Doces Bárbaros

When four Brazilian music giants bring together the best they’ve got, what happens next is Doces Bárbaros (“Sweet Barbarians”), a double album launched in 1976 and featuring none other than Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, and Maria Bethânia. Bethânia, by the way, was the one who pictured a joint music project between the four of them - and I’d say her intuition was right. Rescuing the spirit of tropicália (a late 60s movement that had Gil and Veloso among its founding fathers), Doces Bárbaros is what’s best from the “Música Popular Brasileira meets rock’n’roll” kind of work. Check Chuckberry Fields Forever, Tarasca Guidon, Um Índio, and Peixe - both the lyrics and the arrangements - and you’ll get the feeling. Also, as an album produced in the late Military Dictatorship (after Gil and Veloso got back from exile in London), political resistance is intrinsic to Doces Bárbaros - most notably in O Seu Amor, a track that sarcastically alludes to Brazil’s dictatorship motto, “Brasil, Ame-o ou Deixe-o” (Brazil, Love it or Leave it). These songs were recorded live, capturing the playfulness and spontaneity of the Doces Bárbaros’ crew.