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From the mind and record company of psychedelic reissue king Joe Foster through to appearing on Cherrystones first compilation ‘Cherrystones Rocks’, Rita Lee’s album ‘HOJE É O PRIMEIRO DIA DO RESTO DA SUA VIDA’ is released on Revola.  You can pre-order your copy here. It rocks.

First of all don¹t believe what you read on the tin. This is not really a
Rita Lee album at all. The truth is that HOJE É O PRIMEIRO DIA DO RESTO DA
SUA VIDA, released as Lee’s second solo album, is a Mutantes album. 

While its predessor was a beautifully crafted vehicle to show off Lee¹s unique
vocal talents, while still remaining charmingly eccentric and ecclectic, a
stepping stone to Lee become a Streisand-esque superstar in Brazil, this set
was pure Mutantes madness. Even the album¹s title is misleading relating to
Lee, translated as Today is the First Day of the Rest of Your Life, this is
not a doorway to Lee’s future but ironically her taking a backwards step
into being part of group again. The album is just as much about about the
other Mutantes members as it is Lee. It is clear from the outset with
Arnaldo Baptista¹s (the album¹s producer) bass way louder than anything else
in the sonic palet that Lee would never be allowed to be the boss here.

Formed in 1965 Brazil by Arnaldo Baptista, his brother Sergio Dias and Rita
Lee, Os Mutantes were musical revolutionaries. Their music was a hybrid of
Brazil¹s own bosa nova twisted with Beatle music, Zappa-esque absurdity,
show tunes and a whole lot more. They could go from a sheer melodic beauty
to an untamed brutality in seconds. Mutantes were part of the Brazilian late
60s art movement called Tropicalia. Unlike Britain¹s punk rock scene a
decade later, which may have been hyped by the tabloids as being something
dangerous but never was a threat to the establishment, the Brazilian
military government saw Tropicalia as enough of a threat to inprison its two
musical leaders, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil and force them into exile.
Also Mutantes were regulars on television via a weely spot on radical
programme The Small World of Ronnie Von. If things got too wild military
censors would block the broadcast and the picture would be replaced by just
the word ³censored² in big letters.

By 1970 tropicalia was long gone. Rita Lee released her majestic Build Up
album, a good year for Rita but not for Mutantes. The group had travelled to
Paris to record a set of English language reworkings of some of their best
loved songs. The album, Techniclor, that was anticipated as being their
opportunity to cross over to a new American and British audience, too
ignorant to accept their music in Portugese, was abandoned on completion and
remained unreleased for thirty years. There was unrest in the group¹s ranks
in 1972 when the album that was to be presented to the world as Rita¹s
second solo outing was created with Arnaldo Baptista producing.

The first three tracks Vamos Tratar Da Saudade (with its way too loud bass),
Beija-Me, Amor (sounding like a slice of Parisian café music with gloriously
mispaced silly wah wah guitar) and the funky but musically slight Hoje O
Primeiro Dia Do Resto Da Sua Vida all have Rita on sole lead vocals. But
next is Teimosa starting off like a ghostly soundtrack to a distant battle,
with Lee relegated to a supporting vocal sounding like a Japanese anime
character, uncannily close to future Mutantes fans Cibo Matto singing over a
backing track by Kevin Ayers era Soft Machine. It is with Teimosa that the
album really turns a corner and becomes an untamed showcase not for Lee¹s
wonderful voice but instead for Mutantes most avant-garde leanings.

The album is not without many moments of real beauty. Amor Branco E Preto
could almost pass its self of as an unsubversive pretty Bosa Nova tune that
could¹ve been comfortably at home on a release by Elis Regina or Quarteto Em
Cy, if it wasn¹t for the insane synth and what sounds like a sports
commentary or news reporting running over it. De Novo Aqui Meu Bom Jos is
one of Mutantes most smoothe and ³perfect pop² tracks, with a real west
coast sensibility to it.

But this is a mostly a radical and mischeivious album. Tapupukitipa, a
psychedelic freak out, with nods to The Doors and childhood games of Cowboys
of Indians, can be translated as a ³fuck you² to the Brazilian authorities.
Perhaps the most revealing track on the album is its finale Superfcie Do
Planeta. At the end of Rita Lee¹s second ³solo album² her vocal contribution
is relegated to a faint background whisper while Arnaldo¹s too loud bass and
vocal dominate. On this album it isn¹t Lee, it¹s Baptista who has the final
word. A year later Lee was sacked from or had left the group, depending on
who¹s version you believe. Mutantes drifted towards bad heavy rock and fell
apart.
Rita Lee became a superstar.

Duglas T. Stewart
Glasgow, spring 2006

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