I am a parochial American who has never traveled south of Mexico and haven't paid much attention the popular music in South America. This is a shame, because this is the first day I have become fully aware of Tim Maia, the giant of Brazilian funk/soul/psychedelia.
Tim Maia has an epic "rock star" life story. He was born in Tijuca, a neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro's Northern Zone. This neighborhood includes the 3rd largest urban forest in the world. Tim was a WWII baby, born in September 1942. He started writing songs when he was 8 years old and picked up the guitar soon thereafter. He came to the United States in 1959 to try to break through as a rock star, but got busted for smoking weed in a stolen car (total dumb wannabe rockstar move). He was deported back to Brazil and started making fantastic music that merged American funk, soul & rock with traditional Brazilian forms.
Tim did some weird stuff. He joined a religous cult for a couple of years in the 1970's - their core belief was that humans are aliens from another planet and we have to reconnect with our extra-terrestrial bretheren. I guess Tim got bored with that - he left in 1976 and started releasing records. He sang in Portugese and English. Here is one of his more awesome English language tunes, "Nobody Can Live Forever."
Tim Maia wasn't very tall - maybe 5'7". He was pretty round, too. His live shows were allegedly amazing. I really like this video - it is a tune called "Descobridores Dos Sete Mares" - Discoverers of the Seven Seas. Very funky and it also has that Brazilian vibe.
Tim lived hard - alcohol, drugs, gluttony the usual '70's/80's stew of debachery. This led him to miss gigs - just not show up - which caused his career to crater. He ended up with diabetes, hypertension, obesity and a pulmonary embolism. He died in 1998. His cultural legacy in Brazil is huge.
I am going to dig into this guy's catalog - he had something special.
No comments:
Post a Comment