Brutality Garden:
Tropicália and the
Emergence of a
Brazilian Counterculture

Christopher Dunn

276 pp., 12 color
and 18 b&w illus.

$55.00 cl

$19.95 pb

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  "Baby" (Caetano Veloso)

Você precisa saber da piscina
Da margarina, da Carolina, da gasolina
Você precisa saber de mim
Baby, Baby eu sei que é assim
You need to know about the swimming pool
About margarine, Carolina, gasoline
You need to know about me
Baby, Baby I know it's this way

Veloso's pop song, "Baby," may be regarded as a companion piece to "Parque Industrial." While Tom Zé's song casts an ironic gaze on industrial production, Veloso's song is a satiric ode to unbridled consumption. The lyric parodies hard-sell advertisements, creating an inventory of all the items one "needs" to attain plenitude in a consumer society. The reference to Chico Buarque's melancholic song, "Carolina," acknowledges that popular music is also a product for mass consumption. Interpreted by Gal Costa with masterful arrangements by Rogério Duprat, "Baby" is the most beguiling track on the Tropicália concept album and one of the most beautiful songs of the Brazilian songbook. In 2000, it was recorded by the Chapel Hill-based rock group, Portastatic, on the CD de mel, de melão, which was dedicated entirely to Brazilian music.

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