About the music
O Segundo Sol ("the second sun", music written by Nando Reis and made famous in the voice of Cássia Eller) is one of my favorite songs ever of all time forever
According to Nando Reis, the song was written inspired by a conflict of beliefs between him and a friend, and there is no specific explanation for its meaning, but in a way it is a song about how there is no absolute truth.
The first version in the list is the one that played in my parents's car when I was young, so it has become a favorite. And then I thought "wouldn't it be funny if I added more versions to the list", so I added the Duda Beat version because it's a recent favorite, I like how it's different but still the same. I couldn't think of any other songs to add, so I thought "wouldn't it be funny if I made the playlist just more and more versions of O Segundo Sol". And I decided that yeah it would be funny. So that's how we ended up here.
Below is the lyrics, and a translation done by me so you can understand the words :]
Quando o segundo Sol chegar
Para realinhar as órbitas dos planetas
Derrubando com assombro exemplar
O que os astrônomos diriam se tratar
De um outro cometa
Quando o segundo Sol chegar
Para realinhar as órbitas dos planetas
Derrubando com assombro exemplar
O que os astrônomos diriam se tratar
De um outro cometa
Não digo que não me surpreendi
Antes que eu visse, você disse, e eu não pude acreditar
Mas você pode ter certeza
De que seu telefone irá tocar
Em sua nova casa que abriga agora a trilha
Incluída nessa minha conversão
Eu só queria te contar
Que eu fui lá fora e vi dois Sóis num dia
E a vida que ardia sem explicação
Quando o segundo Sol chegar
Para realinhar as órbitas dos planetas
Derrubando com assombro exemplar
O que os astrônomos diriam se tratar
De um outro cometa
Não digo que não me surpreendi
Antes que eu visse, você disse, e eu não pude acreditar
Mas você pode ter certeza
De que seu telefone irá tocar
Em sua nova casa que abriga agora a trilha
Incluída nessa minha conversão
Eu só queria te contar
Que eu fui lá fora e vi dois Sóis num dia
E a vida que ardia sem explicação
Seu telefone irá tocar
Em sua nova casa que abriga agora a trilha
Incluída nessa minha conversão
Eu só queria te contar
Que eu fui lá fora e vi dois Sóis num dia
E a vida que ardia sem explicação
Explicação
Não tem explicação
Explicação, não
Não tem explicação
Explicação, não tem
Não tem explicação
Explicação, não tem
Explicação, não tem, não tem...
When the second sun arrives
To realign the orbits of the planets
Destroying with exemplary astonishment
What the astronomers would say was
Some other comet
When the second sun arrives
To realign the orbits of the planets
Destroying with exemplary astonishment
What the astronomers would say was
Some other comet
I won't say I wasn't surprised
Before I saw it you said it and I couldn't believe
But you can be sure
That your phone will ring
In your new home that now houses the path
Included in this new conversion of mine
I just wanted to tell you
That I went outside and saw two suns in one day
And life that blazed without explanation
When the second sun arrives
To realign the orbits of the planets
Destroying with exemplary astonishment
What the astronomers would say was
Some other comet
I won't say I wasn't surprised
Before I saw it you said it and I couldn't believe
But you can be sure
That your phone will ring
In your new home that now houses the path
Included in this new conversion of mine
I just wanted to tell you
That I went outside and saw two suns in one day
And life that blazed without explanation
Your phone will ring
In your new home that now houses the path
Included in this new conversion of mine
I just wanted to tell you
That I went outside and saw two suns in one day
And life that blazed without explanation
Explanation
There is no explanation
Explanation, no
There is no explanation
Explanation, there isn't
There is no explanation
Explanation, there isn't
Explanation, there isn't, there isn't...
(wahoo I managed to get the columns to work!!.... kinda)
And what about the playlist on the U R Free page?
If you've opened the URFree page on a new tab, you might notice it has a different playlist from the rest of the site. That is because those are songs that match and inspire the URFree vibes - if I had a proper playlist for that story, that would be a small sample of what would be in it!
- Música de Trabalho, by Legião Urbana: this song is about feeling alienated and overworked, and knowing about the horrors of what's going on in the world but having to keep your head low out of fear and exhaustion. It's criticism of capitalism and of how work is used to control the masses ("without work I am nothing, I have no dignity, I don't feel my worth, I have no identity. But what I do have is just a job, and a miserable salary. [...] Our life isn't good, and we can't complain!"), and I especially like the verse before the second "chorus":
"I know injustice exists, I know what happens
I'm afraid of the police, I know what happens
If you don't follow the orders, if you don't obey
And can't stand the suffering, you're destined to misery
But I can't accept it, I know what happens"
- Deus Lhe Pague, by Chico Buarque: like many Chico Buarque songs from around the time of this one, this song is a (not-so-veiled) protest against the dictatorship and the living conditions at the time. The words of the song are filled with sarcasm, giving thanks for being "allowed" to be alive:
"For this bread to eat, for this floor to sleep inThis song is "sampled" at the end of the studio version of Construção, the song that entitles the album they're both from, and one of the more famous Chico Buarque songs - it narrates the last day of a construction worker: he kisses his wife and children, and climbs the building he's working on, and during his lunch break he falls to his death. All verses end in proparoxytones (words that stress the third to last syllable), giving the song a distinct rhythm, and as the verses repeat the course of the song their final words change, gradually changing the meaning, from a likely accidental death to a likely suicide.
The certificate to be born, the permission to smile
For letting me breathe, for letting me exist
May god pay you...
[...]
For the free booze we have to swallow,
For the smoke and tragedy we have to cough,
For the dangling scaffolds we have to fall from,
May god pay you...
- Fátima, by Capital Inicial: this one appears twice on the playlist because I like both the "original" version and the Aborto Elétrico version. Fátima is divided into two parts: the first, which is criticizing the people in power, "you build up your tricky schemes, keep pretending the world wasn't made.. but you know that everything has a beginning, and if it begins it must end, and I pity you... and these threats of nuclear war, God didn't make atomic bombs. someone, someone someday will fight back, you're vermins who think you're kings"; and a second part about the "title character": "three children with no money and no power didn't hear the soft voice of a teardrop, and forgot to tell everyone she might have a name and it was Fátima. and suddenly the wine turned into water, and the wound didn't heal, and what was clean became dirty, and on the third day no one was resurrected...". It fits URFree very well, with both the rage against the current world and the powerless children of injustice who could be relevant
(Aborto Elétrico was a punk band that existed very briefly before separating into Legião Urbana and Capital Inicial, some of the songs in Capital's first album were written by Renato Russo of Legião Urbana, like this one and Veraneio Vascaína (a song about police violence which I might add to the playlist because it's also pretty fitting for the vibe)) - Baader-Meinhof Blues, by Legião Urbana: yet another song about how society in the 70s and 80s sucks, but this time more focused on the personal side of it, the loneliness of modern society and the normalization of violence - "violence is so fascinating, and our lives are so normal [...] everything seems so real, but you've seen this movie too... [...] I'm full of feeling empty, my body is hot but I feel cold.. everyone knows, no one cares anymore, after all loving thy neighbor is so out of fashion... and this out of tune justice is so human and so wrong! we watch TV too, what's the difference?"
This version starts with the singer "reenacting" a group getting pulled over by the police: "hey hey look at that, I think that guy is following us... hey man go faster, they're following us!.. shit I know we didn't do anything, but they're following us! look, go that way, go that way!-" "get out of the car, boy! hands on your head!" "dude we didn't do anything-" "OUT OF THE CAR, BOY!" "shit what's going on? what's going on, man? damn.." "documents, fucker. I don't care! what're you talking about? shut up! shut the fuck up! where- where, where's the weed?" "dude we don't smoke or anything, what are you talking about, man? hey, hey leave the girl alone- leave the girl alone, man! what the fuck!..." - Up the Wolves, by The Mountain Goats: I don't need to translate this one. it resonates with a lot of the characters and feels very much like a "previously on"+"epilogue" montage of scenes in my head, which is why it's here despite not matching the theme (of songs in portuguese)
- 1965 (Duas Tribos), by Legião Urbana: this song starts much more energetic and hides its anger in plain sight - the verse "we have peace, we have time, the hour has come, and now it's here!" is immediately followed by "they cut off my arms, they cut off my hands, they cut off my legs, in a summer day, in a summer day...". The main part of the song goes
"When they want to turn dignity into disease..
When they want to turn intelligence into treason..
When they want to turn stupidity into reward..
When they want to turn hope into a curse!
It's good against evil, and you, on which side are you?
I'm on the side of good, and you, on which side are you?
I'm on the side of good, with the light, and with the angels...
They killed a boy
He had a real gun
He had no gun
He had a toy gun..
[...]