I realize October 1 is today. I was going to lie down as I have a back ache from some stress and lack of ergonomics. When older not all our memories are perfect. The Rita Lee LP cover that inspired Barbican's poster,see below, is 1979, no cover or music available except in her site. Lança Perfume, arguably her most famous pop song is 1980.
The key points to multi-faceted Rita Lee are, I guess, the fatal attraction, the ills of rock society -- if you are suicidal you're kewl, as in Kurt Cobain. The à la Nelson Rodrigues made-up quote of mine "Suicide, AIDS, depression, acting crayzola, and ANA-MIA are the modern illness chic du jour in rock culture, as TB was in the heyday of Dumas fils and romantic movement." Rita Lee was sandwiched in between brothers, skilled musicians, the girlfriend of Tropicalia. She played novelties and is creative. A beautiful blue eyed Anglo-Italian for a brown Brazil. Being a Mutante wasn't enough already in 1970. Fame hungry? A need to assert a talent she displayed individually only with the collaboration of mate Arnaldo Baptista? A befuddled teen, Sergio refused to participate in this pop adventure (Build Up-1970) which added nothing to Os Mutantes mystique. Or was it her need to be a songstress on her own, a pop-rock one. Sometimes less is more.
A solo career for Rita is an iffy one, aided by Gilberto Gil, never quite solo as she is many in one, ravished by drug use and a relationship with Arnaldo Baptista, still her musical producer and keyboardist in Build Up, then Tutti Frutti , her R& R greats and the realization of a longtime dream -- To be a pop chanteuse (songstress) with a younger husband and co-leader of the band, Roberto de Carvalho. I haven't seen Rita Lee since the 1972 days of "turn on, tune in and drop out" in Brazil. March 1972. We didn't click then as we had before and never ran into each other again.
E-mail contact thru her website has eluded me. Her voice, a great match to the "boys" is changed. She had a wider range to her contralto. It seems to me both Arnaldo and Rita, once mates, lived a "The Woman Next Door" rapport: ni sans toi, ni avec toi.
Sergio Dias' ten years abroad helped him cut the li'l brother syndrome and establish his cred in his own right. It is a pity the original Os Mutantes are no more. And yet, despite self-destructive assertions, the magic continues with new band members. Thursday Os Mutantes keep the magic, in studio, recording their new formation. mutatis mutandis. The Poet Laureate, Paulo Henriques Britto, advises me on band personalities, "Remember Lennon-MacCartney and 'All you did was Yesterday.' "
What do you think? Say something. I want to include a video of Rita Lee, whose pop-rock penchant was irresistible and in hindsight predictable since 1970. Rita is fragile in her multiple selves and modes. I remember her best rock here. And her utmost pop here. Later, Arnaldo Dias Baptista.
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