Tropical Truth Quotes

“We are inclined to find the Scottish r's somewhat inadequate, while we admire the refined British who pronounce the intervocalic or nearly aspirated final r's so dryly—as opposed to the coarser Americans who relish chewing on long, cavernous, supersalivated r's, whatever the letter's position in the word.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

“My idle dreams of leaving behind what I was already doing professionally in order to study, to direct films, or to write receded with the shock of prison and exile. I simply lacked the strength even to adumbrate an act of will. The bell that had rung as I was falling asleep that morning the police had come to take me away had so deeply left its mark that I was still trembling at the sound of the doorbell in Chelsea. So it was impossible for me to dare do anything I might wish. And insofar as there was growing receptivity to what I did among my fellow professionals in London, a simple instinct for survival bound me to the activity in which I was already installed. I would stay home listening to Gil play, at times playing myself, watching television, reading, and above all conversing with people who came by. I was always chatty, but my happiness did not last even until my head hit the pillow. There was always something to feel ashamed of. And I didn't know how to get out of this.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

“I could not help remembering that I myself had uttered to a journalist in 1967, during the dawn of tropicalismo, a sentence that Tom Zé would soon use in a song resonant with the movement: "I am Bahian and I am a foreigner." In fact, we had understood that in order to do what we believed necessary, we had to rid ourselves of Brazil as we knew it. We had to destroy the Brazil of the nationalists, we had to go deeper and pulverize the image of Brazil as being exclusively identified with Rio.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

“In fact what estranged me most from rock, and from that entire impulse toward Americanization, was that it reached me without carrying any trace of rebellion.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

“At times, through the years, I have heard Gil say, and been deeply moved by it, that when he met me he felt as though he were leaving behind a great loneliness: when he saw me he was sure that he had found a true companion.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

“Almost everyone was visibly of mixed race. That the country might be poor was no reason for shame (although I rooted for it to get rich). We considered ourselves to be peaceful, affectionate, clean. It was unimaginable that anyone born here would want to live in another country.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

“All Brazilians have the impression that the country simply has no practical sense. It is like a father with a good heart and an honest reputation whom we respect but who can't make money or hold a steady job, who wastes great opportunities, gets drunk, and lands in trouble.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil

“The fact that MPB (Brazilian Popular Music) would come to concentrate the energy of this generation only confirms the power of the tradition that made bossa nova possible: in fact, MPB has been, for Brazilians as well as for foreigners, the sound of the discovery of a dreamt-of Brazil. [...] MPB proves to be the most efficient weapon for the affirmation of the Portuguese language in the world, when one considers how many unsuspected lovers it has won through the magic of the word sung in the Brazilian way.”
― Caetano Veloso, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil