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 enlarge | Author: Caetano Veloso
Publisher: Knopf
Category: Book
List Price: $26.00
Buy Used: $2.35
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 889656
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 368
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.2
ISBN: 037540788X
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.640981
EAN: 9780375407888
ASIN: 037540788X
Publication Date: September 24, 2002
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Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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| Customer Reviews:
An unusual and fascinating memoir. March 27, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
If one were to compare "Tropical Truth" with critical writings on Tropicalia, it would seem unusual that Caetano Veloso writes more as an observer rather than a central figure in the development of an artistic movement that impacted contemporary Brazilian music. Veloso approaches the subject with remarkable erudition, surprising detachment, and subtle humor; and the result is as much a historical record as it is a meditation on the people, places and events of the time.
My only complaint would be regarding the editing. Veloso writes using long sentences--unwittingly imitating Saramago, perhaps?--and the translation could have used a bit more polish. Otherwise, it is an excellent work from an equally excellent artist.
 Like it or leave it January 4, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is a very complex, very interesting account by an amateur writer. Caetano is not “dying to be an intellectual” (as one reviewer remarked) – he is one (though some seem to resent that) and was from the start – even before it was clear that he should choose a musical career. He’s not pretentious – he simply tells us what he had in mind at the time and how he thinks about it today.
If he thinks too much for you – fair enough, leave it then, but don’t blame the author for your personal tastes.
Besides the book is very honest, emotional, personal and candid (sexuality, imprisonment). Anyone who calls him pretentious or vain should read the chapter about his two month imprisonment titled: “Narcissus on Vacation”.
I loved the respect with which he writes about a lot of collegues (contemporary or of old).
In comparison I was taken aback by Ruy Castro’s superficial account of Bossa Nova, where I found the musicians lives more “used” for the sake of entertainment than respected.
Btw: it is really very funny when one reviewer tells us how disgusted he was to hear Caetano sing "Feelings" in a concert recently. Because that was such a "Tropicalia"-thing to do. Just like he provoked his audience when he recorded "Coracao Materno" or sang songs from Carmen Miranda. I wonder what that reader read that book for.
After 30 years Caetano seems to be still ahead of us.
 Dying to Be an Intellectual December 25, 2004
8 out of 14 found this review helpful
A great musician but a man desperate for intellectual respect. The book is virtually 400+ pages of an application for membership into some haughty Paris salon. Caetano should have stuck to what he knows best-music. The endless and mind-numbing name-dropping and references to obscure books, artists and philosophers are the written equivalent of a 5 minute arena drum solo. OK, we know you are smart, that you have ecletic and fine taste, etc. Now tell us about your music. How did you write it, how did you record it? There is sadly too little information about music and too much dismissal of others for perceived intellectual deficiencies, musical or otherwise.
Speaking of his music, I recently saw Caetano in concert and was shocked by the syrupy shmaltz--he actually performed "Feelings" in English and in total sincerity. He virtually refused to perform anything in Portuguese, perhaps it is not a cerebral enough a language...nothing more than feelings.
UPDATE:
Another reviewer found my review above to be in error, because Caetano is "30 years ahead of his time" in singing one of history's most painfully bad songs, Feelings. The reviewer found the whole thing very funny. I am sure that the reviewer has the famous Teutonic sense of humor to appreciate the joke. I for one, heard a corny song in accented English. Forgive me for missing the joke while I tried to cover my ears.
Not your average pop star January 11, 2004
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
I can't think of any other pop musician in the world besides Caetano Veloso who could pull off writing a book that gives so much insight into the personal relationships, political climate, and artistic influences that help form their own work. The brilliant "Tropical Truth" is something of a combination between an autobiography of Caetano's earlier years, an analysis of his work, a document of the "Tropicalia" movement which he started, and a look at Brazilian counterculture and politics. It illuminates his early work in such a way that I felt after reading it I appreciated his early work on a much higher level. Non-portuguese speakers like myself will probably appreciate the explanations of the wordplay that occurs in songs like "Alegria, Alegria". Caetano writes knowledgeably on a variety of topics, and if there are particular weaknesses about this book, it is that is written in a quite roundabout way in places, and I imagine it would be difficult even for the relatively well-informed non-Brazilian to keep up with his discussion of Brazilian musical styles, European cinema, Brazilian "Cinema Novo", Latin American literature, and contemporary art. I found this book a joy to read however, and essential reading for anybody interested in Brazilian popular music.
first the music September 17, 2003
6 out of 11 found this review helpful
I believe good musicians should do music first and last. I own all of caetano's cds and I really appreciate his music, but I found this book a bit too apologetic and pretentious at times. It must be because I wasn't born at those times, so I cannot know how it was to live under a military dictatorship; yet I simply can't understand why you have to explain all those details inherent to one song (sem lenco, sem documento). The writer is definitely better as a musicians, so, buy one or ten of his cds first.
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