Caetano Emanoel Viana Teles Veloso (born August 7, 1942 in Santo Amaro, Bah… Read Full Bio ↴Caetano Emanoel Viana Teles Veloso (born August 7, 1942 in Santo Amaro, Bahia, Brazil), professionally known as Caetano Veloso, is a singer, composer, musician, producer, arranger, writer and political activist, being one of the most popular and influential Brazilian MPB artists of all time. With a career that exceeds five decades, Caetano has built a musical work marked by renewal and widely considered to possess great intellectual and poetic value.

Veloso is the fifth of the seven children born to José Telles Veloso ("Seu Zezinho") and Claudionor Vianna Telles Veloso ("Dona Canô"). His younger sister Maria Bethânia, another popular and renowned artist in Brazil, preceded him to fame as a singer in the mid-1960s. He began his career around 1965 singing bossa nova and he has cited his greatest musical influences from his early period as João Gilberto and Dorival Caymmi. (João Gilberto would say later about Caetano's contribution that it added an intellectual dimension to brazilian popular music.) But with such musical collaborators Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Tom Zé, Chico Buarque, and Os Mutantes, and greatly influenced by the later work of The Beatles, developed tropicalismo, which fused Brazilian pop with rock and roll and avant garde art music resulting in a more international, psychedelic, and socially aware sound. Veloso's politically active stance, unapologetically leftist, earned him the enmity of Brazil's military dictatorship which ruled until 1985; his songs were frequently censored, and some were banned. Veloso was also alienated from the socialist left in Brazil becasue of his acceptance and integration of non-nationalist influences (like rock and roll) in his music. Veloso and Gilberto Gil spent several months in jail for "anti-government activity" in 1968 and eventually exiled themselves to London. Caetano Veloso's work upon his return in 1972 was often characterized by frequent appropriations not only of international styles, but of half-forgotten Brazilian folkloric styles and rhythms as well. In particular, his celebration of the Afro-Brazilian culture of Bahia can be seen as the precursor of such Afro-centric groups as Timbalada.

In the 1980s, Veloso's popularity outside Brazil grew, especially in Israel, Portugal, France and Africa. By 2004, he was one of the most respected and prolific international pop stars, with more than fifty recordings available, including songs in soundtracks of movies such as Pedro Almodovar's Hable con Ella (Talk to Her), and Frida. In 2002 Veloso published an account of his early years and the Tropicalia movement, Tropical Truth: A Story of Music and Revolution in Brazil.

His first all-English CD was A Foreign Sound (2004), which covers Nirvana's "Come as You Are" and compositions from the Great American Songbook. Five of the six songs on his third eponymous album, released in 1971, were also in English.

A Outra Banda Da Terra
Caetano Veloso Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Amar
Dar tudo
Não ter medo
Tocar
Cantar
No mundo
Pôr o dedo
No lá

Lugar
Ligar gente
Lançar sentido
Onda branda da guerra
Beira do ar
Serra, vale, mar
Nossa banda da terra é outra
E não erra quem anda
Nessa terra da banda
Face oculta, azul do araçá
Falar verdade
Ter vontade
Topar
Entrar
Na vida
Com a música
Obá
Olá
Brasil
Mas quem pariu
Tal gente!
Cantuária e Holanda
Maputo, Rio
Luanda, lua
Nossa banda da terra é outra
Canadá, Jamaicuba
Muitas gatas na tuba
Dos rapazes da banda cá
Gozar
A lida

Indefinidamente
Amar

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of "A Outra Banda Da Terra" by Caetano Veloso encapsulate the essence of what it means to love and live fully in the world through music. The song is an ode to the power of music to connect people from diverse backgrounds and to transcend barriers of language and culture. The lyrics urge the listener to love deeply without fear, to immerse oneself in music and to let it guide you to the place where you truly belong. This is reflected in the line "Nossa banda da terra é outra/ E não erra quem anda/ Nessa terra da banda," which translates to "Our band from the earth is another/ And those who walk in this earth of the band do not err."

The lyrics also evoke a sense of wanderlust and adventure, as the singer references various places around the world, including Brazil, Canada, Jamaica, and Mozambique. This reflects the idea that music has the power to transport us to different places and to bring people from across the world together. The song encourages us to embrace life with open arms, to speak our truths, and to pursue our passions, no matter where they may take us.

Line by Line Meaning

Amar
To love

Dar tudo
To give everything

Não ter medo
To have no fear

Tocar
To play music

Cantar
To sing

No mundo
In the world

Pôr o dedo
To put a finger

No lá
On the there

Lugar
Place

Ligar gente
To connect people

Lançar sentido
To launch meaning