Revisao do livro verdade tropical

Veloso, Caetano (2008) Verdade Tropical (Tropical Truth), Companhia de Bolso (São Paulo), 515 pp.

The author of this book was born in 1942, Bahia, Brazil. As a singer and composer of Brazilian popular music (MPB), in the beginning of his musical career, Caetano Veloso had been inspired by the Brazilian bossa nova style and by a much valued friend, the Brazilian bossa nova singer Joao Gilberto. Caetano Veloso aimed at consolidating the bossa nova with modern styles like rock music. And together with other singers like Gilberto Gil, their idea was to stimulate reflection and prompt a new national conscience which was shown in their lyrics by criticizing ethical and moral values of the Brazilian culture. This new concept was known as the Tropicalismo and the movement started around the late sixties, and this is what the book is mostly about..

The book is depicted by the author (p.15) as an attempt to throw light on a creative movement (Tropicalismo)carried out within the Brazilian popular music in the second half of the sixties. The author includes himself amongst other protagonists whose musical goal was to move beyond the lefties. So, by putting in scene a hint of revolt against social inequality (involving what he calls as a yet unique and loving people) and by allowing its music a pinch of happy urban reality – what he considers a “fatal” international and globalising reality – the Tropicalismo was meant to unveil the “mysterious isle called Brazil”.

On one hand the book is a biography. Caetano starts mentioning passages of his childhood and adolescence in his hometown Santo Amaro, Bahia, emphasising the companionship of certain friends and also of his interesting sister Maria Betania (whom he describes as a peculiar singer). He then passes through diverse stages of his life such as his first public appearances on television, his first marriage , his later arrest by the Brazilian military regime and his exile in London. On the other hand, exploring music