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

What is your favorite track?

  • With A Little Help From My Friends

    Votes: 1 2.0%
  • Roda

    Votes: 6 12.2%
  • Like A Lover

    Votes: 18 36.7%
  • The Frog

    Votes: 6 12.2%
  • Tristeza (Goodbye Sadness)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • The Look Of Love

    Votes: 6 12.2%
  • Pra Dizer Adeus (To Say Goodbye)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Batucada (The Beat)

    Votes: 4 8.2%
  • So Many Stars

    Votes: 5 10.2%
  • Look Around

    Votes: 3 6.1%

  • Total voters
    49
Mike Blakesley said:
It's kind of fun to read over those Portuguese lyrics and imagine how Lani or Gracinha would sound singing them.

I got to hear Lani sing the Portuguese lyrics at the 2008 show with Herb. As I recall, she did part of the song in English too.

Harry
 
There is a lovely version in Portuguese by Flora Purim on her Stories to Tell album, where she does do a Hall lyric or two as well, IIRC.
 
JMK said:
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.

Well, I trust you, cause I can't make heads or tails out of the translation.... :|
 
Wow! Over 14,000 views as of April 2010. This is only fitting for this magnificant album. Maybe a moderator might know--is this the highest number of views for a Sergio Mendes topic in this forum?
 
lj said:
Wow! Over 14,000 views as of April 2010. This is only fitting for this magnificant album. Maybe a moderator might know--is this the highest number of views for a Sergio Mendes topic in this forum?

No. The ENCANTO thread has, as of now, 17,900 views.

http://www.amcorner.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8897

And when you go look at it, you can add another one to that total!

A long-running thread in our Carpenters Forum has over 39,000 views, closing in on 40,000,

Harry
 
I picked LIKE A LOVER, but it really was a toss up between this & FROG. Those are my 2 faves from this LP. What a sound they created??? !!!
 
I love the harpsicord and after listening to "Look Around" for the umpteenth time--an album I never tire of--I was struck by Mendes' hauntingly beautiful use of this instrument on "So Many Stars" during the instrumental interlude of the song. Now the harpsicord is a more limited keyboard instrument than the piano. However, Sergio in his early days was a master knowing when to utilize the harpsicord's unique sound on other songs as well such as "The Sea is My Soil", "When a Summer Turns to Snow" and "Dois Dias".
 
Since this topic came back up, I realized I still have never voted on my favorite track. I still can't quite decide...it's between the title song, "Look of Love," "Roda," "Batucada" and "With a Little Help from my Friends."

The other songs are all tied for #2, except for "Pradizer Adeus" which is one of the three or four Brasil '66 songs I don't particularly like. Considering they recorded just under 70 songs (almost 90 if you count the Brasil '77 albums) that's not a bad ratio!
 
I was doing a little Google research on "Look Around" ("Like a Lover") and found this site...

I was spinning my 33-year-old LP recently, and LaL just knocked me over like a ton of bricks. I always liked the tune. And, of course, I loved Lani Hall's singing.
But...the Alan and Marilyn Bergman lyrics! As a stand-alone poem, it's one of the most heart-rendering expressions of love in the Queen's English, IMO. In the song, with all of the notes, it might be a little "wordy," but who cares?

But my main reason for the Google search was to find out who did the actual arranging. Dick Hazard could just flat-out write for strings. Beautiful!
 
Thanks for your input Tommy and welcome to the forum. "Like A Lover" is truly a fan favorite and deservedly so.

Harry
 
Welcome Tommy!

And I still can't pick a favorite. There's the buttery smooth "Like A Lover" but in contrast, "Batucada" is one of the tracks I play most often as well.
 
While I love "Like A Lover" I had to vote for the title track. "LAL" was already way out in the lead and (given my penchant for supporting the underdog (unless there's a "D" after their name)) the rest of the tunes don't really "do it" for me... :wink:
 
For me the two musical bookends are Like a Lover and The Look of Love thanks to Lani and Janis awesome efforts. However, playing this album straight through, the best three songs in a row/triple play if you will are Roda, Like a Lover and The Frog. In my large music collection I keep coming back to this album. If a person had to start his or her Brazilian music catalog, I would suggest they begin with the album Look Around.
 
I've mentioned before about the different versions of album favorite "Like A Lover", but there's nothing like hearing it for yourself. The mono 45 has some echo applied to the vocals and is a bit more compressed sounding for AM radio. And the two stereo versions, the standard album version and the one that appeared on FAMILY PORTRAIT are clearly different mixes. On FAMILY PORTRAIT, John Pisano's guitar is on the right channel, whereas on on the standard album (and all other versions on CD), his guitar is on the left. At first I thought the stereo channels might have been reversed, but no - the percussion sounds are anchored on the left in both versions. On FAMILY PORTRAIT, Sergio's piano doesn't enter until around 20 seconds in, and is sort of slightly left of center of the stereo soundstage. On the standard album version, Sergio's piano is in the right channel and begins right away. And then there's Sergio's missing piano riff entering the instrumental bridge on the FAMILY PORTRAIT.

Here are the three versions to compare:

MONO 45:
[deleted]

FAMILY PORTRAIT version:
[deleted]

SP 4137 album version:
[deleted]

One could argue of even more versions. The GREATEST HITS version has HAECO-CSG applied, but at its root it's the standard album version. And I'm not sure about a mono LOOK AROUND album as I've never run across one, so that could be just a mono folddown of the stereo.

Harry
 
So which version of the LOOK AROUND LP cover do you have? There are apparently a couple of differences with mistakes that were corrected over time.

Early versions of the album have the jacket listing the second song on the second side as "Pradizer Adeus", and only credits composers "Edu Lobo - Lani Hall". Later versions correct the spelling to "Pra Dizer Adeus" and add "Torquato Netto" to the composers.

Similarly on the title track, "A. Mattos" is missing from the early jacket's composers, while the name is added to the later jackets.

As you might guess, there are label variations too, where the title of that S2 T2 song is listed as "Pradizer Adeua".

CD printing mimicked the early pressings, at least in the two cases I have - the Japan pressing from 1993 and the Verve pressing from 2000.

Some more details on Discogs here:
 
I voted for Like a Lover and I first had the vinyl version of look around back in the 80s today I have the 2000 Verve reissue which I purchased in late 2000 and the sound was a huge step up and at that time I only had a few CD titles of Sergio's discography to me Like a lover is a definitive Brasil 66 ballad
 
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I think my Look Around LP has the early version, although I probably didn't get it until at least 1971 or so. I didn't own any Sergio material until after Stillness came out, after which I started collecting all the albums.
 
I got to thinking that most ballads tend to have a slower tempo and can be serious in mood. Whereas, the Brasil 66 version of "Like a Lover" has a brisk tempo with a happy mood.

While Like a Lover is certainly an extremely well written ballad, there are other equally beautiful popular ballads written over time. What makes Like a Lover so special is the extra ordinary interpretation by Brasil 66. The arrangement by Dick Hazard is out of this world and so is his use of strings. Lani Hall's vocal interpretation is truly sublime. The male vocals of Mendes, Matthews and Soares are a beautifully subtle response to Lani's voice. And with the accent of John Pisano's guitar and Joao Palma on drums, you know this is a rhythm section at its very best. I know music appreciation is a very subjective thing, but the Brasil 66 version of Like a Lover is my favorite interpretation of any pop ballad I have ever heard.
 
The other factoid I found on Discogs was that "Like A Lover" by Sergio Mendes & Brasil '66 first originated on the FAMILY PORTRAIT album, which might explain why that version sounds like it could be an early mix of the recording.

It is mentioned that FAMILY PORTRAIT has a date of 1967, while the LOOK AROUND album is dated 1968.
 
It's quite interesting how there are three versions of Like a Lover. I suppose Sergio, and Herb as the producer, kept tinkering with the sound until in their eyes they got it just right--that would be the final version from the Look Around album dated, as Harry noted, from 1968. They probably knew they had a very special song to deal with and it was a work in progress. I don't have the Family Portrait album, but it would be great to have for the music as well as for the terrific album cover with the A&M musical all-stars shown. It's a real time capsule.
 
Side note: LOOK AROUND is not available---and hasn't been for two weeks on Apple Music. Spotify has it. Same situation with Herb & Lani's I FEEL YOU (Apple no, Spotify yes).
 
Side note: LOOK AROUND is not available---and hasn't been for two weeks on Apple Music. Spotify has it. Same situation with Herb & Lani's I FEEL YOU (Apple no, Spotify yes).

And when you own the record or CD or tape - any physical format - it's *always* available, and not at the whim of some contract somewhere. :)
 
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