Audiovisual

Legião Urbana:

‘Faroeste Caboclo’

subtitled with bilingual lyrics [9:20] [2015-08-21]

Original 9-minute studio audio track accompanied by complete synchronised lyrics in Portuguese with English translation (thanks to Bosco De Oliveiro). Musically somewhere between folk rock and punk, this song, consisting mainly of 42 8-bar verses in 4/4 time (c. 12 seconds each), seems to be in a simple strophic folk ballad story-telling sort of form. That observation may apply largely to the tune's first 3 minutes, after which the backing starts to vary considerably in terms of instrumentation, groove, articulation and harmony. Renato Russo (lead vocalist) also exploits a range of vocal personae. All these variations underline the dramatic (comic and highly tragic) narrative of the lyrics. I'd like some time to write an analysis of this piece. If and when it's done, this description will contain a hyperlink to whatever text I manage to produce. (Faroeste means the far West (the Wild West) and a caboclo is basically a Brazilian of mixed race).