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.
Ingenuidade
Caetano Veloso Lyrics
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Eu não podia me enganar assim
Com uma criança qualquer
Que veio ao mundo bem depois de mim
Eu não reclamo o que ela fez
Só condeno a mim mesmo
Por ter me enganado outra vez
Quando arranja a primeira namorada
A ingenuidade acredita em tudo
Porque do amor não entende nada
Eu que tantas vezes machuquei meu coração
E levei tantos anos pra curar
Fui tornar a molhar meus olhos
Coisa que eu luto a tanto tempo pra enxugar
The lyrics to Caetano Veloso's song Ingenuidade, which translates to "Naivety" in English, describe the singer's experience with falling for someone who is much younger than him. He admits that he could not deceive himself with a child who came into the world well after he did, and that he is not upset with her for what she did - rather, he condemns himself for falling for it once again. The singer then compares himself to a young boy who has just found his first girlfriend, stating that naivety believes everything because it does not understand love. He reflects on how many times he has hurt his own heart in the past and how long it took him to heal, only to go and cry over this girl who he knows he should not have gotten involved with.
Overall, the song speaks to the idea of naivety and how it can lead to making mistakes in love. The singer acknowledges his own faults in falling for someone who is not right for him, and uses the metaphor of a young boy's first love to illustrate how even the most experienced of hearts can fall prey to naivety.
Line by Line Meaning
Não
No
Eu não podia me enganar assim
I couldn't deceive myself like that
Com uma criança qualquer
With any child
Que veio ao mundo bem depois de mim
That came into the world long after me
Eu não reclamo o que ela fez
I don't complain about what she did
Só condeno a mim mesmo
I only blame myself
Por ter me enganado outra vez
For deceiving myself again
Eu fiz o papel de um garotinho
I played the role of a little boy
Quando arranja a primeira namorada
When he gets his first girlfriend
A ingenuidade acredita em tudo
Naivete believes in everything
Porque do amor não entende nada
Because it understands nothing about love
Eu que tantas vezes machuquei meu coração
I, who so many times hurt my own heart
E levei tantos anos pra curar
And took so many years to heal
Fui tornar a molhar meus olhos
I went and made my eyes wet again
Coisa que eu luto a tanto tempo pra enxugar
Something that I've been struggling for so long to dry
Contributed by Austin A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.