Os Mutantes: the band played with Gil and turned into an international phenomenon

Also invited to accompany Gil on the stage of the Paramount Theatre, the Dias Baptista brothers had a strong reaction, after all, rock was their business. Rita, who was used to listening to Brazilian music at her parents’ house, was the only one to like the idea of playing “Domingo no parque.” Since teasing was what they enjoyed the most, when they heard they were going to storm an MPB festival with their electrical instruments—and that was likely to cause a big fuzz with the booing from the audience—, the answer to the invitation was a “yes.” From that musical encounter with the Bahia-born singer on, the youngsters would go from a rock band to representatives of the Tropicália movement, along with Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, and others that the Bahia musicians were trying to gather, under the proposal of unifying sounds to make something new grow in the Brazilian scene.

The incident, which the singer and songwriter mentioned in an interview, was a stroke of luck for Os Mutantes. The negative from Quarteto Novo to adhere to the modernity proposed by Gil reminded Duprat of the boldness he had seen in the trio he first met on TV show Quadrado e Redondo, hosted by Sérgio Galvão, on the Rede Bandeirantes channel.

The performance of “Domingo no parque” in the Brazilian Musical Festival on TV Record channel turned into a classic. For applying a little more “Brazilianness” into his presentation, Gil was a slightly less booed than Caetano Veloso, who performed “Alegria, alegria” accompanied by the Argentinian rock band Beat Boys. Gilberto Gil was awarded the second prize, right behind Edu Lobo, who won the first prize with “Ponteio”. In addition to the presence of a berimbau, a typical capoeira instrument, the performance also had the singer wearing a northeast traditional costume: short pants and a gourd shaped hat. Electric instruments in an MPB festival were an insult to national culture in the views of those more conservative, but the booing was also aimed at the bold figures of these artists, as I wrote in my book Discobiografia Mutante: Albums that Revolutionized Brazilian Music.

Having their chemistry shown to be true in both studio and stage, Os Mutantes then started to join the meetings that took place at the Danubio Hotel, where Gil lived, or at Caetano’s apartment, on São Luiz Avenue, in São Paulo. At such meetings, Os Mutantes would be impressed by the songwriting abilities of the Northeastern artists. In the blink of an eye, they would see a song be born in an easy and fast way: at times, it would be Caetano and Gil creating a partnership, at times it would be the duo Gil and poet from Piauí Torquato Neto, pulling a new song out of their hats. It was in one of these meetings that the Bahia native Tom Zé showed the lyrics of “Astronauta libertado” to Rita Lee. She not only created a melody for it, but changed its name to “2001” and had it recorded on Os Mutantes’ second album.
It was also there that Caetano and Gil offered “Panis et circenses” for “the guys”: the version of Rita, Arnaldo, and Sérgio was featured in Tropicália or Panis et Circencis, a compilation album that went down in the annals of history—and also in the trio’s first album, recorded and released in 1968 (in this second inclusion, the track had its spelling corrected and became “Panis et circenses”).

With all the closeness over the two years they spent together, from 1967 to 1969, the artists from Bahia’s influence on the work of the trio from São Paulo was inescapable. Gilberto Gil and Caetano Veloso gave them good tips of songwriting in Portuguese, as much as Os Mutantes also taught a lot to their godfathers, as I wrote in the book Discobiografia Mutante: Albums that Revolutionized Brazilian Music:

With the album released, success still under construction, in December 1968 Os Mutantes took part in the fourth Brazilian Music Festival broadcast by Record, which took place at the Record Theatre, in São Paulo. Already having two additional musicians that would become permanent—Liminha on the 10-string Brazilian guitar and Dinho Leme on the drums. Up on the stage, beside Arnaldo and Sérgio’s oldest brother, luthier Cláudio César Dias Baptista running an audio equipment, there was a very special guest:

Planeta dos Mutantes put together songs from the album released in 1969— “Dom Quixote”, “Fuga nº II,” and “Caminhante noturno” —and released “Quem tem medo de brincar de amor”, which would go into the 1970 album recording. The compositions by Rita Lee and Arnaldo Baptista (some of them in partnership with Sérgio Dias) were well-received, unlike the whole product. There were no sold out tickets and reviews were mixed. Newspaper Correio da Manhã, in August 1969, qualified the musical as great, in an article called “A Terribly Young Planet,” whereas Jornal do Brasil newspaper was sorry the band didn’t have the “theatrical Rogério Duprat”.

Already having Dinho Leme and Liminha as official members, Os Mutantes turned into a quintet. The band released five albums: Os Mutantes (1968), Mutantes (1969), A Divina Comédia ou Ando Meio Desligado (1970), Jardim Elétrico (1971) and Mutantes e Seus Cometas no País do Baurets (1972). Rita Lee released two solo albums: Build Up (1970) and Hoje é o Primeiro Dia do Resto da Sua Vida (1972). And, in the same year Gilberto Gil returned from exile, 1972, the band started to dissolve. First, Rita left. Then, Arnaldo, Dinho and Liminha gave up moving forward with Os Mutantes, while Sérgio rushed to renew the sound of the band: the young Dias Baptista moved on with an expert team in progressive rock, a sound way different than the original proposal.

At the turn of the century, with the attention of collectors and producers turned to the uncovering of rarities and unreleased albums, Os Mutantes ended up labeled as a cult band. With a little help from David Byrne—former leader of Talking Heads, who released abroad the compilation album Everything is Possible: The Best of Os Mutantes in 1999—the band attracted international attention and eventually went back on stage, conducted by Sérgio Dias, from 2006 on. For the new generations, who have all sorts of equipment at hand and get very impressed by the way Os Mutantes have been able to immortalize a totally new sound, there is a message that, in music, everything is possible. Thanks to Gilberto Gil, the world now knows that Os Mutantes kill it!