#tom ze

[bestalbumcover]

Round 1:

Which COVER do you like better?

Estudando o Samba (Tom Zé)

The Dreaming (Kate Bush)

Voting ended onSep 19, 2025

Remember you're voting for the cover artwork NOT the musical content or artist!

[itmustbeheaven]

David Byrne in the documentary "Fabricando Tom Zé" (2006)

[corposeco]

Quando

Eu cheguei das estrelas...

Entrei na terra

Por uma caverna

Chamada nascer

[lostxbedroom]

Tom Zé & Gal Costa, 1970.

"Sabe uma faca me rasgando? O mundo se acabando? Não sei... Gal Costa cantora, Gal Costa a Mulher, a Mulher Terrível, a Mulher Linda. A Noiva. A Morta. A Viúva. A Maravilha. É muito difícil falar essas coisas. Não sei. Gal Costa sempre me trata com choques elétricos. Eu chego pra ver ela e não vejo ela, e me arrebato por ela, e me arrebento por ela, e me desarrumo por ela. Não sei. É sempre surpreendente. Eu nunca sei o que vai acontecer. Cada vez acontece uma coisa estranha. Cada vez é como a vida estivesse se partindo, começando, se acabando. Gal Costa é muito maravilhosa." - Tom Zé

[soundgrammar]

Listen/purchase: Dói by Tom Ze

[manuarrt]

Álbum tropicália ou Panis  et Circensis; realizada por Oliver Perroy.

[vinylspinning]

Gal Costa: Gal Legal (1970)

Gal Costa emerged out of the Tropicália movement, sending shockwaves through Brazilian music alongside fellow Bahianos like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Maria Bethânia, and Tom Zé, all of whom she joined with on the style’s signature album, Tropicália: ou Panis et Circencis.

Prior to that breakthrough, Gal had enjoyed minor exposure singing bossa nova, and later scored several late ’60s solo hits (e.g. “Coração Vagabundo,” “Baby”) on her way to a self-titled 1969 full-length that became another paradigm of Latin psychedelia.

Another album, named simply Gal, followed later the same year, but as Brazil’s ruling military junta started cracking down on all kinds of “dangerous” counter-culture elements (even driving Caetano, Gil and others into exile), Costa and her team changed their approach, somewhat, for her third LP, 1970’s Legal. (*)

While it remained eclectic to a fault, the album’s songs swapped some of those “threatening,” telltale Tropicália ingredients for more traditional styles of Brazilian popular music, as well as from abroad.

To wit: “Eu Sou Terrível” is big band Elvis in Las Vegas (**), “Língua do P” is an accordion-driven forró, “Love, Try and Die” is a ‘1920s stride piano swinger complete with faux-Satchmo vocals, “Deixa Sangrar” is a samba with a fuzz rock guitar solo, and despite its misleading, English title, “The Archaic Lonely Star Blues” is basically orchestrated bossa nova.

I actually dig the latter quite a bit (the others, not so much), as well as the smoky lounge jazz of “Mini-Mistério” (where Gal sometimes howls like Janis Joplin), the ethereal, folksy nature of “Acauã” (that’s a bird), and a gutsy cover of Caetano’s “London London” is always welcome.

Not least because those military censors must have been seduced by Gal’s sweet, sultry soprano and looked away from the album’s subtle provocations -- or perhaps they were too busy staring at her, as the beautiful singer was well on her way to becoming one of the biggest sex symbols of 1970s Brazilian music.

* The word “legal” has several meanings here: one being identical to English usage, and the other being Portuguese slang for “cool,” both in lightweight form, as in “hey man, aren’t we cool?,” and heavier significance, as in, “Hey, Mr. Military Police Officer Sir, don’t crack my head open, everything’s cool.” 

** Which stands to reason, since the song had already been a hit for Brazil’s ‘King of Rock ‘n’ Roll,’ Roberto Carlos.

More Brazilian Music: Maria Bethânia’s Rosa dos Ventos: Show Encantado, Bola Sete’s Tour de Force, A Bolha’s Um Passo à Frente, Chico Buarque’s Meus Caros Amigos, Elizeth Cardozo's Falou e Disse, Roberto Carlos’ Em Ritmo de Aventura, Beth Carvalho’s Na Fonte, Gilberto Gil’s Realce, João Gilberto & Stan Getz’s Getz/Gilberto, Clementina de Jesus’ Marinheiro Só, Legião Urbana’s As Quatro Estações, Os Mutantes’ Os Mutantes, João Nogueira’s Boca do Povo, Raimundos’ Raimundos, Lupicínio Rodrigues' Lupicínio Rodrigues, Secos & Molhados’ Secos & Molhados, Raul Seixas’ Gita, Sepultura’s Morbid Visions, Stress’ Stress, Titãs’ Cabeça Dinossauro, Caetano Veloso’s Caetano Veloso, Paulinho da Viola’s Paulinho da Viola, Various Artists’ Gente do Chôro, Quatro Grandes do Samba, Sítio do Picapau Amarelo.

[kosmik-signals]

(via The Story of Tropicalia in 20 Albums | Pitchfork)