A long hard look at Brazil... part 2

I knew this music was for me, so I was looking for more and I swiftly ended up on the (back then) fashionable Tropicalia end of the spectrum. Even though many of the same artists appear on this next record (Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé, Gal Costa), it's five years earlier (1968) and it's a different sound world. A carnivalesk psychedelia in thrall to Sgt Pepper's. Much of this was down to Rogerio Duprat, musical conductor on all of these artists' records of the time and also the instigator of this era-defining manifesto record:

The Sgt Pepper's influence crept in down to the artwork, as you can see. This is music that never settles down, but jumps from section to section, from rhythm to rhythm, backing band to orchestra to musique concrète at the drop of a hat. And still damn groovy!

Love the long intro on this one! One of the sexiest duets ever, even if they are actually singing about butter and gasoline.

Caetano is often called the Bob Dylan of Brazil, and Gilberto Gil its Bob Marley, so it's kind of surprising they teamed up to write the Brazilian 'Louie, Louie'. A gloriously dumb, sharp as a needle, all atittude anthem. This is kinda like Richard Berry's version of 'Louie, Louie'. It needed that little Kingsmen-like something extra.