CD I
01 - Don Quixote
02 - Caminhante Noturno
03 - Ave Gengis Khan
04 - Tecnicolor
05 - Virginia
06 - Cantor de Mambo
07 - El Justiciero
08 - Baby
09 - I'm Sorry Baby
10 - Top Top
11 - Dia 36

CD II
01 - Fuga nº II
02 - Le Premier Bonheur du Jour
03 - Dois Mil e Um
04 - Ave Lucifer
05 - Balada do Louco
06 - I Feel a Little Spaced Out
07 - A Hora e a Vez do Cabelo Nascer
08 - A Minha Menina
09 - Bat Macumba
10 - Panis et Circensces

MUTANTES AO VIVO - BARBICAN THEATRE - LONDRES
(Sony & BMG, 2006) - Producer: Sérgio Dias.
A volta do Mutantismo

O Rock and Roll já é um senhor de mais de 50 anos. Enfim, o tempo lhe permitiu começar a acertar uma dívida histórica. Isto é, uma dívida futura: “como entender, assimilar e conviver com seu passado?”. Como viver e entender o “sofrer”, como cantou Tom Zé, “de juventude”?
O escritor Rubem Braga, falando sobre a crônica jornalística, comentou: “A verdade não é o tempo que passa, a verdade é o instante”. Se o Rock é volátil, um gás, como cantou Jimi Hendrix, como viver a eternidade do instante? Como viver esse único tempo?
B. B. King completa, este ano, 83 anos. Para os fãs do Blues, ele não está velho. João Gilberto está com 76 anos. E ainda é o grande nome da Bossa Nova.
O Rock, enfim, começa a entender o jogo dialético entre “tempo” e “instante”, entre o que já está inscrito na história e o que ainda esgarça, com inventividade, a história.
A volta dos Mutantes vem, em boa hora, saldar essa dívida e responder, de vez, a questão: “se o grupo foi e é o exemplo mais perfeito da revolução do rock brasileiro e um dos maiores nomes do rock internacional, por que encapsular sua trajetória em apenas cinco anos (1968-1972) de produção fonográfica?
O acervo do Beatles, vez ou outra, é bem revisitado por Paul McCartney e George Martin. Por que não permitir que a revolução-Mutantes continue?
Tirando o fogo amigo (as críticas de Rita Lee e a recusa de Liminha), quando foi anunciada a volta do grupo, as expectativas foram as mais diversas, da dúvida ao medo, de alívio ao “até que enfim”.
Mas o que poderíamos esperar dessa volta? Como o núcleo Arnaldo Baptista – Sérgio Dias & Dinho se comportaria “quimicamente” trinta e cinco anos depois? Quem e como substituir a voz emblemática de Rita Lee? De que instrumental e de quais arranjos vestir “clássicos” que trazem o grupo em seu apogeu sob a maquinaria sonora do maestro Rogério Duprat?
A resposta foi sábia. O grupo ressurgiu no “exílio”, longe das expectativas e das ansiedades, em um evento em Londres que comemorava a Tropicália para além dos muros musicais, a mostra/exposição “Tropicália – a revolution in brazilian culture”. Que fez um mapeamento amplo do movimento: música + poesia + artes plásticas + cinema + teatro + arquitetura + dança + política + teoria + história. Com um show no The Barbican Center, em Londres, Inglaterra, em maio de 2006.
O material-show/disco, lançado agora em CD/DVD, é impecável. O grupo, sob a batuta de Sérgio e a criatividade de Arnaldo, conseguiu unir o mais experimental da Tropicália aos melhores elementos da psicodelia, de ontem, hoje e sempre.

Hoje o grupo tem dez integrantes: os oficiais: Arnaldo Baptista, teclados e voz; Sérgio Dias, guitarra e voz; Dinho Leme, bateria; mais a voz, em participação mais do que especial, de Zélia Duncan, uma mutante por natureza; os backing vocals de Fabio Recco e Esmérya Bulgari; os teclados de Vitor Trida e Henrique Peters; o contrabaixo de Vinicius Junqueira; e a percussão de Simone Soul.
O repertório é um “the best”. Há música dos cinco álbuns, da fase heróica, do grupo. Do primeiro disco, “Os Mutantes”, de 1968: “Panis et circencis”; “Minha menina”; “Bat macumba”; “Le premier bonheur du jour” e “Ave Gengis Khan”. Do álbum “Mutantes”, de 1969, “Dom Quixote”; “Dia 36”; “Fuga n.2” e “Caminhante noturno”. Do “A divina comédia ou ando meio desligado”, de 1970, “Ando meio desligado”; “Ave Lúcifer” e “Desculpe, babe”. Do “Jardim elétrico”, de 1971, “Top top”; “Technicolor”; “El justiciero” e “Virgínia”. E do “Mutantes & Seus Cometas No País do Baurets”, de 1972, “Cantor de mambo”; “Balado do louco” e “A hora e a vez do cabelo crescer”.
Sérgio Dias está em uma forma impressionante. Zélia Duncan, mesmo participando pouco, mostra que a escolha foi acertada. Arnaldo aparece com suas tiradas surreais e seu vocal característico. Dinho continua preciso e fundamental. Os demais músicos assumem, com louvor, a função de co-participantes.

A caixa – com dois CDs e um DVD –, lançada pela Sony & BMG, mostra na íntegra o show de Londres. CDs e DVD trazem a mesma seqüência, como em um jogo de mise-en-abyme, de bonecas russas, dentro da maior, outra e outra e outra...
Começa com a poesia concreta (à maneira mutantista) de “Don Quixote”, com suas aliterações e paronomásias, e termina com a crueldade tropicalista de “Panis et circensis”, de Gilberto Gil & Caetano Veloso. Ao longo do show, o tempo vai e volta. Pára e retorna. Como coisa móvel, flexível, sem cronologia. Como se o grupo, na verdade, em seu período áureo (68-72), tivesse lançado um longo álbum quíntuplo. As canções embaralhadas mostram melhor a planta baixa o plano-piloto do estilo-Mutantes.
Provando, mais uma vez, que o grupo não é apenas um nome na plêiade-Rock. Mas um “modo de fazer”, um estilo, um subgênero, para usarmos uma terminologia de Roy Shuker (“Vocabulário da música pop”), dentro do próprio Rock: o Mutantismo.
O que explica a admiração de artistas tão diferentes em relação à obra do grupo. De David Byrne a Kurt “Nirvana” Cobain. Passando por Beck, Sean Lennon, Beastie Boys, Pizzicato Five e Belle & Sebastian.

Afinal, o que foi apresentado nessa “reestréia” é apenas um pequeno – mas significativo – extrato do “baú dos Mutantes”, ainda há material para pelo menos dois novos lançamentos.
O que virá, ainda não sabemos. Mas, com certeza, é mais combustível (não-poluente).
Provando que, ainda vale a pena continuar com e na revolução-Mutantes.

(Marcelo Dolabela - bhz out/nov 1999).

1-Panis Et Circenses
2-A Minha Menina
3-O Relógio
4-Maria Fulô
5-Baby
6-Senhor F
7-Bat Macumba
8-Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour
9-Trem Fantasma
10-Tempo No Tempo
11-Ave Gengis Khan

MUTANTES (Polydor, 1968) – Producer: Manoel Barenbein

Mutante’s first album. The band’s tropicalist record. Kind of ‘our principles’ letter. There are 11 songs showing their proposals and further possibilities. Arranged by Rogerio Drupat and with contributors such as Jorge Ben (vocal and acustic guitar) and drummer Dirceu, the album is a mix of Tropicalia fundamental stones - ‘Panis et Circenses’, ‘Bat Macumba’ and ‘Baby’ - and the Mutantes anarchic irreverence. They treaded all sorts of absurd and inconsequence. They challenged Luiz Gonzaga’s collaborator, Humberto Teixeira, in ‘Adeus Maria Fulô ‘ (Goodbye Maria Fulô) and dressed Françoise Hardy as pop-existentialist in Le Premier Bonheur du Jour. The record mixes Jorge Ben’s trade mark ‘A Minha Menina (‘My Girl’); a version of a not well known Mamas and The Papas’ song ‘Tempo no Tempo’ (Once There was a Time I Thought), which is actually a non credited version of Cesar Dias Baptista, father to Arnaldo and Sergio. They added a pre-historic shout, a tribute to Gengis Khan ‘Ave Gengis Khan’ and the Kafkanean ‘Senhor F’ (Sir F). The album finishes with ‘O Relogio’ (The Clock) and ‘Trem Fantasma’ (Ghost Train). Comments by Marcelo Dolabela, Oct/Nov 1999.

1-Dom Quixote
2-Não Vá Se Perder Por Aí
3-Dia 36
4-2.001
5-Algo Mais
6-Fuga Nº II Dos Mutantes
7-Banho de Lua
8-Ritta Lee
9-Mágica
10-Qualquer Bobagem
11-Caminhante Noturno

MUTANTES (Polydor, 1969) - Producer: Manoel Barenbein

During the next year the Mutantes (now without the article ‘Os’ - The) launched the truly Mutants-tropicalist aesthetic. This is the most experimentalist album of their career. There are no limits. Everything is possible. Everything is functional in its strangeness. On the cover the trio is dressed as Don Quixote (Arnaldo), Sancho Pancha (Sergio) and the bride Dulcinéia (Rita). They included a jingle recorded for Shell ‘Algo Mais’ (Something Else). They recorded their two big hits ‘Fuga No 2’ and ‘Caminhante Noturno’ (Fugue No 2 and Night Walker). They ranged from a version of ‘Banho de Lua’ (Moon Shower) originally recorded by popular singer Celly Campello to concrete poetry (‘Dom Quixote’) with a little help of father Cesar Dias Baptista. There is also a magisterial dialogue with the Tom Ze’s insided out version of Tropicalia in ‘2001’ and ‘Qualquer Bobagem’ (Any Foolery). You can still find the iê-iê-iê ‘Não vá se perder por aí’ (Hei do not get lost!) and the psychedelic ‘Dia 36’ (Day 36) this last in partnership with hippie Johnny Dandurand. Last but not least, perhaps the first metaphoric Brazilian song talking about Rita Lee. This album brings even subliminally the collaboration of those who would become the 4th and 5th Mutantes – the drummer Dinho (Ronaldo Leme) and bassist Liminha (who is this record played viola). Comments by Marcelo Dolabela Oct/Nov 1999

1-Ando Meio Desligado
2-Quem Tem Mêdo de Brincar de Amor
3-Ave Lúcifer
4-Desculpe Babe
5-Meu Refrigerador Não Funciona
6-Hey Boy
7-Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar Um Amigo
8-Chão de Estrêlas
9-Jôgo de Calçada
10-Haleluia
11-Oh! Mulher Infiel

A DIVINA COMÉDIA OU ANDO MEIO DESLIGADO (The Divine Comedy or I Feel a Little Spaced Outt’ (Polydor, 1970) – Producer: Arnaldo Sacomani

After re-inventing Miguel Cervantes’s Dom Quixote, the Mutantes turned Italian poet Dante Alighieri ‘s The Divine Comedy into a pop-psychedelic inferno. Roughly summarising, the 1969’s album was experimental, this is revolutionary. Never before in Bazilian music history had a group or artist gone so far and radical. The Divina Comedia… buried all divisions and musical segments. It is a fusion of pop, experimentalism, vanguard, kitsch, rigour, informality, rock… There is a version of ‘Preciso Urgentemente Encontrar um Amigo’ (I need to find a friend urgently) from Roberto and Erasmo Carlos (the kings of the so called Brazilian iê-iê-iê). Rogério Duprat presented his best ever arrangement for the classic ‘Chão de Estrelas’ (Floor of Stars) from Silvio Caldas and Orestes Barbosa. The Mutantes hit their head with Dante in ‘Ave Lucifer’ and ‘Oh! Mulher Infiel’ (Oh! Unfaithful woman). Dinho and Liminha were already part of the group. This album also had collaborators such as Raphael Vilardi (vocal and acoustic guitar) and Naná Vasconcelos (percussion). All arranged by the magisterial touch of Rogerio Duprat.
Comments by Marcelo Dolabela, Oct/Nov 1999.

1-Top Top
2-Benvinda
3-Tecnicolor
4-El Justiciero
5-It’s Very Nice Pra Xuxu
6-Portugal de Navio
7-Virgínia
8-Jardim Elétrico
9-Lady, Lady
10-Saravá
11-Baby

1-Posso Perder Minha Mulher, Minha Mãe,
Desde Que Eu Tenha O Meu Rock and Roll
2-Vida De Cachorro
3-Dune Buggy
4-Cantor de Mambo
5-Beijo Exagerado
6-Balada do Louco
7-A Hora e a Vêz do Cabelo Nascer
8-Rua Augusta
9-Mutantes e Seus Cometas No País do Baurets
10-Todo Mundo Pastou II

1972 is a key year for the rest of Mutantes’ life. With the Baurets, Rita Lee said good bye to the group. Before leaving she recorded the group’s most rock’n’roll album. From ‘Posso perder minha mulher, minha mãe, desde que eu tenha meu rock'n'roll’ (I can loose my woman, my mother as soon as I have my rock’n’roll) to ‘Rua Augusta’ (São Paulo city’s famous street) the album is pure TNT. There is a waterfall of rock’n’roll in ‘Dune Buggy’, ‘Beijo Exagerado’ (Too Much of a Kiss), ‘A Hora e a Vez do Cabelo Nascer’ (The Time for the Hair to be born’), re-edited in a brilliant version by Sepultura in 1989. Although surrounded by pure rock’n’roll, there were also the acid smoothness of ‘Vida de Cachorro’ (A Dog’s Life) and what would become the group’s biggest hit ‘Balada do Louco’ (Balad of the Mad). The psychedelic side brings the surreal-progressive opera in ‘Tempo no Tempo’ (Once There was a Time I Thought) from the first album; and the Dada teaser ‘Todo Mundo Pastou I e II’ (Everybody got messed up I and II). Last comment on the album goes for the title inspired in Lewis Carroll famous Alice in the Wonderland and, of course, a reference to Bill Harlley and Its Comets.

Comments by Marcelo Dolabela, Oct/Nov 1999.

1-Panis Et Circenses
2-Bat Macumba
3-Virginia
4-She’s My Shoo Shoo ( A Minha Menina)
5-I Feel A Little spaced Out (ando Meio Desligado)
6-Baby
7-Tecnicolor
8-El Justiciero
9-I’m Sorry Baby (Desculpe Babe)
10-Maria Fulô
11-Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour
12-Saravah
13-Panis Et Circenses (reprise)

TECNICOLOR (Universal, recorded in 1970 and launched in 1999) - Producer: Carl Holmes
‘Tecnicolor’, the pre-last trip of the Mutantes.
There are compilations and successful compilations. Most of the times, they are a pain. They follow the will – or bad will – of the record companies, which are almost always trying to fit the artist’s work into a new trend. If being romantic pushes up the sales, the compilation shall highlight the melting side of the artist. Hardly the artist manages it themselves so the compilation is a masterpiece. Beatles, Madonna, Prince, Roberto Carlos, Marisa Monte, Paralamas do Sucesso are no exception to this rule. Particularly in Brazil, the contracts giving rights of use are still written as per in Stone Age. Although the artist can get some advantages, broadly speaking, the record companies win and the artists loose. This is common in the rock and pop industry, one of the most profitable fields. It hardly happens in literature, theatre, cinema and fine arts – the artist has always a grip on his/her work, manages it more efficiently. Therefore, the artist’s big revenge is when the compilations are presented as a conceptual work and not as a cheap puzzle to increase the record companies’ profits. Without doubt Tecnicolor follows this conceptual format when recorded in 1970. It was, at the same time, a joke and one step ahead: a compilation and a carrier’s album. Mutantes re-dressed songs already recorded in really new outfits, not only a new thread here or a new bottom there. The Mutantes alongside with their permanently revolutionary vision and in its third year of recordings, without fear or shame, re-visited and re-wrote the inners of their history.
According to the Brazilian journalist Carlos Calado, author of the non-authorised but acclaimed Mutantes’ biography, ‘Tecnicolor’ is a virtual title, probably named well after created. The album was recorded in November 1970 in Paris in the Des Dames Studio. It was produced by Carl Holmes. Following a concept of that time, one can say that Tecnicolor was a compilation of poems-processes: versions of masterpieces that turn into new masterpieces.
Tecnicolor is a special anthology. It brings ‘new’ songs of the most recent albums, such as ‘Jardim Eletrico’(1970); ‘Virginia’, ‘Tecnicolor’, ‘El Justiceiro’, and ‘Sarava’ all mixed with old works. There you can find Tropicalist’s hits such as two versions of ‘Panis et Circences’; ‘Bat Macumba’; ‘She is my Shoo Shoo’ (an English version for Jorge Ben’s hottest hit ‘Minha Menina’) and ‘Baby’ (their mostly recorded song with 3 versions). Tecnicolor also houses classics such as ‘I feel a little Spaced Out’ (Ando Meio Desligado); ‘Adeus Maria Fulô’; ‘I’m Sorry, Babe’ (Desculpe Babe); and a tribute to the host France offering a new version of ‘Le Premier Bonheur Du Jour’ from their first album.
They translated all songs into English, except ‘Bat Macumba’, ‘Adeus Maria Fulô’ and of course the French song. ‘She’s my Shoo Shoo’ got even closer of Jorge Ben’s original. They kept only the chorus in Portuguese (Oba Oba she’s my shoo shoo).
Tecnicolor was launched only in 2000. It surprised the audience for sounding so modern. It surprised also because of Sean Ono Lennon’s drawings and handwriting used for the album’s design. The Brazilian critics did not see Sean’s collaboration with good eyes. They said he was not the right person for the job. Bullshit. Brazilian prejudice only confirms Arnaldo Baptista’s theory, our ‘released astronaut’ who every day is immortalised in the international rock-pop scenario. We hope the lesson will one day be learned: as Tom Jobim would put it: The Mutantes, as well as Brazil, are not for amateurs. Comments by Marcelo Dolabela, Oct/Nov 2005.

1-Sunshine
2-Sexy Sua
3-Corta Jaca
4-Trem
5-Emergindo da Ciência
6- Raio de Sol
7-Um Pouco Assustador
8-Fique Aqui Comigo

ELO PERDIDO (Lost Link) – ARNALDO & PATRULHA DO ESPAÇO – (Vinil Urbano, 1988, not yet launched in CD). Producers: Arnaldo & A Patrulha do Espaço
After Loki? (1974) and before Singin’ alone (1981) Arnaldo Baptista entered his hard rock phase, better, very hard rock phase alongside with the band A Patrulha do Espaco (Space Patrol). This trip started in 1975 when Arnaldo worked on a new project: the group Space Patrol initially with Ze Brasil and then with Rufino and Dudu (guitars); Cenoura (`Ccarrot`, nick name for the bassist); and Arnaldo playing drums with two hi-hats. They rehearsed at home, with small amplifiers and a TV puggled in mute mode all the time. In 1977 the group change its name to Arnaldo & Patrulha do Espaço carrying on rehearsing but now with John Flavin (guitar); Osvaldo Gennari ‘Cokinho’ (bass); Rolando Castello Junior (drums) and Arnaldo (piano and vocal). In the end of the year they recorded 13 songs using two channels and with the support of Rogerio Duprat. The material was expected to be launched by a record company but none were interested. Named Lost Link, the album would be released only in 1988, 11 years after recorded, even so in a rough mix and incomplete. There were 12 tracks: seven Arnaldo would re-record later in its solo Singin’ Alone (1981) keeping their original version or translating them into English or Portuguese with small but deep alterations in their lyrics. Therefore Elo Perdido repeats Singin’Alone: ‘O Sol’ named here ‘Sunshine’; ‘Corta-Jaca’; ‘Trem/Train’; ‘Emergindo da Ciencia/Coming through the Waves of Science’ and ‘Raio de Sol/Sitting on the Road Side’ (According to Arnaldo, the correct name of ‘Raio de Sol’ is ‘Sentado ao Lado da Estrada’, as in the previous English translation).
New songs included: ‘Sexy Sua’, song of love and sex inspired in Arnaldo’s ex-girlfriend Martha Mellinger and which can be read as a cult-exercise of libido. According to Arnaldo ‘Um Pouco Assustador’ (‘A Bit Frightening’) promotes a game of telepathic gatherings where the players get rather scared or end up knowing themselves better. In ‘Fique Aqui Comigo’ (‘Stay by Me’) Arnaldo dialogues with an unknown woman who could be partner or audience in a mental-show chat. Comments by Marcelo Dolabela Oct/Nov 1999.

1-Emergindo da Ciência
2-Um Pouco Assustador
3-Arnaldo Soliszta
4-I Feel In Love One Day
5-Cowboy
6-Hoje de Manhã Eu Acordei

FAREMOS UMA NOITADA EXCELENTE (We will have a great night out) - ARNALDO & PATRULHA DO ESPAÇO – (Vinil Urbano, 1988, not yet launched in CD). Live. Producer: Roberto Takaharu Oka.
In May 1978 Patrulha do Espaço played with an extra guitarist Eduardo Chermont in São Pedro theatre (São Paulo city). The show was roughly recorded and again launched only in 1988 (10 years later) named ‘Faremos uma Noitada Excelent’ (we will have a great night out).
It included the already known ‘Emergindo da Ciência’, ‘Um Pouco Assustador’, ‘I Fell in Love One Day’, ‘Cowboy’ and ‘Hoje de Manhã eu Acordei’ (This morning I woke up’), with Arnaldo improvising on the piano as Hermeto Paschoal would do. The title was given later by Rolando Castello Junior and embraces several Arnaldo’s skills and insights: pianist; soloist; Franz Liszt fan (the Hungary classic composer) and sunshine/LSD’s lover.
These two records with Patrulha do Espaço are two fake drafts, actually songbooks, which tell Arnaldo’s fights and survivals. Arnaldo builds a mosaic of his revolutionary masterpieces created in his own universe of mad lucidity. The songs reminds projects of dialogues between audience and artist, past and future, life and art, science and dream revealing that there is always something missing, something never to be found and that at each moment we realise that it is this incompleteness that makes us entire entities. The solo works of Arnaldo are that: hiatus and lost links which complete each other permanently. So let’s get new ears and welcome this Garden of Dreams and this New Science which is this eternal music so called Arnaldo Baptista. Comments by Marcelo Dolabela, Oct/Nov 1999.

1-Será Que Eu Vou Virar Bolor?
2-Uma Pessôa Só
3-Não Estou Nem Aí
4-Vou Me Afundar Na Lingerie
5-Honky Tonky
6-Cê Tá Pensando Que Eu Sou Loki?
7-Desculpe
8-Navegar de Nôvo
9-Te Amo Podes Crer
10-É Fácil

LÓKI? (Mad?) – ARNALDO BAPTISTA - (Philips, 1974) – Producer: Arnaldo Baptista

After his experiences plenty of radicalisms, Jean-Luc Godard stated: ‘nobody does two revolutions. And this is good.’ It was like a message, a presage, another voice to the sphinx, in a euphemism format, a paradox, an axiom.

João Gilberto created the bossa-nova revolution; Oswald de Andrade the pau-brasil anthropophagic revolution; Helio Oiticica was a revolutionary with his parangolés and experiencing the experimentalism. Perhaps with Tropicalia’s revolution the Godard’s presage went different since it was aborted by the AI-5 and its consequences. Therefore, the tropicalists followed their own steps.

With the Mutantes was the same. Arnaldo Baptista, Rita Lee and Sergio Dias created parabolas inside and from parabolas. They wanted to experience their collective, parallel and individual possibilities. Both for the Tropicalia movement and the Brazilian music history, Arnaldo is the artist who mostly broken Gordard’s presage. He was Mutantes’s motor. Arnaldo produced Rita Lee’s two first solo albums: Build Up (1970) and ‘ Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto de sua vida’ (1972) (Today is the first day of the rest of your life). Arnaldo then embraced a solo career. He pushed the concept of radicalism to the extreme. Lóki? (1974), his first solo work, is still the most revolutionary and visceral album of Brazilian music history. It was recorded with a basic set – Arnaldo (piano and keyboards); Liminha (bass); Dinho (Drums) and backing-vocals (Rita Lee). Lóki? marked the last Mutantes’s gathering in ten songs, which travels around the whole rock’n’roll days and could be called a lysergic tropicalia. Without doubt the best cast of songs in a single album.

The format is conceptual. Both sides open with key songs: side A with ‘Será que vou virar bolor?’ (Will I turn into mildew?) and side B with ‘Cê Tá Pensando que eu sou lóki?’ (Are you thinking I am mad?’). Both bring Arnaldo’s uncertainties after Mutantes. Which is the future? The forgetfulness? Or madness? The other eight songs answer these questions. The final and minimalist ‘È fácil’ (It is easy) replies with a much elaborated composition and a mini-lyric which says: neither forgetfulness either madness but the geniality of the music. It is easy!’

The other songs are: ‘Uma Pessoa Só’ (One only-lonely person), the only track inherited from the A E O Z days. This is a utopia-song pointing to the plenitude of the humans as a collective but in a single body and single life project. ‘Não Estou Nem Aí’ (‘I don’t care’) is the antithesis of ‘Uma Pessoa Só’. It tells about somebody who rejects these utopias and faces the real world, the instant karma of daily life. The fourth song of side A is ‘Vou me afundar na lingerie’ (I will dive into the lingerie’) shows a third possibility: neither a world of utopias or the harshness of daily life but the hedonism, the laziness as a weapon against the oppression and heavy going life. The last side A song is ‘Honky Tonky’, Arnaldo’s solo on the piano, a trans-Stones-boogie-woogie.

Side B and after ‘Cê Tá Pensando que eu Sou Lóki?’ comes ‘Desculpe, Babe’ (Sorry, babe), signed by Arnaldo & Rita. ‘Desculpe…’ is a new version of the same song of Mutantes’s third album. Another answer for the impasse: forgetfulness /mildew/lóki/madness. Love is the big interrogation mark: say yes or say no. Forgive or not. Go ahead. The third song ‘Navegar de Novo’ (Navigate once more) presents a straight forward way: go ahead facing the unexpected. ‘Te Amo Podes Crer’ (Believe me! I love you!) is perhaps the masterpiece of all Brazilian love songs. In two minutes and 50 seconds Arnaldo talks about the pains of love, a kind of Tristao & Isolda, Romeu & Juliet over the piano, keyboards, bass and drum. He ends the album with ‘É fácil’ (It is easy). The concept clicks and completes itself.

In the era of CDs some information got lost and there is one that makes sense in vinyl and therefore it is worth it commenting. Each side of the vinyl brings exacts 16 minutes and 50 seconds. And a footnote: ‘This is an album to be listened in high volume’. It is Arnaldo asking us to heighten not only the volume but also our primitive emotions. Comment by Marcelo Dolabela Oct/Nov 1999.

1-I Fell In Love One Day
2-O Sol
3-Bomba H sôbre São Paulo
4-Hoje de Manhã Eu Acordei
5-Jesus Come Back To Earth
6-The Cowboy
7-Sitting On The Road Side
8-Ciborg
9-Corta Jaca
10-Coming Through The Waves Of Science
11-Young Blood
12-Train

O CIBORG VALVULADO SINGIN’ ALONE.
Oito anos depois do último disco com os Mutantes – O A e o Z, lançado só em 1992, sete anos após seu primeiro álbum-solo – Lóki? – e depois de várias de várias experiências sonoras com o grupo Patrulha do Espaço, Arnaldo, em 1981, à maneira de Paul McCartney. Nos álbuns McCartney, de 1970; o McCartney II, de 1981, volta aos estúdios para gravar, tocando todos os instrumentos, as doze músicas do álbum Singin’ alone. Se Lóki? Trazia toda a genealidade desesperada de suas viagens pós-Mutantes, agora, Arnaldo teria de provar para si mesmo que todas suas teorias e propostas musicais, que o afastaram dos Mutantes, faziam sentido. Sua quase hercúlea obsessão pela amplificação valvulada, em detrimento da transistorizada, sua opção por guitarra Gibson Les Paul, ao invés de Fender, e por contrabaixo Gibson SG.
Antes, que o álbum viesse à luz, Arnaldo fora internado no Hospital do Servidor Público do Estado. Dias depois, se atira do terceiro andar, do setor de psiquiatria. Com várias lesões, fica, na estação do inferno, por longos e sofridos quatro meses. Somente em maio de 1982, começa a receber licença para deixar, temporariamente, o hospital. Numa dessas idas, se recusa a voltar. Sob os cuidados de Lucinha Barbosa, sua companheira, e da DJ Sônia Abreu, vai aos poucos emergindo.
Para ver, ainda no primeiro semestre de 1982, a estreante gravadora Baratos Afins, do amigo e fã Luís Calanca, lançar, enfim, seu álbum Singin’ alone / Arnaldo II álbum. Num quase-lançamento, Arnaldo realiza o show Abrindo a porta para uma nova vida, no Tuca. Embora sem reais condições psicológicas, o show serve para recomeçar uma vida nova.
Se Lóki? É visceralmente explícito, o Singin’ alone traz o outro lado da revolta. Embora, mais suave, resgata sentimentos e memórias, faz planos e discursos e arremata diálogos e utopias.
Doze faixas compõem o disco.
“I fell in love one day “ é uma espécie de outro lado da canção How do you sleep?, de John Lennon, lançada um ano após o término oficial dos Beatles, no álbum Imagine, em 1971, cujo tema central é a desilusão com o antigo parceiro Paul McCartney. Arnaldo, em seu lamento, fala de suas principais paixões, ou melhor, ilusões perdidas –a best friend, a wife, a house, a group – e da dúvida de possíveis reencontros. Ou, como bem resume o próprio artista: I fell in love one day relata, em letra, o avassalador poder destrutivo de certas seduções.
“ O sol” traz o personalíssimo estilo de texto de Arnaldo, mesclando inglês com português, e neologismo – superpopulado – e deslocamento metafóricos: sunshine = sol = ácido = LSD.
Em “Bomba H sobre São Paulo”, Arnaldo vê a cidade de São Paulo sob um imenso cogumelo atômico, do alto da Serra da Cantareira, onde os Mutantes, já sem Rita Lee, tinham casas _ a house perdida de I fell in love one day -. Ao mesmo tempo que se vê São Paulo sendo destruída, percebe que a Cantareira não escaparia à hecatombe. Por sinal, foi na Cantareira que um incêndio destruiu, por problema elétrico, o caminhão de som do grupo, o Chevrolet Tenório.
“Hoje de manhã eu acordei” é outra canção que trabalha um velho tema pós- Mutantes, a necessidade de dialogar com alguém que realmente entenda os novos tempos. Sai em forma de monólogo e se constrói em oposições vitais: sol x arco-íris; eu x o outro; amor x solidão; Eros x Thanatos; vida x morte.
“Jesus, come back to earth” tematiza, segundo o próprio autor, a fé em um Deus geral, um ente superior, no sentido tecnológico e não divino, e o fascínio do desconhecimento de sua sabedoria. Que, em síntese, ao ser compreendido, todos os mistérios serão elucidados.
“Cowboy” foi composta a partir de um exercício de aprimoramento na técnica de executar o contrabaixo. A letra traz temas míticos de Arnaldo: sonho x ciência, motocicletas e as viagens.
“Raio de sol”, vertida para o inglês, com o título “Sitting on the road side”, foi composta na estrada de Catanduva, e fala da dualidade cansaço x repouso; ausência x presença; solidão x companhia. Enquanto se espera a condição para voltar o mundo que deixou para traz, não custa pensar um pouco sobre o que já viveu.
“Ciborg” fala da preponderância da matéria em relação a vida espiritual, da relação vida biológica x vida cibernética. E quando surgirá o ciborg perfeito?
“Corta-jaca”, boogie-honk-tonk-rock’n’roll, em homenagem ao avô paterno Horácio Baptista, ex-prefeito da cidade paulista de Avaré, é outra canção composta em uma viagem, à pé, entre São Paulo e Catanduva. O título remete à canção homônima de Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935), de 1897, e ao duplo-sentido do termo: passo tradicional do samba-de-roda e bajulador, Na letra, Arnaldo, se utiliza do tema folclórico se essa rua fosse minha..., joga com os opostos: cidade x roça; rock’n’roll x cha cha cha; passado x presente.
“Coming throuth the waves of science” é a síntese da nova proposta existencial e musical de Arnaldo. Claramente dedicada à sua saída dos Mutantes e ao (ex-)amigo Michael J. Killinbeck, engenheiro nuclear inglês, que no início doa anos 70, morou no Brasil e foi um dos colaboradores da edição nacional da revista Rolling Stone. A música é um manifesto-editorial que fala da desilusão, da descrença da entrega a amigos e a projetos ideológicos e utópicos, com direito a citação da stoneana Let spend the night together.
“Young blood”, canção dedicada à Silvia Helena, parceira do músico Zé Brasil, co-fundador com Arnaldo da Space Patrol. O papo é, ao mesmo tempo, juvenil – culto à beleza física – e metafísica – e que só a compreensão e o uso desta beleza/potência, num sentido quase nitzscheano, poderá dar fim a opressões e hipocrisias.
“Train”, outra canção de estrada, composta em Londres, fala da hora necessária de se voltar, porém, surge a pergunta: voltar para onde? Se a canção, aparentemente, não responde, o palimpsesto (o novo papiro brasileiro) rock de Singin’ alone responde:voltar, para Arnaldo Baptista, é, ao mesmo tempo, se distanciar, em alta velocidade, do passado, e viabilizar, o mais rapidamente, seus projetos futuros.
E como bônus na edição do cd, fechando com chave de ouro , “Balada do louco”, de Arnaldo Baptista & Rita Lee, do álbum Mutantes e seus Cometas no País do Bauretz, de 1972, não poderia ter sido melhor escolha. Primeira versão integral de Arnaldo para este eterno hit dos Mutantes (a voz da gravação original é de Sérgio Dias; e no álbum Disco voador, de 1987, Arnaldo verte o texto para o inglês – Crazy-one’s ballas) prova que o Ciborg está plenamente em forma para novos projetos.
Com produção artística de Guto Graça Mello, arranjos e regência de cordas de Daniel Salinas, e, na parte musical, o supertime formado por: Márcio Lomiranda (da banda de Marina Lima), nos teclados – Wander Taffo (ex-Joelho de Porco, Secos & Molhados e Rádio Táxi), na guitarra-solo – e, de empréstimo da banda de apoio de Marisa Monte, o contrabaixista Fernando Nunes e o baterista Cezinha.
Alone & together, Arnaldo incendeia as válvulas da criatividade. (Marcelo Dolabela - bhz out/nov 1999).

1-Eu
2-Rodas
3-Crazy Ones Ballad
4-Traduções
5-Ovni
6-Maria Lucia
7-Jesus Volte Até aTerra
8-Le foulle Balad
9-I wanna To Take off Every Morning

Disco Voador – UFO – (Baratos Afins, 1987, not yet launched in CD)

In 1987, Arnaldo created his most radical musical experience. Independent label Baratos Afins launched this home made record for experts and fans only: ‘Disco Voador Arnaldo Paz’ (UFO Arnaldo Peace). It is a songbook which captures the artist in his environment: his studio-workshop. It is roughly recorded, but translates Arnaldo’s musical world as it could. There you can find his sounds experiments and personal options for specific tones; his vibrato’s voice and his twisted keyboards. The great surprises are the two versions for ‘Balada do Louco’ (Ballad of the Mad’, by Arnaldo and Rita) translated into English by Arnaldo as ‘crazy one’s ballad’ and into French as ‘Le foulle balada’. ‘Jesus, come back to earth’ was translated into Portuguese as ‘Jesus volte até a Terra’. Six other songs complete the album: ‘Eu’ (Me); ‘Rodas’ (Wheels); ‘OVNI’ (UFO); ‘Maria Lucia’ and ‘I wanna to take off every morning’. All composed by Arnaldo, except ‘Traduções’ (Translations) in partnership with A.Alexandre.

The title turned into cover from a painting by Arnaldo is very Arnald-ish. It plays with double-meanings such as disco (disc=vinyl) and disco-voador (UFO in Portuguese). The painting brings two images which reinforce mixed ideas: the record is a disc (vinyl) and rare = UFO (disco-voador) since it was a limited edition and real. The word ‘peace’ drawn in the centre of the painting simulates the space’s centre and the vinyl’s hole. When the vinyl spins the sky also do so revealing where the UFO and the songs are. Comments by Marcelo Dolabela, Oct/Nov 1999.

1-Sucesso, Aqui Vou Eu
2-Calma
3-Viagem ao Fundo de Mim
4-Precisamos de Irmãos
5-Macarrão Com Linguiça e Pimentão
6-José
7-Hulla-Hulla
8-And I Love Her
9-Tempo Nublado
10-Prisioneira do Amor
11-Eu Vou Me Salvar

In these two moments, Rita Lee was still part of the Mutantes. Even so, she launched herself into a solo project. So far, nothing wrong especially when we understand the option working as oxygen in their way.

But what really surprises here is that Rita Lee’s two first solo albums do not follow the obvious path taken by other artists when going from a band to a solo career, which is ‘an individual approach distant from the group’s proposes’. In Rita Lee’s case, it was the same innovative work – or an innovation under the same theme. Apart from the name and label stamped on the vinyl, Rita Lee by Mutantes, nobody would notice that they were actually listening to a solo record. Even so those are Rita Lee’s solo records, which would only exist as so. Therefore they deserve a comment with distance from Mutantes works. Especially if we compare ‘Build Up’ with the tropicalia-super-experimentalist ‘A Divina Comedia ou Ando Meio Desligado’; ‘Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto de sua vida’; and with the lysergic-psychedelic ‘Mutantes e seus cometas no Pais dos Bauretz’, launched at the same time. Are there two characters looking for an author? Or would be one character multiplied into two authors? Both albums’ blueprints are quite the same:

1) Basic core composers: Arnaldo Baptista, Rita Lee and Sergio Dias plus Liminha;
2) Arranged by Arnaldo and played by Mutantes.

‘Build Up’ was created as a soundtrack for Rodhia’s event ‘Build Up Electronic Fashion Show’, an important fashion show of those days called Fenit (Textile Industry International Fair). The album tells the story and moves of an artist heading to the stardom. There are songs by Arnaldo & Rita: ‘Sucesso, aqui vou eu’ (‘success here I go’ or ‘Build Up’) and ‘Macarrão com Linguiça e Pimentão’ (‘pasta with sausage and pimento). Elício Decário, who has collaborated in ‘A Divina Comedia’, ‘Ave Lucifer’ and ‘Hey Boy’, appears again in ‘Build Up’ and in partnership with Rita in ‘Hulla-Hulla’, ‘Tempo Nublado’ (Clouded Weather) and ‘Eu Vou me Salvar’ (I will save myself). He also contributed as solo writer in ‘Precisamos de Irmãos’ (We need brothers’) and ‘Prisioneira do Amor’ (Prisoner of Love). Arnaldo wrote ‘Calma’ (Stay Cool). ‘Build Up’ also brings the first solo songs arranged and/or written by Rita only: ‘Viagem ao Fundo de Mim’ (Inner Deep Trip) and ‘Jose’, a second version of George’s Moustaki’s original song, also recorded by tropicalist-bossa nova Nara Leão. ‘Build Up’ also houses the bolero Beatles inspired ‘And I love Her (And I love Him)’.

Build Up, the song, works as a script for the whole album. Although Build Up, the album, establishes the idea of ‘building up a public image’, its songs suggest ‘building the individual, intimate side of Rita’, an inner trip as showed in ‘Ao Fundo de Mim’ (Me in depth). Apart the non-sense ‘Macarrão com Linguiça e Pimentão’ (Pasta with sausage and pimento) and the lyricism of ‘Jose’ (Joseph), all other songs are written using the ‘I’ pronoun, with variations of its plural WE and unfolding into I + YOU. “I can even see/ my name flashing/ and the world clapping/ when I am singing/ when I am dancing/ I wanna be a star…/ I would say good bye/ to my dreams/ Success, here I go…/ I will fight/ I will get there…Hold on a minute/ what I really want/ is to escape from you…”

“In slow motion I will fly/ and feel your love…”
“I need songs and friends/ Love, flowers and shelter…”
“I am going to an island…”
“Where would you be, my love?/ Where would you be?”
“I will save myself/ I will save myself/ To guarantee my eternal life”
(Comments by Marcelo Dolabela – Jul/Aug/ 2005.

1-Vamos Tratar da Saúde
2-Beija-me Amor
3-Hoje é o Primeiro Dia do Resto da Sua Vida
4-Teimosia
5-Frique Comigo
6-Amor Branco e Preto
7-Toroleite
8-Tapupukitipa
9-De Novo Aqui Meu Bom José
10-Superfície do Planeta

HOJE É O PRIMEIRO DIA DO RESTO DE SUA VIDA (Today is the first day of the rest of your life) (Polydor - 1972) - Arrangements: Arnaldo Baptista.

Two years after ‘Build up’ Rita Lee launched her second solo album. That was a different history all together. Before Rita was still a member of Mutantes. Now, with Mutantes taking the progressive rock path influenced by Yes, the group would send her off to the Bauretz’s Planet. Her second record is a farewell album and, at the same time, the one that sounded more Mutantes than any other. None of the six records from the first phase – 1968-1972 – were composed exclusively by Mutantes themselves: Arnaldo-Rita & Sergio+Liminha. All others counted with external collaborators.

The strong censorship regime of those days cut up some lyrics that from acids turned into lyric. In “Beija-me, amor” (Kiss me, love) we hear: “…To feel your taste/ mixed with a taste of love/ chewing between my teeth” actually originally was: “To feel the saliva/ the spit’s taste/ melting through my teeth…”, told us Carlos Calado, in his Mutante’s biography, page 285.

The only collaborator (and for the first time as part of the band) was that of the singer, composer and player Lucia Turnball as backing vocal. In 1973, Lucia would become Rita Lee’s partner in the project Cilibinas do Éden. This duo would also work as a base for Rita Lee’s further group, Tutti Frutti, which included Luiz Sergio (guitars) and Lee Marcucci (bass). Their first album, “Atrás do porto tem uma cidade” (behind the port there is a city), was a come back or very similar to Mutantes first album. As in the 1968’s album, “Atrás do porto…” stamps a drawing made by Rita. Its graphic simplicity hides a basic element of the new group: the humour. This was hided or simply abandoned in the new Mutantes driven by progressive rock.

‘Hoje é…’ can be translated into final-solo-collective-catharses towards this element. If in “Bauretz” the humour is submerse, in this solo album it is explicit. Its musical texture sometimes sounds also progressive.

The album has two distinctive chapters:
1) Biographic, following the path of ‘Vamos tratar da saúde’ (Let’s take care of our health) and ‘Hoje é o primeiro dia do resto da sua vida’.
2) Humoristic in “Amor em branco e preto” (love in black & white, a non-official anthem to Corinthians Football Club); “Tapupukitipa” and “Tiroleite”. This was perhaps the only successful attempt to make a joke out of the hippie generation’s values. This song, although not turned into a radio-TV success, is one of the big hits in open microphone sections.

If this album is a return to Mutantes’ beginning it is also an album-project of what would be Rita Lee’s solo career. It was an amalgam of the anthropophagic formula created by Brazilian poet and writer Oswaldo de Andrade: love/humour.

After 1972, neither Rita nor Mutantes would be the same again. Each one followed their own paths. All, however, within a path that was trailed before. From that we can understand that the group’s first phase does not compile five albums but eight – their five plus the later ‘Technicolor’, recorded in 1970 and launched only in 1990, and Rita’s two solo albums.

Is this discography completed? Not for me. Actually, this phase has nine records. I would include the first Arnaldo’s solo album, ‘Lóki?’ (1974). What? Please, just re-read the above. All that was said for Rita’s two solo albums applies, in minor or greater degree, to ‘Lóki?’. I would stop there but you can still include the album-manifesto ‘Tropicalia – ou Panis et Circensis’; ‘A Banda Tropicalista de Rogerio Duprat’ (The Tropicalist Band of Rogerio Duprat - 1968); and the single by Caetano Veloso with four songs: ‘A Voz do Morto’ (The Death’s Voice); “Baby”; ‘Saudosismo’ (nostalgia) and ‘Marcianita’. All these songs were recorded live in 1968. Comments by Marcelo Dolabela, Jul/Aug 2005.