Gilberto Gil at the Tuff Gong studio in Jamaica

…he visited Jamaica with the producer Liminha to record alongside the Wailers at Tuff Gong, the home super-studio that had once belonged to Bob Marley. 

Out of his work in that Jamaican studio would come a track that would be included on his Raça Humana (1984) album. That track would be none other than the hit Vamos Fugir. There were also other tracks that would simply remain demos, namely Probe and Jamaican Sunday Morning.

Vamos Fugir started life as just a few cords that Liminha had written. He showed them to Gil, who wanted to add more to the song. Their partnership produced a song that was initially called Gimme Your Love ...

… and it would be recorded at Tuff Gong with the then-members of the Wailers, a band that included music legends such as Aston "Family Man" Barrett (bass), Earl "Wya" Lindo (piano), and Carlton Barrett (drums). 

Aston "Family Man" Barrett, the legendary bass player in the Jamaican band the Wailers.

Carlton Barrett, the drummer in Bob Marley's backing band the Wailers. 

Only much later, once Gil was back in Rio, would the song get the title by which it would become famous. And that was because he wanted to tailor it to the spirit of the record. The English vocals were recorded by a trio of North American female vocalists at New York's Record Plant studio. 

In the audio files found in the Gilberto Gil collection and later digitized, you can learn a little of what was going on behind the scenes in those sessions. In one demo, Gil and the Wailers play Gimme Your Love.  

Then Gil teaches the Jamaicans to play his Jamaican Sunday Morning. The recordings also show that Probe is a very early version of Feliz Por Um Triz, which would appear on Raça Humana.

In 1985, the program Rock Alive, presented by Liliane Yusim and Mauricio Valladares (who would later go on to present Ronca Ronca), aired a reggae special, which included an interview with Gil.

On the program, the singer spoke about what it was like to spend time with the Wailers, the band that backed Bob Marley while the King of Reggae was still alive. He recalled that the first contacts had been made a year earlier through Liminha. "He adored Aston "Family Man," being a bass player himself," Gil explained.

He also recalled what it was like arriving for the first time at the Tuff Gong studio. 

While recording on the island, Gil did not meet with Rita Marley, Bob's widow, as she was touring with her children's band, the Melody Makers. The atmosphere at the studio left Gil feeling very emotional and "it shone a light on my stress and my inner colors," as the singer himself explained it. 

"It was a very magical atmosphere, the Rastafaris, the Tuff Gong hub, all under Family Man's discreet leadership, " he added. Gil saw similarities between the Bahian religion Candomblé and what he found in the Tuff Gong studio and in Jamaica generally.

"It was as if there were a different psychic speed, a different approach to existential fact, to time."

At that time, reggae topped Gil's own personal music charts, alongside sambas by Doirival Caymmi and Jackson do Pandeiro, who was known as the King of Rhythm. 

In response to listeners' requests, Gil chose a Bob Marley song, Rebel Music. The program also played a few songs from Raça Humana, Gil's recently released album.

The singer also asked Mauricio and Liliane to play a song by Clementina de Jesus—a typical choice given that this was a rock program on the classic rock radio station Maldita FM.

The album would include other reggae tracks, such as Indigo Blue, A Mão da Limpeza, and the title track itself. The album's playlist also featured at Rock in Rio in January 1985.

In that same year, Gil and Liminha thought about reusing the remaining recordings from Tuff Gong for the Dia Dorim, Noite Neon album but eventually gave up on the idea.