“Caetano Veloso: The Chameleon Poet of Bahia.” Reflex. Volume 1, Number 10, 1989.

[Excerpt]

The Bahian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso is among the crowd gathered at the base of the statue this second night of Caranaval to watch the trios-electrico – bands playing amplified music on huge mobile lorries – performing in the center of the square. It is no coincidence that he chooses this place to celebrate. The songs he has created over the last twenty-five years contain such distinctive and seemingly effortless lyrical beauty that it is tempting to believe music and poetry have always been a single art for in Brazil. Perhaps they have been, and no one realized it until Caetano, as he is known to everyone in Brazil, created such songs as “Lingua,” “Uns,” “O Leaozinho,” and “Ca Ja.”