GILBERTO GIL PART 1: Gilberto 1971

You are probably wondering why I would want to talk about Gilberto Gil.  Well people who know me well know me to have a love for Tropicalia music.  I have a very big collection of CD's and a few books and DVD's on the subject.  This all started with an Os Mutantes album I got in New York in 1999.  It really spun my head around.  I was told by a friend who owned a record store to check them out. He rattled off other people part of the Os Mutantes circle like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Ze, and Gal Costa.  He told me about an album called Tropicalia: Ou Panis et Circenses and that music will get your mind going.  He told me that compilation of music was where it all started and that is best of this genre and kind of music.

When I started this blog I talked about the friendship of two people Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil. Their friendship is one of the most respected and influential in all of music. You can't mention one without the other.  I love both their music a lot and have had seen them both in concert and after each show I wonder how I did not find out about this sooner.  Each is a unique storyteller with a lot of stories to tell.  Each is amazing in their own way and have put out a great amount of music in their catalog.  I picked Gilberto Gil because I heard him on the radio one day and thought I should talk about him first.

One album of Gilberto Gil that stood out was his 1971 album simply title Gilberto Gil (Nega).  It's when Gilberto and Caetano were in London because they were in exile for being subversive.  The Tropicalia movement was very important culturally, but they made many waves and were forced to leave for at least two years.  It took a tole on them and their music, but during this time they made some great music.

It was a tough call deciding what album to pick while they were in London, but I picked the Gilberto Gil because of the great song selection.  While Veloso stuck to his own material for his 1971 album Gil peppered his album with a few unique covers of American songs.  A few of these were extra tracks on later editions, but they were recorded around the same time.  One song that reappeared on the album was a more mellow and acoustic version on an album he did in 1969.  "Volks, Volkswagen Blues" is pretty cool. When he covers "Can't Find My Way Home" he makes it sound like his own.  It still is one of my favorite version of the tune.  In later editions he covers Hendrix and The Beatles.  It's great stuff to put on repeat for sure.

While Gil and Veloso are from almost the same mold, their music is very different from each other.  Gil's music is full of gems.  Veloso's music is album and album full of gems.  He exposed his influences on an album called A Foreign Sound and you hear how much Veloso is influences of everything.  Gil sticks to his great Brazilian song and a few Rock and Roll influences.  Both musicians are great, but in this day for me Gilberto Gil's album including this one do it for me every time.  Stay tuned to more of these artists in future blog posts because with me their influence is over a mile long.