Tropicália # 2

For a brief introduction to the Brazilian tropicália movement you can take a look at my previous post, where you can download videos by Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes. In that Gil's performance with Os Mutantes in 1967, most of the audience disapproved of the musicians. These two new clips, taken from a festival broadcasted by the TV Record channel in late '68, show how things changed in a matter of one year, and many Brazilian young people accepted the new style as an expression of their will for a social renewal. Unfortunately those were the days when the militar government was turning into a very autocratic régime, using the censorship to limit the freedom of expression. We know how Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso had to pay hard, with jail and exile, for their 'provocations'. This happened just a few days after this festival. Gal Costa performs a fantastic song written by Gil and Veloso, we can see her at the beginning of her career as a star of the so-called MPB (musica popular brasileira). He had already made a record with Veloso in '67, singing in the mellow and relaxed bossa nova style, but in the following years she used her high and powerful voice for an ecletic psychedelic hard-rock, whose quality is guaranteed also by the talent of the composers (Veloso, Gil, Jorge Ben, Roberto Carlos...) and musicians, like the Brazilian guitar-hero Lanny Gordin.
Os Mutantes appeared wearing some of their typical odd costumes to present a song inspired by the Kubrick's science fiction masperpiece '2001: A Space Odissey'. The lyrics about an astronaut lost in space were written by Tom Zé, another great songwriter who emerged from the tropicália scene. The singer Rita Lee brought on the stage a theremin to produce some spacey sounds, and Gilberto Gil is also present to play the accordion. The clamour of the audience is so loud that you can hardly hear the music.
As you can imagine the quality of this clips is far from perfect, but they are precious and fascinating documents.
For further informations about tropicália check out the official site, available in both Portugues and English languages.

Gal Costa - Divino Maravilhoso (1968)
Os Mutantes - 2.001 (1968)

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Eu sei que tem muitos brasileiros que visitam o meu blog cada dia. Espero que vocês gostem.
Obrigado!

Mirco