Category Archives: Poetry

Aquele abraço / Big hug

Written in 1969 by Gilberto Gil

And a more recent live recording

O Rio de Janeiro continua lindo
O Rio de Janeiro continua sendo
O Rio de Janeiro, fevereiro e março
Alô, alô, Realengo – aquele abraço!
Alô, torcida do Flamengo – aquele abraço!
Chacrinha continua balançando a pança
E buzinando a moça e comandando a massa
E continua dando as ordens no terreiro
Alô, alô, seu Chacrinha – velho guerreiro
Alô, alô, Terezinha, Rio de Janeiro
Alô, alô, seu Chacrinha – velho palhaço
Alô, alô, Terezinha – aquele abraço!
Alô, moça da favela – aquele abraço!
Todo mundo da Portela – aquele abraço!
Todo mês de fevereiro – aquele passo!
Alô, Banda de Ipanema – aquele abraço!
Meu caminho pelo mundo eu mesmo traço
A Bahia já me deu régua e compasso
Quem sabe de mim sou eu – aquele abraço!
Pra você que meu esqueceu – aquele abraço!
Alô, Rio de Janeiro – aquele abraço!
Todo o povo brasileiro – aquele abraço!

Lady in Red

The poem allegedly was chalked on an alley wall where John Dillinger was shot

Stranger stop and wish me well,
Just say a prayer for my soul in hell.
I was a good fellow, most people said,
Betrayed by a woman dressed all in red

A third of the entire Bureau of Investigations (pre-FBI) budget in 1934 was spent on hunting Dillinger

Havel in a Nutshell

A new song by Petr Putna, performed with Ondrej Havlik (three time national beatbox champion) at the Vaclav Havel Library opening.

The Prague Daily Monitor has more info:

“The song’s story corresponds to the content of the exhibition that divides Havel’s life into four periods – his capitalist extract, theatre, and his roles of a dissident and president. Of course, I didn’t want to create an ode or a monumental song, but to sum up with humour and in slight hyperbole the life of one of the most important personalities of the Czech history of the 20th century,” Putna says on www.vaclavhavel-knihovna.org.