from the LP Gal, Phillips Records, 1969
Backed by the incendiary & psychedelic crew of Os Brazões, the undisputed queen of Tropicália, Miss Gal Costa, turns in her most decidedly “out-there” album ever in this self-titled LP, making her admittedly freaky fellow Brazilian rockers Os Mutantes sound relatively tame in contrast. Drawing a comparison doesn’t really work here, but Gal was surely influenced by such wild women as Janis & Tina Turner, perhaps Grace Slick most of all, or maybe I just feel that way due to the Jefferson Airline-esque backing music, which is bass-driven and absolutely searing, like a fucking hit of DMT to the dome-piece in some places. Perhaps not surprisingly if you consider the twisted acidy vibe, when I translated the Portuguese lyrics to this song I found the whole thing appears to be about the apocalypse, “…now I’m not afraid…God forbid that I should be afraid now, after I have already played in the world; God forbid that I should be afraid now, after I have set foot on the bottom...after the end of all fear, the end of the world…from the end of everything…the end!!!” Given the autocratic, not to mention murderous, military junta which controlled Brazil at the time, these words could very well have carried two meanings, secretly encouraging the free-thinkers to stand strong.
from the LP Gal, Phillips Records, 1969
