An uncommon artist with an uncommon sopranino voice, Ney Matogrosso fell in the Brazilian popular music scene like a bomb in the '70s aboard the Secos & Molhados. The end of the group marked the beginning of a fertile and successful solo career in which he began exploring his sensuous and charismatic persona through satiric and ironic repertories. As time passed, he substituted self-contained and deeply sensitive interpretations of classics for the popular and classical Brazilian music. Along with his representative and prolific solo discography, for which he received three platinum and three gold records, Matogrosso recorded in Itália with Astor Piazzola, performed in Argentina, Uruguay, participated in two Montreux Jazz Festivals (Switzerland), and toured Portugal several times. He also performed in Israel and the U.S., but always refused invitations to develop an international career. Matogrosso also worked as an actor in Sonho de Valsa (by Ana Carolina, the director, not the singer/composer) and Caramujo Flor (short subject by Joel Pizzini), and directed shows by RPM, Cazuza, and Simone.
Arriving in Rio de Janeiro in 1966, Matogrosso became a hippie leather artisan and divided his time between Rio, São Paulo, and Brasília, where he was a close friend of singer/composer Luli. Through her he met João Ricardo, who had a vision for a groundbreaking group and was searching for a high-pitched male voice. Invited by Ricardo, Matogrosso moved to São Paulo where he spent one year dedicating himself to exhaustive rehearsals, artisanship, and theater plays. With the explosive success of Secos e Molhados and the group's final dissolution, Matogrosso started his solo career exploring his unusual voice timbre, his mesmerizing scenic persona, and his androgynous visuals, enhanced by innovative and exotic costumes. A second solo album, Água do Céu - Pássaro, was supported by the show Homem de Neanderthal, in 1975, with which Matogrosso opened in Rio de Janeiro, drawing both raves and packed houses. "Barco Negro" and "Homem com H" appeared amongst considerable polemics aroused by the usual conservatives on duty. In that period, he worked with Astor Piazzola in Milan, Italy, where he recorded a double single with the Argentinean composer. A cleaner Matogrosso recorded Bandido in 1976, having his first national hit as a solo artist with "Bandido Corazón," written especially for him by Rita Lee.
Dos Cruces
Ney Matogrosso Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Con su lunita plateada
Testigo de nuestro amor
Bajo la noche callalda
Y nos quisimos tu y yo
Con un amor sin pecado
Pero el destino ha querido
Que vivamos separados
Estan clavadas dos cruces
En el monte del olvido
Por dos amores que han muerto
Sin haberse comprendido
Estan clavadas dos cruces
En el monte del olvido
Por dos amores que han muerto
Que son el tuyo y el mio
Ay, barrio de Santa Cruz
Ay, plaza de Doña Elvira
Os vuelvo yo a recordar
Y me parece mentira
Ya todo aquello pasó
Todo quedó en el olvido
Nuestra promesas de amores
En el aire se han perdido
Estan clavadas dos cruces
En el monte del olvido
Por dos amores que han muerto
Sin haberse comprendido
Estan clavadas dos cruces
En el monte del olvido
Por dos amores que han muerto
Que son el tuyo y el mio
Que son el tuyo y el mio
In Ney Matogrosso's song "Dos Cruces", the singer reflects on a past love that he shared with someone in Sevilla. He describes their love as pure and without sin, but unfortunately, destiny had other plans for them, and they were forced to live their lives separately. The singer reminisces about the memories they shared in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz and Elvira plaza, and how everything seems to have faded away into oblivion. The song's title "Dos Cruces" translates to "Two Crosses" and refers to two crosses that are nailed onto the hills of oblivion, symbolizing their shared love that died without understanding.
Throughout the song, the singer is expressing his sorrow about the love he once shared, and how it died without any explanation. The two crosses that he refers to symbolize the graves of the two lovers and how their shared love was never fully understood. The neighborhood and plaza that he mentions are both located in Sevilla, Spain, and evoke feelings of nostalgia and longing for a time that has passed.
Line by Line Meaning
Sevilla tuvo que ser
Sevilla was the place where it all began
Con su lunita plateada
Under the silver little moonlight of Sevilla
Testigo de nuestro amor
Witnessed the love between us
Bajo la noche callada
In the still of the night
Y nos quisimos tú y yo
We loved each other
Con un amor sin pecado
With an innocent love
Pero el destino ha querido
But fate had other plans
Que vivamos separados
For us to live apart
Están clavadas dos cruces
Two crosses are nailed
En el monte del olvido
On the hill of oblivion
Por dos amores que han muerto
For two loves that have died
Sin haberse comprendido
Without ever truly understanding each other
Ay, barrio de Santa Cruz
Oh, Santa Cruz neighborhood
Ay, plaza de Doña Elvira
Oh, Doña Elvira square
Os vuelvo yo a recordar
I remember you again
Y me parece mentira
And it seems unbelievable
Ya todo aquello pasó
All of that is in the past
Todo quedó en el olvido
All is forgotten
Nuestras promesas de amores
Our promises of love
En el aire se han perdido
Have been lost in the wind
Que son el tuyo y el mío
That belong to you and me
Contributed by Lily R. Suggest a correction in the comments below.