My rating:
add to my books
Loading...
Tropical Truth: A Story Of Music And Revolution In Brazil
Rebelling against the Elvis-based, American-imported rock scene in late '60s Brazil, Caetano Veloso suffused lyrical Brazilian folksongs with fuzz guitar, avant-jazz, and electronic music-and in doing so blew apart the status quo of Brazilian culture. Caetano and the movement he catalyzed, tropicalia, urged an adoption of personal freedom in politics, music, and lifestyle....more
Paperback, 384 pages
Published
October 9th 2003
by Da Capo Press
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
This book is currently not featured on any Listopia lists.
Add this book to your favorite list »
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
235)
Jacob Wren
added it
Caetano Veloso writes:
I remember my walk from the Solar to the movie theatre where Land in Anguish was playing. It must be said that I found the film even more uneven than Black God, White Devil. [Both films by Glauber Rocha.] The lamentations of the main character – a left-wing poet torn apart by conflicting ambitions to achieve the “absolute” and social justice – were at times frankly sub-literary. In addition, certain intolerable conventional shortcomings of Brazilian cinema – hig...more
I remember my walk from the Solar to the movie theatre where Land in Anguish was playing. It must be said that I found the film even more uneven than Black God, White Devil. [Both films by Glauber Rocha.] The lamentations of the main character – a left-wing poet torn apart by conflicting ambitions to achieve the “absolute” and social justice – were at times frankly sub-literary. In addition, certain intolerable conventional shortcomings of Brazilian cinema – hig...more
I was blown away by tropicalia, a musical movement from Brazil that took hold in the late 60s, when I first encountered it as a college radio deejay. Subversive pop music by folks who know that to be a true Beatles fan, you have to love Yoko? Sold. If you aren't aware of Gilberto Gil and Os Mutantes, or peripheral players like Elis Regina, Jorge Ben, and predecessor João Gilberto, you can't go wrong with any of the available recordings (Ben's gracious Tábua De Esmeralda is one of my all-time fav...more
I'll admit I didn't finish the book. Though I love what I know, I don't have a very strong knowledge of Brazilian music. Veloso tries to make the history approachable for the uninformed, but he's talking about music, mostly, so without knowing what these things SOUND like, it's all just too abstract to follow the chains of influence. This isn't helped by the writing style - I respect that he takes his subject so seriously, but it seems a bit overly academic and intellectual, and leans towards lo...more
You need to be Brazilian to really enjoy and understand this book! Without knowing the "characters/musicians" it's hard to get into it! But I am Brazilian so I really enjoyed, understood and got into it!!! 🎤+📝+🌴
Brilliant, read it with Gal Costa, Os Mutantes and Caetano Veloso playing in the background. What music can and can't do.
Essential book on Tropicalia movement in Brazil.
Caetano Veloso is one pretentious dude, and english isn't his first language. I feel like these two things really hamper what should have been an excellent book. Instead, I feel like I still can't tell you what made tropicalismo different from the rest of Brazilian music.
Well I love the Brazilian “tropicalia” music from the 60s and 70s – Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Jorge Ben, Caetano Veloso and the like. So it was fun to read this memoir and see what they were up to, what they thought they were up to, and the context in which their movement emerged -- from Caetano Veloso’s perspective, that is. And that's key: it's his perspective, and that perspective tends to me somewhat narcissistic and arrogant (and wow is his writing desultory). A fun and important read, nonet...more
Raul
is currently reading it
fascinating...kinda hard to follow for my simple mind because there are tons of references to literary figures and films but it just makes me want to check out the people he's talking about. its as much about his life as it is about the musical revolution in Brazil in the 60s-70s, and brazilian history. for anybody thats into brazilian music or curious about anything brazilian. he just also happens to be one of the biggest pop stars in history too... he has a great mind.
Phil Overeem
marked it as to-read
Digging this memoir from the very outset. Veloso, a Bahian who was at the center of Brazil's tropicalia arts revolution, wastes no time exploring the implications inherent in rock and roll and pop culture being "imperial products" for young Brazilians in the late '50s and early '60s. As incisive a writer of prose as he is a singer and writer of songs. I can't wait to read on.
Veloso is an intellect. That is obvious from reading this. My hunch is that he wrote the English version himself. In any event this is most likely the definitive book on Tropicalia. that he was jailed and deported for basically writing music that the right wing disapproved of is startling. Under a repressive regime it can happen anywhere.
Caetano and his writing somehow take a fascinating subject that happened in one of the most exciting periods of recent history and turn it into a so-so book. Worth reading for the information, but a tough plow. I want to read Tom Ze's version!
an interesting autobiography/ history of popular brazilian music and the political climate which helped generate bossa nova and tropicalia.
I learned that rock stars, even tropicalia ones from brazil, are all pretentious all the time.
O livro é bom demais, mas eu admito: não o terminei por preguiça.
É proibido proibir.
Christian Larsen
marked it as to-read
Ellen Parker
is currently reading it
David
is currently reading it
Keith
marked it as collecting-dust
Sal B
marked it as to-read
Leigh Hannah
marked it as to-read
Tom
marked it as to-read
Huitaca
marked it as to-read
Marri
marked it as to-read
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
Caetano Emanuel Vianna Telles Velloso (born August 7, 1942), better known as Caetano Veloso, is a composer, singer, guitarist, writer, and political activist. He has been called "one of the greatest songwriters of the century"[1] and is sometimes considered to be the Bob Dylan of Brazil.[2] Veloso is most known for his participation in the Brazilian musical movement Tropicalismo which en...more
More about Caetano Veloso...
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
