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The World’s Marco Werman takes us back to 1969 in London, where Brazilian musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were soaking up a music scene that would influence their music for the rest of their careers. Download MP3
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LISA MULLINS: If you had wandered into London exactly forty years ago, you would have found the hippie-scene in full-swing. The Beatles were almost kaput. But the Stones were rising higher than ever, and other radical sounds were taking root. Soaking all that up in London were two legendary Brazilians, strumming their guitars and writing songs as if they were still back in Rio. The World’s Marco Werman has today’s Global Hit.
MARCO WERMAN: In 1969, musicians Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil were arrested by the Brazilian government, without charge. They were told to leave the country. And they went to London. As exiles you’d think they’d be melancholy and writing songs about home. They were. But in this Gilberto Gil track, Nega, written in London, it sounds like he was also having fun. It’s not surprising that Veloso and Gil went to the British capital. The two tropicalistas had already succumbed to the Beatles bug in Brazil. And by 1970, they were fully ensconced in the London scene. They both continued writing songs, and each recorded there. But let’s focus on Gilberto Gil here, who was especially eager to cover rock standards. This is Gilberto Gil’s version of Up from the Skies by Jimi Hendrix. As a Jimi Hendrix and Beatles fan, Gilberto Gil couldn’t have landed in London at a worse time. Hendrix died September 18, 1970, forty years ago this Saturday. And August 1969 was the last time the Beatles were together in a recording studio. When Gilberto Gil recorded his first London album though, he couldn’t resist covering this tune. It’s a completely different animal in Gil’s hands. He may have indulged his love for rock in London, but another track on Gilberto Gil’s first London record shows how much he missed Brazil. Can’t Find My Way Home, by Steve Winwood, takes on a whole new meaning when it’s about real political exile. Gil would go back home to Rio in 1972, and begin a new musical chapter. But the two years he spent in London would influence him forever. For The World, I’m Marco Werman.
MULLINS: Hope you find your way home. GPS helps, sometimes. From the Nan and Bill Harris Studios at WGBH, I’m Lisa Mullins. We’re online at TheWorld.org and back here on the radio tomorrow.
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