Caetano Veloso “Tropicalia”

Back in 1968 the “Bob Dylan of Brazil,” Caetano Veloso released one of his finest works on the first of his many self titled LPs. Though largely ignored outside of South America at the time, Veloso eventually came to be regarded worldwide as one of the greatest and most influential musicians of the century (though in the U.S. he still isn’t perhaps as widely known as he should be). The single “Tropicalia” is a great example of how Veloso was able to fuse Bossa Nova, Rock and Roll, and Bahian folk tunes, almost single-handedly creating a new genre of music that heavily influenced artists from David Byrne to Devendra Banhart. While so called “World Music,” sometimes has a lame reputation in the Indie music world (best epitomized by Tim Robbins’ character in High Fidelity), it should be realized that there is a lot of music out there, past and present, that really fucking rocks. This isn’t the Putomayo “Global Celebration” stuff playing at your local handmade craft shop, this is shit that will make you sweat.

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