Brazilians covering Brazilians
DJ_NevilleC
1,922 Posts
Ever noticed how much Brazilians love to cover other Brazilian artists? I must have dozens of versions of "Mas Que Nada" "Aguas de Marco" "Ponteio" etc. There seems to be no shame in a Brazilian artist filling up an entire LP with songs by different people (and with songs that were made popular by other people). I've always wondered why that is? Is it the carnival tradition? Is is a respect for other songwriters? An easy way to fill up an album? Jamaicans do a lot of covers as well but they don't tend to cover each other as much (I think) as the Brasileiros. Thoughts?
Comments
All I know is that Emilio Santiago's cover of Bananeira is that hot shit!
- spidey
my good friend that I visited from Nomadink took me out to a bunch of different local spots in curitiba to see bands play and each artists set was comprised of songs or anthems that everyone knew and loved; standards if you will. so basically, the musicians in time learn which songs make their fans happy or what songs would get people going, so that in itself could be a reason why a lot of brasilians cover other brasilian tracks. because they know it will be welcomed by the people purchasing the albums if they see a track covered from Jorge Ben, Luiz Bonfa, or Caetano and what have you.
peas.
Sometimes I see this just as a lack of creativity and an easy way of making some success/money.
This is why I got bored with almost all the bossa nova stuff I used to listen to; artists/bands use to play the same 15/20 very known & successful songs.
Obviously,there is the homage/respect to some artist aspect in making covers. Although, sometimes for me it seems like it??s only lazyness and fear of assuming the risk of creating something new, like the Tropicalia people did; they set up the 'foock of', mixed lots of music genres and created something new and fresh.
My 2 cents.
Peace
I used to do trades at a record store and I can't believe how much of that stuff we'd see (Brazilian standards played by everyone & their mother) in with Sinatra and Beatles records. It seems that folks here (the U.S.) were gobbling that stuff up for a while, so the Brazilian music scene responded with more covers of the sucessful tunes to feed the American demand for exotic sounds. Just like the American jazz scene covering "lover man" and other jazz standards. Just like the jazz stuff, you gotta wade through crap to find the jems. Not to say that these standards are crap, I love me some Mas Que Nada and will never get tired of hearing it, but I see the frustration of scoring another bossa record and not seeing any new tunes.
-sez me.
much rather get a bossa record seeing familiar tunes.
Yes.
I look forward to finding new covers of Ponteio, Mas Que Nada, Dindji, etc.
A great tune is a great tune & I dig hearing so many different takes on it.
ban.
Quite literally THE most played/covered song in the word actually.
At least according to Ruy Castro's book.
Just came across a Cher cover.
Was driving around the Power Kingdom running errands, and had this on blast the whole time. Great stuff, especially for people like me who's not overly knowledgable about the genre.
Man, you'd shell out $600 for an LP you've never heard? You must be a completist...
fewer and better.
Where can I get a copy?
I was thinking of asking Raj if he'd be interested in hosting it here.
Just sent my last batch to distributors today.
As far as direct sales online, I know turntablelab carries it.
(and Raj, might I also suggest a new icon entitled "Plug 1, Plug 2"?)
Copped mine from Turntable Lab.
Ayo Paul, got your PM...tried to reply, but looks like your PMs are off...
Thanks for bringing that to my attention.
All better now.