Júlio Medaglia, and the poets Capinam and Torquato Neto. Gil has been married to Belina Aguiar, Nana Caymmi, daughter of Dorival, Sandra Gadelha, sister of Dedé, and finally to Flora.
 

A Brazilian friend, Luciana Andreazi, who lives in the U.S., was kind enough to respond to my request to express the feelings Caetano and Gil evoke in Brazilians. These are her words:

"Both, when presented together to our revolutionary/jovem guarda (young guard—Brazilian rock movement in the 60's led by Roberto Carlos)/Catholic generation, shocked by assuming the multiracial label. Caetano was rejected and criticized when he let his hair grow like black power. We did not know, before, that he AND Gil were nuances of our mulatto label. Caetano appeared the golden cradle boy, good family, excellent oral communication, etc. The Tropicália rejected this France-inspired matrix of acculturation. Caetano, and Ney (Matogrosso), by the way, presented themselves as illustrated savages. (I am wild not because I cannot learn and behave like a European. I don't want to be civilized).

"Gil is another story. He plays with the idea of polarized versions of reality, and breaks with them. He is the Saci Pererê (one-legged mischievous black dwarf), capable of compassion and humor, the sweet slave and the Xamanic guerrilla man. We need to see the moon, jump up to the stage, walk with faith and kiss another man. Gil doesn't say that because he has an agenda of demolishing myths, as Caetano appears to have done. He is sharing insights. Both of them lead us to "pra lá de (beyond) Marrakesh." They showed us other cultures and much of our own mulatto soul.

"Also, Gil and Caetano differ in their way of relating to the spiritual world. Again, Caetano follows, with poetic elegance, a metaphysical framework. On the other side, Gil contemplates the cosmos acknowledging the chaos and drinking its wonder without the effort of understanding. In "Oração ao Tempo," Prayer to Time, Caetano shows our nothingness in front of the infinite, timeless rhythms of the universe. It is a philosophical soul that emerges at the end.

"Gil incarnates a more compassionate guru. He is deeply interested in our sufferings (caranguejo, pelo amor de Deus—crab, for God's sake), daily activities and religious celebrations. We need to speak with God. If we depend on Caetano, God will understand us, because Caetano is able to translate our confused, ambivalent perceptions into German dialectical sentences. But Gil will make God listen and respond to our prayers.

"Mind and heart, Caetano and Gil are feeding my generation with poetic teachings, social awareness, and spiritual sensitivity. They are blessed by their differences and united by the essence of what makes us Brazilians.

Acho que eu estou escrevendo bobagens, mas veio do coração. Faz muito tempo que eu penso em escrever mas não tenho coragem. Espero que você aproveite alguma coisa… Beijos Luciana (I think that I'm writing nonsense, but it came from the heart. A lot of times I think of writing, but I don't have the courage. I hope you will use some of it. Kisses, Luciana) lmtca42@msn.com

Friends for Ever

The friendship between Caetano and Gil had its first phonographic fruit on the album Caetano Veloso of 1969 with only the composer of "Drão" accompanying him on guitar and a small recorder with four channels. That partnership is one of the most fertile and lasting of Brazilian music, although they're not formally a duo. The two friends are the protagonists of one of the most well known stories of exile among Brazilian artists. Thanks to the AI-5 (Ato Institucional n° 5—Institutional Act no. 5) imposed by the military dictatorship, the imprisonment of the two happened on December 27 of 1968, in São Paulo.

The accusation was one of disrespect for the National Anthem and the Brazilian flag. The military accused them of singing the national anthem with added offensive verses against the Armed Forces during a show at the Sucata nightclub in Rio. The show was immediately forbidden. Caetano and Gil were taken to the army barracks of Marechal Deodoro, in Rio de Janeiro, and had their heads shaved. They were released in February and, with their wives, they departed for exile in England.

Ironically, the punishment imposed on them by the military dictatorship probably contributed to their diverse cultural education. The foundation of Tropicália was Oswald de Andrade's Manifesto of Cannibalism, which inspired the two to "eat up" and "digest" cultural impressions from outside Brazil and "regurgitate" something Brazilian. In England they lived in close proximity to the Rolling Stones and the Beatles and English culture. Thus, in spite of their longing for the homeland, they absorbed what they saw and heard in the cold, wet climate of London and used it well later. As Caetano later said about Mick Jagger, having attended a concert:
"He had samba in his body."

Tropicalismo

Tropicalismo is a term inextricably linked to Caetano and Gil. Few people, however, would be able to explain the origin of the term, which came to signify such a radical change in Brazilian culture—and perhaps change the fates of many who came to stand as the proponents of the "movement."

Journalist and author Nelson Motta writes in his book Noites Tropicais, Tropical Nights:

"On a summer night, a little before Carnaval of 1968, I spent hours drinking draft beer and conversing with Glauber Rocha, Cacá Diegues, Gustavo Dahl, and Luiz Carlos Barreto at the bar Alpino, in Ipanema. Enthusiastic about Cinema Novo (New Cinema, Brazilian film movement), Teatro Oficina (avant-garde theater founded by José Celso Martinez Corrêa), the records of Gil and Caetano, and excited about the political and artistic movement, which had not been articulated and did not yet have a name—though in full swing—with so many innovations and so much potential, we began imagining a festivity to celebrate the new movement. A type of modernist baptism, a tropical feast, a mocking of our bad taste, vulgarity and sensuality, with our exuberant kitsch. After several drafts, tired of so much laughing, I arrived at home and forgot about the subject.

"The following day, with the dramatic lack of news that afflicts the columnists of the Carioca (from Rio) summer, I used all the space of the column to tell, in the form of a sardonic manifesto, all the foolishness we had imagined at the Alpino. Under the title "Tropicalist Crusade" I irresponsibly filled half a page of the paper (the article appeared February 5, 1968, in the defunct Rio daily Última Hora), celebrating the artistic moment with an imaginary, future party, in which the men would be in white suits, panama hats, and two-colored shoes, and the women in full dresses in green-yellow and turquoise, dancing among bunches of pineapples and bananas. The supposed "tropicalismo," common jargon for new art and movements, motif for the party and the false manifesto, was a preposterous discourse, which mixed cult of the past and tackiness making fun of the nationalists and traditionalists; it was absolutely chaotic, though it even had its entertaining moments, satirizing the national bad taste and making fun of the intellectual good taste.

"The party never happened, but there was great repercussion for the column, and it was taken surprisingly seriously and hotly discussed pro and con in other newspapers, as well as radio and television, which went on to refer to the movement of Gil and Caetano as Tropicalismo."

Others will likely have other explanations of the origin of that short-lived movement, which for all intents and purposes ended when Caetano and Gil were sent into exile early the next year.

"They show that it is possible throughout an entire life, to have a body of work so exclusive and particular that you could never find its equal by any other artist."
Paulinho Moska, composer.

Forbidding is Forbidden

On the evening of September 15, 1968, an event took place, which certainly pricked up the ears of the military government. Caetano stepped onto the stage at Tuca in São Paulo, ready to read a poem by Fernando Pessoa and make a type of amends to Cacilda Becker—the grande dame of Brazilian theater, who had been the subject of the dreaded censorship of the military but courageously resisted—and won. Caetano was accompanied by Os Mutantes in their plastic clothes and electric guitars, and the crowd went crazy booing and jeering the performers. Caetano, unable to sing, went into an angry tirade comparing the audience to members of Comando de Caça aos Comunistas, the CCC (Commando of the hunt for communists), who had invaded the Teatro Ruth Escobar, on July 16, 1968, to beat up the actors and destroy the set of the play Roda Viva by Chico Buarque. The tumultuous performance was recorded, and the speech is now famous:

"But is that the youth which says they want to take power? You have the courage to applaud, this year, a song, a type of music, which you would not have had the courage to applaud last year. It is the same youth, which always, always will kill the elderly enemy, who died yesterday. You are understanding nothing, nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing. Today there is no Fernando Pessoa. Today I am here to say, that those who had the courage to take on the structure of the festival—not with the fear, which Chico de Assis asked for—but with courage—who had the courage to assume the structure and make it explode, was Gilberto Gil, and it was I.

"It was nobody else, it was Gilberto Gil and it was I. You are on the outside. You are not working to understand. But what youth is that? What youth is that? You will never have content. You're like you know whom? You're like you know whom? Is there sound in the microphone? You're like you know whom? Those who went to Roda Viva and beat up the actors…You are no different from them, you are no different. And speaking of which, long live Cacilda Becker! I have compromised myself by issuing that 'long live', it has nothing to do with you. The problem is the following: You are wanting to police Brazilian music.

"Maranhão that year presented a song with an arrangement of charleston, do you know what that was? It was "Gabriela" from last year, which he did not have courage, last year, to present because it was American. But I and Gil already paved the way, what is it that you want? I come here to finish with that. I want to say to the jury: disqualify me! I want nothing to do with it! Nothing to do with it! Gilberto Gil! Gilberto Gil is with me finishing with the festival and all the imbecility, which reigns in Brazil! Finish with all that all at once! That's why we entered the festival. Is it not Gil?

"We are not pretending, we are not pretending, here, that we don't know what the festival is, no! Nobody ever heard me talk like this! Do you know why? We, I and he, had the courage to enter into all the structures and leave all of them, we are done! And you? If you do in politics as you are in esthetics, we are done! Disqualify me along with Gil! Along with him, understand? And as for you (unintelligible). The jury is very nice, but it is incompetent. God is alone! (he sings a passage of "É Proibido Proibir", Forbidding is Forbidden) Out of tune, without melody. How is the jury? You don't accept? Disqualify Gilberto Gil's song, remain outside! I swear that Gil pulled your chains. Enough!"

The Movement

On the Internet, one finds in Aulas Virtuais a lesson in Tropicalismo and its founders, authored by literature professor Marcos Petrillo Bondan:

"Taking up the "Oswaldian" cannibalism, Tropicalismo was a very strong, cultural movement, and the first names that come to mind are those of Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. The presence of these artists asserts itself definitively at the Festival de Música of TV Record, in 1967, with Gilberto Gil presenting his Domingo no Parque, Sunday in the Park, 2nd place, and Caetano Veloso's Alegria, Alegria, 4th place. The winner was the song Ponteio, by Edu Lobo and Capinam, but Caetano and Gil attracted all the glances and voices with their songs, allowing this moment to be considered the initial mark of Tropicalismo.

"The following year, Tropicalismo saw its peak and its end, as an episode, Caetano and Gil, together with Os Mutantes, Torquato Neto, Tom Zé, Capinam, Gal Costa, Nara Leão, and Rogério Duprat, launch the record Panis et Circensis, considered the LP manifesto of Tropicalismo. The two Baianos also have a television program, Divino Maravilhoso. In the qualifying rounds of the Festival of TV Globo of 1968, there is great controversy with the presentation of Questão de Ordem, Question of Order by Gilberto Gil and É Proibido Proibir by Caetano Veloso. In presenting the latter, Caetano is booed intensely by the audience and, being unable to conclude the song, ends up making a discourse of counter attack. "Tropicalismo as a movement ends after the issuance of AI-5, a stringent law of censorship imposed by the military dictatorship in December of 1968 and the imprisonment of Caetano and Gil and their subsequent exile in England.

"Tropicalismo had as a base the attempt to reveal the contradictions of the Brazilian reality, showing the modern and the archaic, the national and the foreign, the urban and the rural, the progress and the backwardness, in all, the movement did not arrive at producing a synthesis of these elements, but sought to translate a fragmentary complexity of our culture.

"Seeking to "chew" and "digest" everything, the movement headed by Gil and Caetano looks to incorporate with MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) elements of pop music (use of electric guitars) without forgetting those names, which played an important role in the evolving movement of our music. Freedom is a fundamental word of the movement." www.bondan.pro.br/aulas/tropicalismo.htm

"I feel I can't write about them as a professional. They mean so much, and I don't know anything about them. I write as an ordinary person that grew up listening to the audacious and courageous songs like É proibido proibir, beautiful verses like Sampa, São Paulo, and the exaltation of Alegria, Alegria, Happiness, Happiness. They showed up with the movement Tropicália at the same moment the hippies started to occupy the sensationalism in the media. With the 'strange' manner of their clothes and adornments and a new 'proposal' for a Bahiano style. People in the beginning were a bit astonished, but pretty soon started to sing with them, started to be identified with them, and from that time on, all our lives are always linked with one of their songs; all of them make us remember a certain period of our lives, now they take part in our dreams, wills and happiness."

Sérgio Martinho, Pós-graduate in Gestão da Cultura, Rio de Janeiro.

Tropicália

Caetano himself has written a book, Verdade Tropical, Tropical Truth, recently published in English, and naturally he has a lot to say about the time and the movement. He describes how the pivotal song, as yet without a title, was heard by several of his friends. Among them was a newspaper photographer turned cinematographer, who told Caetano the piece reminded him of a work of art by Hélio Oiticica, a visual artist, of whom Caetano had not yet heard.

The name, Tropicália, stuck, as Caetano did not find another title. At a gathering at the house of a friend, Glauber Rocha, film maker, was enthusiastic about the song and its connections with his own film Terra em Transe, Land in Anguish. Caetano has this to say about the movement:

"The idea of a movement gathered momentum, and the media, naturally, needed a label. By its pregnant power, the word tropicália found its way into headlines and conversations. The inevitable "ism" attached itself almost immediately. Nelson Motta, a dear friend belonging to that whole group of second-generation bossa nova in Rio, a lyricist from our generation who was then beginning his career as a TV journalist, baptized the movement "tropicalismo" and, extracting from the word itself a repertoire of attitudes, a folkloric wardrobe, capitalizing on the stereotype of the old-time Brazilian gentleman in his perennial white suit and straw hat, taking cough syrups with odd names, languishing under a palm tree—he inaugurated in a naïve and unpretentious way what would come to be a long series of typical interpretations of the movement's character.

"It was in fact a declaration of support for a trend that was rejected by all of his (and our) colleagues in Rio. As for me, having resigned myself to "Tropicália" for lack of a better option—and thinking that the song in the end would not be much affected by the title—I didn't swallow that tropicalista syrup. The old-fashioned or folksy images annoyed me—unlike tropicália, which was a new word, tropicalismo sounded worn out to me. I had already heard it with a different meaning, perhaps connected to the Pernambucan sociologist Gilberto Freyre (which later proved to be the case).

"At any rate the word seemed to exclude some of the elements we wanted most to stress, above all the internationalizing, anti-nationalizing ones, those that proposed a necessary identification with the whole urban culture of the West. It was a measure of consolation that the newspapers called "hippies" or "rockers" and our music "pop," and that some intellectuals connected us to the avant-garde, ranging from John Cage to Godard.

"But the definitive commentary about the tropicalista label that had just been attached to us was made by Dr. José Gil Moreira, Gilberto Gil's father: "I'm a tropicalist," he said laughing, "since I've been a specialist in tropical diseases for decades!" In fact, the entry "Tropicalista" in the Aurélio Dictionary of the Portuguese Language states: "I. The author of treatises on topics related to tropical regions. 2. A specialist in diseases from those regions."

(In the latest version of Aurélio, the first definition of the word 'tropicalista' is 'relating to tropicalismo.')

"In passing through Camden—it has to do with a Brazuca who loves amulets— I hear a recorded voice fancying to see a lion cub, and I also feel like a puppy 'raio da manhã' in the middle of fog and crowds down there, recalling my tribe of new Baianos ever new poets, mostly after another voice turning up from the same stereo whispering to me that 'love is like a grain'. Both recorded voices embrace me, and for a while I understand that 'o cu do mundo" (the world's asshole—far away) is a cool place in my soul. I ask, and the Briton says 'alas!' Gilberto Caetano Gil Veloso, got it?"
Cesário is an actor and PhD researcher at Department of Studies, Exeter University, UK. His research is granted by Brazilian CAPES, from Ministry of Education. He can be found virtually in C.A.Pimentel-de-Alencar@exeter.ac.uk

Cultural Storm

It is probable that none of the people involved in the Tropicalismo movement had ever imagined the controversy they stirred up, nor that it would divide the population the way it did. The debate raged in the press, at public meetings, and cultural icons of Brazil wrote about it, pro and con. It is likely that the hullabaloo would have continued much longer, had it not been for the exile of the two principals of the movement. As long as they remained in Brazil, however, they were targets of many attacks.

On the evening of June 6, 1968, organized by the students of the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo—FAU, located in Rua Maranhão, in São Paulo, Caetano, Gil, and Torquato Neto were invited to a debate on the ideas of Tropicalismo. But, the audience was already prepared—it was a trap to provoke and insult them.

At the door of FAU, students distributed, beforehand, a type of manifesto against Tropicalismo, which the father of 'theater of the oppressed,' Augusto Boal, wrote for the occasion of the 1a Feira Paulista de Opinião (São Paulo's First Opinion Market), the debut of which happened the evening before, at the Teatro Ruth Escobar.

Carlos Calado, in the book Tropicália—the history of a revolution, details the episode.

"In that text, entitled 'Chacrinha* and Dercy of Sapato Branco (White shoe)', the director of Teatro de Arena expounds his criticism against the tropicalistas, obviously having the ideas of the theater of Zé Celso Martinez Corrêa, the Oficina, right in his sights. After labeling the movement as 'neo-romantic' (accusing it of attacking only society's appearances), 'inarticulate' (for limiting itself only to criticizing, without attaching itself to any 'system'), Boal issued an ironic challenge.

"I'll begin believing a little more in that movement when a tropicalist has the courage to do what Beaudelaire already did in the last century: walked with his hair dyed green, with a colorful turtle fastened with a rose colored ribbon. On the day that one of them does something like that and is capable of giving a headache to a cop… (it will without a doubt be a contribution to the Brazilian revolution.)"

*Chacrinha, a radio and later television personality, whose programs saturated the airwaves of Brazil for decades. His nickname "O Velho Guerreiro," The Old Warrior, was also the name of one of his programs. Gilberto Gil pays homage to him in his song "Aquele Abraço." Chacrinha was also known as the first communicator of Brazil and the "clown of the people."

"With such a friendly reception, the circus was already armed to catch fire. It was not insignificant that, when the event was publicized in that Thursday's edition, Folha de S. Paulo anticipated the temperature in the auditorium of the FAU: "They say that things will heat up." To debate with the invited guests, the organizers had selected two well known opponents of Tropicalismo: the composer Maranhão (also an alumnus of FAU) and the journalist Chico de Assis. Sensing that the atmosphere would be unfavorable, Guilherme Araújo decided to reinforce the tropicalist team, inviting the 'concrete poets' (a style of poetry) Augusto de Campos and Décio Pignatari.

Augusto, who ended up writing the book "Balanço da Bossa," which included his articles already published in the press about the music of Caetano and Gil, was the first to speak. Making a type of introduction, he observed the road to innovation opened by bossa nova was abandoned, especially after '64, when an atmosphere of repulsion at any foreign influence seemed to be instituted in Brazil's popular music. Therefore, in his opinion, the tropicalist incursions of Caetano and Gil were 'a true revolution against fear.'

Pignatari then expressed himself, indicating the connection of the new movement with the modernist 'cannibalism:'

"Our Tropicalismo is to gather strength. That of Gilberto Freyre is the tropic seen from the big house. We watch from the slave quarters. So, as Oswald de Andrade said, we are not in the Stone Age. We are in the age of throwing stones. It is of interest to know how to eat and swallow, which are critical acts, as done by Caetano and Gil."

"Unruly since the beginning, the audience proceeded toward an open confrontation when Gilberto Gil touched on a delicate point: the commercial side of art. "We did not make our music a commodity. But it only comes through when it is sold," said the composer. The jeers exploded. And increased when Caetano mentioned Chacrinha. In addition to firecrackers, which continued to blow up near the table, even bananas were hurled at the guests. Accustomed to more inflammatory controversy, with a lot of presence of spirit, Pignatari was not intimidated: he got up and booed the audience.

"The firecrackers and bananas launched at the tropicalists carried an evident vision: From then on, they began to confront something quite a bit more concrete than criticisms and provocations."

Singer Rita Lee thinks that an artist who already revolutionized a time in his life, has fulfilled the greater part of his work. She thinks that the changes in the works of Gil and Caetano, today less shrill, would not be proof of artistic accommodation. "It is a process of expansion of consciousness, which makes up a part of our improvement," says Rita.

Sweet Barbarians

On June 24, 1976, Caetano, Gil, Maria Bethânia, and Gal Costa formed the group Doces Bárbaros, Sweet Barbarians, and débuted at Anhembi, in São Paulo, and in July of the same year, their first compact, recorded in a studio with songs from the show, was released. Shortly thereafter, during their tour, Gilberto Gil and drummer Chiquinho Azevedo were arrested for carrying marijuana in Florianópolis, Santa Catarina. The imprisonment causes a great national controversy. Caetano affirms that he does not use drugs, thus justifying his nickname 'Caretano,' straight arrow, which he was given by friend Rogério Duarte, one of the mentors of the tropicalist movement. In October, the album with material from the show Doces Bárbaros, which would also become a film with direction by Jom Tob Azulay, was released.

Perhaps it was more of an experiment or an expression of mutual friendship, but the group did not continue to record. Years later, however, Pão Music, an organization responsible for wonderful, free music arrangements and concerts, decided to reunite the four Baianos, celebrating their 25th anniversary and introducing younger generations to a piece of Brazilian history with four of the greatest representatives of MPB.

The production of a CD and DVD were also part of the plan. Getting the four together involved a great deal of complex negotiations with the respective record companies of the four as well as coordinating with their busy schedules. In addition, this would not just be the revival of a revolutionary period of MPB but also the commemoration of the 60th birthdays of both Caetano and Gil as well as their 35 years of career.

The Doces Bárbaros in London

On June 1, 1994 the four got together with 50 members of the Mangueira samba school gathered in London. Singing to an audience of five thousand people, the majority of whom were Brazilians, the four Baianos kissed and hugged on stage, emotional about the reunion in the city where Caetano and Gil were exiled. They had returned as virtual ambassadors.

The show started with Gal and Bethânia singing Gil's "Esotérico" accompanied by the other two on guitars, reviving the Doces Bárbaros tour of 1976. Gal was dressed in the famous red dress with a rose in her hair, Bethânia in white, Caetano in a black suit and green and yellow shirt, and Gil in a white suit.

Bethânia then sang four songs by herself with her band, resulting in loud applause from the audience. This increased when Caetano replaced his sister and sang "Sampa" (song dedicated to São Paulo). "This song is as if London were São Paulo," he said, comparing the city of his exile with the city known as the "tomb of samba."

He continued to sing "Leãozinho," Little Lion and "Você é Linda," You are Beautiful and closed his set with "Qualquer Coisa," Anything. The audience followed him off the stage with a standing ovation. Then appeared Gal and Gil with his band, including Moreno, son of Caetano, on percussion. The audience was delirious to hear Gal sing Ary Barroso's beautiful "Aquarela do Brasil," Watercolor of Brazil. After many more songs, the members of Mangueira appeared for a splendid crescendo, in which they performed that year's samba music with the four Baianos.

The Lyrics

Certainly, both artists have written beautiful, lyrical and romantic songs, known and loved by every Brazilian, but a great part of their body of work has strong political statements about the Brazilian experience, including politics, crime, cultural movements, etc. It appears, to this author at least, that their collective creativity has increased exponentially over the years as well as their courage to explore areas as yet undiscovered by other artists. Thus, they have always been in the vanguard of musical creativity.

The song, which eventually gave name to the movement was "Tropicália" by Caetano.

Launched at the same time as "Alegria, alegria" Gilberto Gil's "Domingo no Parque," Sunday in the Park, was a great success but also marked a departure from the romantic song so often heard on the radio. It has gone on to become a classic.  

A song, which has become almost an anthem for those who lived through that time and a well known song to others, who have come since, is the following, by Caetano:

Delirium Musicalis

Gilberto Gil says: "I had been a prisoner for some three weeks when sergeant Juarez asked me if I didn't want a guitar. I said yes. And he brought me one with permission of the commander of the barracks. The guitar stayed with me for two weeks. There I, who had not had the stimulus to compose (I was without the `voice' of the music, the instrument), made "Cérebro Eletrônico," Electronic Brain, and two others—also under that approach, or delirium, scientific-esoteric, which possibly was only in the outline, and I forgot.

The fact that I had been violated at the very base of my existential condition—my body—and to see me deprived of liberty of action and movement, of the full dominion of space-time, of free will and decision, had perhaps brought me to dream with substitutes and, unconsciously, think of mental and physical extensions of man and his mechanical creations; of the remote action commands, which augment one's capacity to act and create. Because these are the ideas that run through those three songs.

Inspired by an event he witnessed at a celebration at the new Fundação Casa de Jorge Amado in Pelourinho, dedicated to the famous Brazilian writer, Caetano wrote the following song—a rap—with music by both of them. It is a riveting song and a strong political statement about racism.

One of the duo's most complex (the English translation in this case should be taken only as a very distant taste of what the words and allusions mean) and beautiful songs has melody by Gil and lyrics by Caetano and talks about the Brazilian style of film making, known as Cinema Novo, whose most important director was the late Baiano, Glauber Rocha, a friend of Caetano's but also someone he describes as so shy and withdrawn, conversation with him never came easily. The lyrics make numerous references to important Brazilian movies.

Another creative and innovative way the two artists show off their imagination is in the song "Da Da."

Romantic or tragic, politically rebellious or universally soothing, their music always leaves us with food for thought. It provokes and stirs up controversy, makes us smile or cry but never leaves us cold or indifferent. Perhaps it would be appropriate to say what Caetano tried to say that night in São Paulo in his tribute to Cacilda Becker. Long live Caetano and Gil!

Kirsten Weinoldt was born in Denmark and came to the U.S. in 1969. She fell in love with Brazil after seeing Black Orpheus many years ago and has lived immersed in Brazilian culture ever since. Her e-mail: kwracing@erols.com

London, London
(Caetano Veloso)

I'm wandering round and round nowhere to go
I 'm lonely in London London is lovely so
I cross the streets without fear
Everybody keeps the way clear
I know, I know no one here to say hello
I know they keep keep the way clear
I am lonely in London without fear
I'm wandering round and round here nowhere to go

While my eyes
Go looking for flying saucers in the sky
But my eyes
Go looking for flying saucers in the sky

Oh Sunday, Monday Autumn pass by me
And people hurry on so peacefully
A group approaches the policeman
He seems so pleased to please them
It's good at least to live and I agree
He seems so pleased at least
And it's so good to live in peace
And Sunday, Monday, years and I agree

While my eyes
Go looking for flying saucers in the sky
But my eyes
Go looking for flying saucers in the sky

I choose no face to look at, choose no way
I just happened to be here and it's ok!
Green grass blue eyes, grey key God bless
Silent pain and happiness
I came around to say yes, and I say
Green grass blue eyes, grey key God bless
Silent pain and happiness
I came around to say yes, and I say

While my eyes
Go looking for flying saucers in the sky
But my eyes
Go looking for flying saucers in the sky

Caetano on writing in a foreign language: "It's not hard for me to write lyrics in English. What drives me nuts is the curiosity to know what do they mean."

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