Gilberto Gil's Discography: 'All albums have a biography' - Part 1

“That was me starting to become familiarized with studios, the recording system.”

Gilberto Gil

After he was “familiarized,” Gilberto Gil just had to understand the feelings of each moment to then go into the studio dedicated to throw them into each of his vinyls.

And let’s remember that, to match his always full schedule, his albums are so filled with experiences that there are many of them: just with original songs, he has over 20 records. With the collective albums, those recorded live, and the soundtracks, the list goes up to almost 80.

Gil bears fruits, and proof is that he had eight children with three of his four wives. Before his national debut, he had Nara (1966) and Marília (1967) with Belina, his first wife. It was after their birth that his recording career took off. Before that, he created some jingles and released singles.

Before this shared LP debut, Gil released a few compacts back in Bahia—both single and double—and, in 1962, some in the 78 rpm format. In 1963, what can be considered his first solo album was released: an EP with four songs called Sua Música e sua Interpretação.

In São Paulo, he recorded two singles, one in 1965 and another in 1967. 
The singles’ predecessor would forever be in his history.

In the same year he performed “Domingo no parque” at the III Brazilian Popular Music Festival, in 1967, Gil would finally release a 12-track LP: Louvação was a gathering of what he had brought with him from Bahia, a mix of folklore (“Procissão”) and science (“Lunik 9”).

During the promotion of this record in Pernambuco, where he met local artists and trends, Gil identified the ideas that Caetano Veloso had already brought to the conversations they exchanged. From folklore, he went to the mix of rhythms, styles, philosophies and behaviors.

With Gilberto Gil, an album from 1968, he consolidated tropicalism in sound, cover, and attitude: the artist from Bahia shook up bossa nova and rock, mixing the trending rhythms of the time and defending causes through music at a time when the military dictatorship dominated Brazilian politics.

The version of Procissão on this record features guitars and rasping vocals from the Mutantes. There, he showed a little bit of the mix that would impress listeners in Brazil and around the world forever.

This was then proved in October 2007, when the album made it to Rolling Stone Brazil’s 100 greatest records in Brazilian music list, in 78th place.


In the image, the single released before the LP.

With those names, Gil planned and released the Tropicália ou Panis et Circencis, a fusion of Brazilian music and rock, which went into history as one of Brazilian music’s greatest feats.

Another eponymous record, Gilberto Gil, also known by its “last name” Cérebro Eletrônico, was released in 1969, the year Gil was liberated from prison and went into exile in England. With Caetano Veloso, he was one of the artists persecuted by the military dictatorship in Brazil.

The biggest success of this album was announced through a single released before the LP: Aquele Abraço was a kind of farewell to the country inspired by the catchphrase of comedian Lilico, repeated by the military, which Gil heard while in prison.

In the image, the single Aquele Abraço.

Collective and live albums also permeated the singer-songwriter's career. The first live one was recorded in 1969, at Caetano and Gil's show to raise funds for their exile trip, and released only three years later, when they returned to Brazil.

The 1969 show at Teatro Castro Alves, in Salvador, was held in three sessions, the first of which was on the day man stepped on the moon. The name Barra 69: Caetano e Gil ao Vivo was an idea by singer Gal Costa at the time of its release, in 1972.

Over the years, the myth was created (or not) that those performances, and the duo's departure to Europe, marked the end of the Tropicalista movement.

First-born to Sandra Gadelha, Pedro was born in London, in 1970. In 1971, Gil recorded and released his fourth album, (again) called Gilberto Gil. What he was experiencing culminated on an English repertoire, including a reinterpretation of the “Can't Find my Way Home” (Steve Winwood).

His first encounter with singer and songwriter Jorge Mautner—who was coming from his exile in the United States to London to meet Gil and Caetano—produced there tracks for this album: “The Three Mushrooms,” “Babylon,” and “Crazy Pop Rock.”

The following year, Gil returned to Brazil, which he had never wanted to leave. In his happiness, he released Expresso 2222, a lively album, with a “Brazilianess” that verges on activism. “Chiclete com banana,” for instance, challenges Uncle Sam to “get a tambourine,” saying [in literal translation]:

I want to see Uncle Sam with a pot
During a Brazilian drumming.

This album also came 26th among the greatest in Brazilian music according to the Rolling Stone list 2007.

After returning from exile, Gil and Caetano returned to live intensely in Bahia. In 1974, they teamed up with Gal Costa to record and release Temporada de Verão: Ao Vivo na Bahia, at Teatro Vila Velha, in Salvador.

Also in 1974, in August, Preta was born, the second child with Sandra. In October, Gil takes the stage at Teatro Tuca (São Paulo) to record the LP Gilberto Gil: Ao Vivo. In the repertoire, only unpublished songs that show Gil's freedom on stage: João Sabino is more than 11 minutes long.

Continues in Part 2.