David’s Reviews > Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil > Status Update

I liked the book -- though I still don't understand tropicalismo. I think I have to go back and re-listen to all the music.

With a gun to your head, compose a song in praise of the Transamazon highway.

Imagine politicians, officers, soldiers and police being afraid of this man: http://youtu.be/ppdpae0EWDU

Caetano reaffirms what I've read elsewhere, that in Brazil people aren't simply divided into black and white as they are in the US, that "racial" distinctions are more complicated.

Idiocy in all the Americas: a TV host believed "sem lenço, sem documento" was an allusion to LSD -- so he made a big demonstration out of smashing the record ("Alegria, Alegria").

Caetano didn't even own a stereo to play his first album when it was released.

I almost can't believe how much the development of post-1950s popular music in Brazil differs from it's development in the US. In the US rock and roll was almost the only game in town, and commercial concerns predominated. Very different in Brazil, where nationalism and regionalism, multiple musical styles, competitions and festivals predominated. Or so it seems from Caetano's account.

What a concentration of talent: Paulinho da Viola and Abel Silva living across the hall from Caetano.

This is great: I'm finally seeing how the musicians I admire and music I love developed, how they met and influenced one another, how they affected and were affected by politics, etc. But it's also the personal autobiography of a brilliant, gifted artist.

The rest of the book seems to be more accessible than the introduction -- thank goodness.