It’s easy to make a song this perfect: All you have to do is be exiled by the Brazilian dictatorship in 1969. Then move to London. Then get allowed back into the country, just to briefly visit your parents. Then get told by the military dictatorship to write a pro government song celebrating the construction of a road to the Amazon. Then refuse the offer, return to exile and record one of the most ground breaking albums in Brazilian music history. Then have this be the opening track. Simple, right? Caetano Veloso’sTransa transcends genres, blending English and Portuguese, rock and Brazilian roots.

Above: Caetano with Gal Costa, pre-exile.





Above: Caetano, in London alone, post-exile.