Chico Buarque – Chico Buarque de Hollanda (1966)

CHICO BUARQUE DE HOLLANDA
1966 RGE XRLP-5.303

1 A banda
2 Tem mais samba
3 A Rita
4 Ela e sua janela
5 Madalena foi pro mar
6 Pedro Pedreiro
7 Amanhã, ninguém sabe
8 Você não ouviu
9 Juca
10 Olê Olá
11 Meu refrão
12 Sonho de um carnaval

Two things happened in the last 48 hours or so: Flabbergasted Vibes surpassed 250,000 visits (that’s a quarter-million, y’all), and Chico Buarque won a very important award for his novel “Leite derramado” (Spilt Milk). Francisco won R$100,000 as part of the deal, and he announced yesterday that he plans to donate 50% to Flabbergasted Vibes so we can continue our humanitarian efforts of planetary enlightenment. I haven’t read the book yet, but at least now I will have the extra spending money to pick up a copy.

I had actually planned a completely different post in honor of Chico, but it departs from the usual formula here and requires a bit of different preparation on my part so it will have to wait for the time being. In lieu of that, why not revisit the first recording by Brazil’s greatest living songwriter? Playing this again yesterday I was once more awestruck of how such a young person bursts into the music world so fully-formed and mature, truly brilliant, not only writing all the material but performing it as if he popped out of the womb singing samba. And there IS a fair amount of genuine samba here too. It’s a flawless record, extremely short and leaving you with the desire to play it again or, in the case of us beings from the future, play ‘Volume 2’. “A banda”, “Tem Mais Samba” and “Pedro Pedreiro” are probably the most famous songs on this one, the latter two making it clear that Brazil had a new lyrical genius on its hands, but I am also very fond of “Você não ouviu” and “Sonho de um carnaval.” It is people like Chico Buarque, who accomplished all this at the age of 22, that made me quit writing and playing music… what’s the point, I am old and past my prime!

An interesting bit of trivia about this album: Although Chico had been on some TV presentations prior to its release, the album cover caused a lot of people to believe it was recorded by a pair of twins (both named Chico). Concert promoters began to complain when Chico showed up alone to perform, and in many cases only paid him half the promised amount, declaring indignantly “we asked for both of you!”

RGE records found a solution to this dilemma by quickly reissuing the album with a different cover in order to leave no doubts that Chico was in fact only one person, albeit with the talent of two men:

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