Caetano Veloso

Caetano Veloso is the debut solo album by the artist of the same name, released in Brazil in 1968. He had released Domingo the year before in collaboration with Gal Costa. It was one of the first Tropicália efforts, and features arrangements by Júlio Medaglia, Damiano Cozzella, and Sandino Hohagen, as well as an eclectic assortment of influences, demonstrating the "antropofagia" (artistic cannibalism) of the Tropicália movement. Sounds from psychedelia, rock, pop, Indian music, bossa nova, Bahian music and other genres appear on the album. It includes the hit songs "Alegria, Alegria", "Tropicália", and "Soy loco por ti, América". Background Recorded to capitalize on the success of the forward-looking "Alegria, Alegria" at the TV Record Festival, the album mostly continued in the new direction in which Caetano and his fellow tropicalistas (though that term had not yet been employed to describe them) wanted to take Brazilian popular music. Where his debut Domingo had been primarily based on more traditional Brazilian musical styles such as bossa nova, his second album relied heavily on sounds and instrumentation more common to rock and roll and psychedelia. Notable songs "Tropicália" The album's opener gets its title from the Hélio Oiticica installation of the same name; Caetano's appropriation of the title was the basis for his initial association with the term, which later lent its name to the art movement of which he was a central figure, Tropicalismo. The song's lyrics do not mention the title or refer to it directly. In fact, Caetano had already completed the song's composition when film producer Luiz Carlos Barreto suggested "Tropicália" as its title, seeing similarities between its content and that of the art exhibit. Caetano, who had never heard of Oiticica or his work up to that point, resolved to use the title until he found a better one, which he never did.