WEEKLY ALBUM-BY-ALBUM TRACK POLL

[Chris Martin]

I was browsing on the Carpenters forum and one enterprising contributor is holding a weekly poll: favorite song from a given album. It sounds like a good excuse to dust off an old album we may not have listened to for a while and revisit it.
I'd like to start the ball rolling with "HOMECOOKING" (1975).
I love "Homecooking". It sounds like a Brasil '66 album transposed into the mid seventies. Plenty of hot rhythms, sweet melodies, hardly a clinker in sight.
The sleeve is great too. It's from around the time when Sergio was dabbling with releasing under Sergio Mendes without the Brasil+number tag. So, Sergio is on his own in what looks like a Macy's themed window display, the theme being 'Favelha kitchens can be fun, so long as you have lots of Tabasco and beautiful accessories!' It's that rare thing, a gatefold, and I guess this is the first time we get a full lyric sheet. Great group shot too (dig those chiffon brunch coats).
Tracks are:

SUNNY DAY
HEY PEOPLE, HEY!
IT'S SO OBVIOUS THAT I LOVE YOU
EMORIO
SHAKARA
WHERE TOO NOW SAINT PETER
CUT THAT OUT
TELL ME IN A WHISPER
IT'S UP TO YOU
HOMECOOKING

My selections are:
(1) SUNNY DAY:
This got loads of airplay on local FM. It made me feel kinda proud as no one at school got my obsession with Brazilian music, yet here it was on the radio. It's got the horny horns, parping keyboards, tight vocals. Okay, so the lyrics are jejune with a kind of camp optimism, but it sounds hot. Only problem is it's over almost as soon as it's begun.

(2) IT'S SO OBVIOUS THAT I LOVE YOU/TELL ME IN A WHISPER/IT'S UP TO YOU:
This triumverate of songs is perfect Brasil '77 in '75. There's something slick and crafted about them -- adjectives which were sometimes used as negatives against Brasil '66. Personally, I like to admire music for its chic sound and polished production.

(3) CUT THAT OUT:
I never liked the Gilberto Gil album produced by Sergio Mendes, but this album turns me on to his music in a way the originals cannot. The arrangement works like patchwork, and that's a good thing. It has a choppy, relentlessness about it.

(4) EMORIO:
Gil again. I've no idea what or whom "Emorio" is. Is it something votive? I love Lize Miller's raunchy vocals, and, more jazz flute please, Sergio.

(5) HEY PEOPLE, HEY!:
Like this whole album, percussion is really upfront. But what's with that rasping gurgle voice just before the track starts? I prefer the sound of Lani giggling just before "Upa Neguinho".

(6) HOMECOOKING:
Nice up-tempo play-out to the album. I can't figure out whether the lyrics are sexy or hippy. I love all of Sergio's piano solos, but prefer acoustic to electric.

(7) WHERE TO NOW ST. PETER:
Sergio's sort of rocking out here (but more more successfully than on something like "Superstion"). This song is a virtuoso vocalist's showcase. Lyrically, what was Elton on? Sergio seems nonplussed too, by the deliberate bum note that ends the song.

(8) SHAKARA:
This I can live without. It's inconsequential. When it kicks in it sounds like a back-up theme to some mid-70's cop series.

Any thoughts........?

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Maybe your album cover is different but mine clearly says "& BRASIL '77" on it...it's the only Elektra album to do so. I think the marketing department came to the realization that some people may not know the name "Sergio Mendes," but they might recognize "Brasil '77," so why not have both on the cover.

My favorites are "Homecooking" and "Sunny Day." Lyrically they are the bottom of the barrel, but the rhythms and melody are great fun.

The biggest problem with the original songs on this album is the lyrics. They are overly simplistic. So over the years I've pretty much tuned out the lyrics and just listened to the arrangements.

I don't think this album has dated as well as some of the earlier A&M albums, mostly because of the keyboard sounds. Too many synthesizers. The accoustic piano sounds from the A&M albums give many of those songs a timeless quality, whereas this album pretty much screams out SEVENTIES from beginning to end.

Another favorite is "Where To Now St. Peter." It's one of the few places on this album where the accoustic piano makes an appearance and this contributes to the song's lasting appeal. The vocals here are probably the best on the record too. (And Chris, to answer your question about "Lyrically, what was Elton on?" Doesn't really matter because he didn't write the lyrics...Bernie Taupin did. )

I actually like "Shakara" too. It's one of my favorite Sergio instrumentals.

I remember reading somewhere that the original title of this album was going to be EMORIO. Don't know if that's true or not, does anyone else remember that?

 

[Chris Martin]

Oh, my copy clearly states "Brasil '77" too. I meant that unlike previous Brasil '66/77 'career' albums, only Sergio was shown on the cover, rather than the group.
I agree the album screams seventies in its sound but it's 'quality' 70's. Just like the first 6 Brasil '66 albums scream 'sixties'. I love the historic association in both cases.
Shame on me for undermining Bernie Taupin. But what was HE on?
Chris Martin

 

[JMK]

A couple of notes--I think I've mentioned this before, but this is probably my fave of the Elektra albums. I don't think it dates nearly as badly as the first Elektra album or even "Magic Lady." I know I mentioned a couple of years ago that a buddy of mine who was going to Berklee when this was released said it was a major fave of the horn players back there, for those "horny horns."

And, re: Emorio and Where to Now, St. Peter? "Emorio" could be loosely translated as love in the Ioruba (Yoruba) language. Ioruba is the African religion (worship of "Orishas" or ancestor-deities) that made it to Brasil with the Spanish and got mixed up with Catholicism, hence Voodoo (another great Sergio song from a few years later). And "Where to Now, St. Peter?" is a brilliant anti-Vietnam war lyric. You need to go back and read it again--Taupin is in fine form, using double entendre ("with a bad report"--gunfire, get it?--"blue canoe"=flying up into the sky as a spirit, etc.) about a newly-dead fighter who's just made it to the pearly gates.

 

[Chris Martin]

Funny how you can listen to a track so many times and, while you're enjoying it, you're not even beginning to get the lyrics. Thank you for the enlightening comments on these two Homecooking songs. Much appreciated.
While other tracks on the album don't have such a deep or arcane interpretation, they sound just dandy. I agree, the album hasn't dated badly. I think there's a subtle distinction between something sounding 'dated' (a negative observation) and something sounding 'of its time'.

 

[JMK]

One more note (pun intended) on that final chord on "Where to Now, St. Peter?" It's not really a "bum note" (unlike Sergio's fluffed intro to "Love Music" on the live Japan LP)--it's Sergio's use of the sharp-4 Lydian mode, which he voices using a half-step between sharp-4 and 5. A more consonant voicing of this same chord is frequent in post-bop jazz, where the sharp 4 is moved up an octave (to sharp 11 and/or flat 12), with the 9th, 7th (and/or 6th) and 3rd underneath. Music theory class over, you may all go out behind the school and begin smoking.

 

[Chris Martin]

Lydian, yet! I've got so much to learn!