🎵 AotW Classics Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 LOOK AROUND SP-4137

[JOv2]

Count me in as a fan of Dave Grusin's work too. I've never understood the bashing he takes here by some...branching out and adding more to the sound was quite in order...you can't argue with success - "The Look Of Love" was the highest charting of all of the Brasil '66 singles, so it's hardly "moronic".

I give him originality points in that his unique arrangement re-invented the song (and if it were an instrumental, I'd have no beef). But his arrangement and scoring indicate he decidedly eschewed lyric content: no one can deny the intimate and sensual mood of the piece (c.f., Burt's arrangement for Dionne, the famous Dusty version, even the totally smolderin' Claudine version, by Nick De Caro). Yet, From an arranger's viewpoint, the arrangement and scoring were an obvious misstep because he failed to unify lyric content with the music.

(I only called the arrangement, "moronic" ("ridiculous" is probably more accurate); as for the performance -- 1st class all the way.)

 

[Ed Bishop]

Coulda picked among many here, but ultimately chose "Look of Love" if only because it's always been impossible to keep out of me head...the arrangement's a little overdone, but no matter: it sticks like glue.

 

[Mr Bill]

Ed! It's so nice (like 'Mame') to have you back (where you belong)!

--Mr Bill

 

[Rudy]

He's looking swell, Dolly.

 

[Mr Bill]

We can tell, Golly!

 

[Mike Blakesley]

Oh why not...

He's still growin, he's still crowin, he's still....goin strong!

(I think those are the words...?)

 

[Mr Bill]

"You coax the blues right out of th--" Oh wait, that's a different Jerry Herman song about another crazy woman!

--Mr Bill

 

[Harry]

A&M 924 The Look Of Love b/w Like A Lover

This particular issue of "Like A Lover" has a nifty mono mix. You can hear a bit more reverb in the vocal. The a-side "Look Of Love" sounds about the same as the standard stereo issue - probably a fold-down.

Harry

 

[Ed Bishop]

Ed! It's so nice (like 'Mame') to have you back (where you belong)!

--Mr Bill

Nice to see the old gang's still here, too!

Would be here more often if not for my various preoccupations (like listening to hundreds of common and obscure albums for a book I'm trying to assemble), and...being married, busy, lazy, you name it.

To give an idea of how deep I've gone into the ozone, currently listening to Malachi's 1967 Lp Holy Music, Verve V6-5024. Since it's not A&M, no point going into it except to say it's nothing Herb & Jerry would have signed off on. Recorded and released at a time when major labels started to take real chances with music their execs didn't understand.

 

[TonyCurrie]

My own copy of "Look Around" is a white label test pressing, and a nice clean one it is, too. One of my favourite Mendes/Brasil 66 albums, and thanks to having transferred it to CD one I listen to quite often. yes, I know there's a Verve digital remaster but frankly mine is just fine, thanks!

 

[mexicat]

Am I the only one here with a little love for the version of "With A Little Help From My Friends"?

And Dick Hazard: would that be a great name for an adult movie star or what?

Superb album anyways, Grusin or no Grusin...

 

[KentTeffeteller]

I own a West German pressing of this. Superb mastering and record surfaces. Worth owning for "The Look Of Love" alone but the rest is excellent. My copy was pressed by Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft/ Polydor in Hannover.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

I have yet to vote a fave on this....I just enjoy the whole thing! The lone exception is "Pra Dizer Adeus" which is too draggy for my taste. But every other track is a keeper. (Yes, even "Friends!")

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

You can almost always tell a Grusin arrangement because he just seems to use "more" orchestra than Hazard does -- more flourishes and fills.

That's not a slam, by the way, just a comment; I think the orchestrations on this album fit very nicely. It wasn't until CRYSTAL ILLUSIONS that they started to sort-of take over the sound for a couple of albums, then they were pared back where they belonged when STILLNESS came along.

good way of putting it.....

 

[Dave]

The album where the ideas Sergio & his band have come to full-flower... It seems as though much of what Brasil '66 wanted to do was right here, in all its sparkling brilliance...



Dave

--And finding a few more "unhappy leaves" confined in the patio area outside my back door... Better "show them to the fair"...!

 

[lj]

Man, is this a hard choice. You have Lani's greatest vocal--Like a Lover-- and Janis' greatest vocal--The Look of Love--from Brasil 66 greatest album. By a hair I choose Lani's Like a Lover. From the opening Bossa Nova guitar chords of John Pisano, to the smooth as silk vocal stylings of Lani Hall, to the vocal counterpoint of Mendes, Mathews, and Soares, with Dick Hazard's shimmering strings, composed by the brilliant lyricists the Bergmans and an unforgettable melody by Dori Caymmi--this is as close as you can get to pop music perfection.

 

[audiofile]

Great album. Roda's my pick.

 

[TulitaPepsi]

It's fascinating how popular "So Many Stars" has been. It's never been a favorite of mine - I've always found the Bergman lyrics kind of bubbleheaded: "The dawn is filled with dreams, So many dreams which one is mine, One must be right for me! Which dream of all the dreams, When there's a dream for every star, And there are oh, so many stars, So many stars, So many stars" ("Let's see.. eenie, meenie, mynie, mo..").

I far prefer "Like A Lover". I think it's one of the most poetic, sensuous, even erotic songs Sergio's ever done. The Bergman lyrics pretty much ache with a delicious longing. The lyric "How I envy a cup that knows your lips, let it be me" reminds me of "The sun comes up, I think about you, the coffee cup, I think about you" from Sondheim's "Losing My Mind".

Does anyone know what the Portugese lyrics translate as?

And I love "Roda". A few years ago, Sergio & Co. performed a pumping, killer version of this at their concerts - I think he has since dropped it. It would be nice (in the wake of its surprising inclusion in "SUPERBAD") if Sergio would revisit this song, too...

 

[lj]

The Portuguese title for the Dori Caymmi song "Like a Lover" is "O Cantador" (The Singer) with the words by the Brazilian lyricist Nelson Motta. I couldn't find out how the Portuguese words translate into English. Since Dori's songs tend to relate to Brazil's northern region, perhaps Motta's words do as well.

 

[JMK]

O Cantador is actually a lost love song in Portuguese. The singer serenades his lost love outside her/his window, IIRC. Obviously completely different from the Bergmans' brilliant lyric.

 

[A&Mguyfromwayback]

I think it's more of an abstract poetic lyric about a singer and the songs they sing. Here's the lyric in Portuguese and a truly crappy computer translation. Sorry.

Amanhece,preciso ir
meu caminho é sem volta e sem ninguém
Eu vou prá onde a estrada levar
Cantador só sei cantar

Ah! eu canto a dor
canto a vida e a morte,canto o amor

Cantador não escolhe o seu cantar
Canta o mundo que vê
e pro mundo que vi meu canto é dor
mas é forte prá espantar a morte
prá todos ouvirem minha voz
mesmo longe

De que servem meu canto e eu
se em meu peito há um amor que não morreu
Ah! se eu soubesse ao menos chorar
cantador só sei cantar
Ah! Eu canto a dor
de uma vida perdida sem amor

Dawns, I go
my path is no return and no one
I'll go where the road lead
Only singer I can sing

Ah I sing the pain
corner of life and death, love song

Singer does not choose her singing
Sing the world that sees
and the world that I saw my singing is pain
but is strong to chase death
prá all hear my voice
even away

What use my corner and I
in my chest is a love that died
Ah if I knew at least cry
only singer I can sing
Ah I sing the pain
a life lost without love

 

[JMK]

No, it's definitely a lost love song. The computer translation is horrible. The singer is lamenting his lost love and having to move on in life alone. There's no future and no one to turn to, and everything he sings is now full of pain because he's lost his love.

 

[sbsugar]

Is the mono lp version a fold-down or different mix altogether?

 

[Harry]

Is the mono lp version a fold-down or different mix altogether?

See the post earlier on this page with the single pictured.

The mono single is a different mix with a more echo-ey vocal. The whole thing is more compressed sounding - done that way for AM radio of the day, no doubt.

I don't have the mono album, so I can't check to see if they used a fold-down for that.

Harry

 

[Mike Blakesley]

It's kind of fun to read over those Portuguese lyrics and imagine how Lani or Gracinha would sound singing them.