Defect 1: Gene
(Tom Zé / Pedro Braz)
Our lies lie in the genes
the mind of our genes
Say your prayers
Once a day
Then send your conscience
packed with the bed sheets
To the laundromat
Arrastâo of Saint Augustine
Defect 2: Curiosidade
(Tom Zé / Gilberto Assis)
Who will place the dynamite
on the head of the century?
Who will put the lice
on the head of the century?
Who will throw a monkey wrench
On the head of the century?
Who will find a pillow
for the head of the century?
for the head of the century?
Alfred Nobel Arrastâo
Defect 3: Politicar
(Tom Zé)
Daughter of practice
daughter of tactic
daughter of machinery
this shameless cave
of the entrails
is always accommodating
Shove your grandiosity
in the corner bank
shove it up your verb
you son of a letter
Shove your usury
in the multinational
shove it up your virgin
you son of a cross
Shove your morals
Rules and regulations
offices and neck-ties
your solemn sessions
Gather everything around
spread the Vaseline
shove, push, cram it into
Your tank of gasoline
Arrastâo of Rimsky Korsakov and of the anonymous musicians who play in the São Paulo night.
Defect 4: Emerê
(Tom Zé / Zé Miguel Wisnik)
Emerê emerê
Emerê emerê
Arrastâo of a previous slavery, according to the pastoral Brazil that the left wing wanted.
Defect 5: O Olho Do Lago
(Cid Campos)
In the eye lake
sideways in the mire
In the muck of the lake
a tear sinks
in the deep mud
Eye
Muck
Side
Lake
Mire
Arrastâo of Concrete Poetry
Defect 6: Esteticar (Backbone song)
(Tom Zé / Vicente Barreto/ Carlos Rennó)
You think I’m a foolish country caboclo *
a type of empty headed little monkey
your typical rickety hill-billy
A mere number zero, a nobody
Pathetic poop, sluggish slow-wit
Automaton silly nincompoop ninny
I see through your mule-like optics
Oh, lick me inter-semiotic translation
Hold on to your seats milord, the mulatto baião
(He’s blacktie-ing himself)
Tuxedo-izes himself in the esthetic of the Arrastâo
Ca esteti ca estetu
Ca esteti ca estetu
Ca esteti ca estetu
Ca esteti do plágio-iê*
You think I’m a mad android candango
A mere mongoloid mongrel mame-luke
a tattered member of the skin and bones tribe
one of the poorest ragged, shabby mob
* Inlander — a copper-colored mulatto
** Play on ‘Esthetic of plagiarism’ in Portuguese
Defect 7: Dançar
(Tom Zé)
Dancing traces
a thin line:
the ABCs of the verb “God”
the taught skin,
newsprint,
the jaguar-skin parchment
Step on
wings of air
lines come untangled
Scribbles
Passions and sighs
Diagonal agonies
Oh, dancing girl if
you go:
PernambuCatarinAmarilNatal*
I’ll go too
Oh, dancing girl, if
You go
Que se cané de ou certa namó**
I’ll go too.
I’ll go a walking with these feet
so they’ll get used to dancing
* Pernambuco+Catarina+Amaralina+Natal — names of Brazilian places, as in OklahoCalifoMarylVirgini
** In this golden cup there will be loving (from a song by Caetano Veloso).
Defect 8: ONU, Arma Mortal
(Tom Zé / Andre Abujamra)
On the reco-reco 1 UN, UN
Teleco-teco 2 UN, UN
At this pagode 3 UN, UN
at that rock concert UN, UN
A UN to keep the peace
Oh what a gang they are!
Lethal weapon’s for the world’s police
Rifle, machine gun, cruiser
In the skindô, skindô, dô
Bazooka, bomb, tank, destroyer
In the skindô, skindô, dô
Arrastâo of Martinho da Vila and of the pagode style.
Defect 9: Juventude Javali
(Tom Zé)
The wine of open legs
soaks the offerings on the alter
Screams, sperm and hand-cuffs
The fury of pure lavender
Quarter estrus moon — oh
Timid fruit, nudity — chastity
Sneakers and tits, liquor — color
Fear, betrayal, desire — fright
If in youth everything rushes forward like a wild boar
this hot coitus is something I’ve already seen
I’ve seen, I’ve seen
Bacchus, hole, curve, grape I’ve already picked
Meta-mycosis itche, everyone one out for oneself
oneself, oneself
Tchaikovsky Arrastâo (Violin concerto in D major) and Arrastâo of the Middle Ages bourdons and antiphonies.
Defect 10: Cedotardar
(Moacir Albuquerque / Tom Zé)
I’m scared to the bone
(it’s soon)
My youth’s an incinerator
(it’s later)
If you are held in esteem
(I scream)
If you prefer making sense
(I’m incensed)
Come soothe the madness
(with your caress)
Make this tender moment
(eternal)
When fate is mean
(a dream)
When luck is severe
(don’t go near)
No: that’s not what I feel
(I lie)
Burn this lunacy
(that has no cure)
Take me away from the rest
(with a gesture)
Be silent, my love, no arguemind
(with the lying mind)
Be my aching soul’s
(hero)
If you refuse to look at me
(you strike me blind)
Let me be mad
(it’s not so bad)
Come what may,
(I’ll follow you all the way)
Arrastâo of the Provençal troubadours and their echoes
Defect 11: Tangolomango
(Tom Zé / Adoniran Barbosa)
The rich arrive at the dance
arm in arm
The devil stuffs his belly
arm in arm
Envy and greed
arm in arm
All reverence to the dollar,
skirt hiked up
a plague on the interest rate,
pants pulled down
That’s the tanglomango
Nowadays the rich man, poor thing
Is imprisoned, totally surrounded
all fenced in
Doormen, guards and alarms
Lord, find him a haven
Where he won’t be corralled
A cozy little place
Where he’ll live in peace
But the verbá, verbey
the verbiology of this politishitology
is the tanglomango
And the cardio-philoso-circusassology
is tanglomango
And it’s in that tanglomango
Que me voy pa’ el pueblo
Arrastâo of the Latin music style and of the reductio ad absurdum of Father Antonio Vieira’s sermon to Saint Benedict
Defect 12: Valsar
(Tom Zé)
Take me away waltz
Naked and barefoot
Be with me:
God or Joseph
One, two, three, yes
Lord, oh no.
Two, three
one foot first
then the other
One, two I am
of wine and bread
Mary in Nazareth
Take me away waltz...
Arrastâo of Ernesto Nazareth and Zequinha de Abreu and of both Italian post-baroque and Renaissance music, devoured by Brazilian music.
Defect 13: Burrice
(Tom Zé)
See how beautiful
In several colors
See how beautiful
In various flavors:
stupidity is the subject
See how beautiful
refined and polyglot,
you find it on the left
you find it on the right
but the real consecration
came with the advent
of television
of television
of television
It’s taught in schools
universities and most of all
in the academies of laurels and letters
it is present
it is present
Ladies and gentlemen
Ladies and gentlemen
If on this solemn occasion I do not propose a
commemorative holiday to celebrate the sacrosanct glory of the national stupidity, it’s because everyday, thank God, from Diapoque to Chuí, from the Pampas to the rubber tree jungles, it is already celebrated, most gloriously celebrated
Arrastâo of Flaubert in “Sottisier.”
Defect 14: Xiquexique
(Tom Zé / Zé Miguel Wisnik)
I saw a blind man reading the string of a viola
blind against blind in a duel in the hinterland
I saw the blind man tie a cobra in a knot
I saw the blind man imprisoned in the cage of sight
Black bird flying very far away
And the dragonfly discerning the darkness
I saw the moon on the tail of the comet
I saw the bass drum and the windchest pounding
I saw the lightning while the sky was flashing
And the triangle swallowing sparks
I saw the white milky way against the black
I saw day and night come together
I saw the father, I saw the mother, I saw the daughter
I saw the calf give birth to the calf
I saw the replica of the replica of the bible
In the invention of a science singer
I saw God’s lamb in an empty egg
I grew cold and I asked you to give me warmth
I saw a blind man reading the string of a viola
blind against blind in a duel in the hinterland
I saw the blind man tie a cobra in a knot
I saw the blind man imprisoned in the cage of sight
the white wing, the white wing, the white song
And the dragonfly discerning the darkness
Ê Tum Ê Tum Ê Tum
Baião de dois
De bim-bom
Baião de um
Arrastâo of Osvaldinho do Acordeon&s; accordion bellows and of all of the accordion players of the Northeast.
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