See Sérgio Mendes.

Sérgio Santos Mendes (born Niteroi, 11 February 1… Read Full Bio ↴See Sérgio Mendes.

Sérgio Santos Mendes (born Niteroi, 11 February 1941) is a Brazilian musician. Born the son of a physician in Niteroi, Brazil, Mendes attended the local conservatory with hopes of becoming a classical pianist. As his interest in jazz grew, he started playing in nightclubs in the late-1950s just as bossa nova, a jazz-inflected derivative of samba, was taking off. Mendes played with Antonio Carlos Jobim (regarded as a mentor), and many U.S. jazz musicians who toured Brazil.

Mendes formed the Sexteto Bossa Rio and recorded Dance Moderno in 1961. Touring Europe and the United States, Mendes recorded albums with Cannonball Adderly and Herbie Mann and played Carnegie Hall. Mendes moved to the U.S. in 1964 and cut two albums under the Brasil '65 group name with Capitol Records and Atlantic Records. When sales were tepid, he replaced his Brazilian born vocalist Wanda Sa with the distinctive voice of Chicago native Lani Hall (who learned Mendes' Portuguese material phonetically) and switched to Herb Alpert's A&M label and released Sergio Mendes and Brasil '66. (Hall would later marry Alpert). The album ultimately went platinum based largely upon the success of the single Mas Que Nada and the personal support of Alpert, with whom Mendes toured regularly. Though his early singles with Brasil '66 (most notably Mas Que Nada) met with some success, Mendes really burst into mainstream prominence when he performed the Oscar nominated Burt Bacharach/Hal David song "The Look of Love" on the Academy Awards telecast in March 1968. Brasil '66's version of the song quickly shot into the top 10, eclipsing Dusty Springfield's version from the soundtrack of the movie, and Mendes spent the rest of 1968 enjoying consecutive top 10 and top 20 hits with his follow-up singles, "The Fool on the Hill" and "Scarborough Fair." Though he continued to enjoy adult contemporary chart successes with Brasil '66 through 1971, he would not experience the mainstream chart hits he enjoyed in 1968 until his comeback album in 1983 generated the biggest single of his career, "Never Gonna Let You Go." However, from 1968 on, Mendes was arguably the biggest Brazilian star in the world, enjoying immense popularity worldwide and performing in venues as varied as stadium arenas and the White House, where he gave concerts for both President Johnson and President Nixon.

Mendes' career in the U.S. stalled in the mid-70s, but he remained very popular in South America and Japan. (This disparity became a Seinfeld in-joke.) His two albums with Bell Records in 1973 and 1974, followed by several for Elektra from 1975 on, found Mendes continuing to mine the best in American pop music and post-Bossa writers of his native Brazil, while forging new directions in soul with collaborators like Stevie Wonder, who wrote Mendes' R&B-inflected minor hit, "The Real Thing." In 1983, he rejoined Alpert's A&M records and enjoyed huge success with a self-titled album and several follow-up albums, all of which received considerable adult contemporary airplay with charting singles. By the time Mendes released his Grammy-winning Elektra album Brasileiro in 1992, he was the undisputed master of pop-inflected Brazilian jazz. The late-1990s lounge music revival brought retrospection and respect to Mendes' oeuvre, particularly the classic Brasil '66 albums. He has released over thirty-five albums, and still plays his bossa nova heavily crossed with jazz and funk. His newest album, Timeless released in 2006, featured Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas, Q-Tip, Justin Timberlake, and Pharoahe Monch.

(Text taken in whole from the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergio_Mendes on March 30, 2006)

Inútil Paisagem
Sergio Mendes Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Mas pra que
Pra que tanto céu
Pra que tanto mar
Pra que

De que serve esta onda que quebra
E o vento da tarde
De que serve a tarde

Inútil paisagem
Pode ser
Que não venhas mais
Que não venhas nunca mais

De que servem as flores que nascem
Pelo caminho
Se o meu caminho
Sozinho é nada

É nada
É nada

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Sérgio Mendes's song "Inútil Paisagem" depict his melancholic state of mind and how all the natural beauty around him seems meaningless without the presence of his loved one. The lyrics convey a sense of emptiness, loss, and heartbreak. The opening lines, "Mas pra que/Pra que tanto céu/Pra que tanto mar/Pra que," translate as "But, what's the use of so much sky? So much sea? Why?" This signifies that he is feeling hopeless, as his world seems incomplete without the one he loves.

The next lines talk about the waves breaking and the wind blowing during the evening. The singer is wondering what the use of it all is. The phrase "Inútil paisagem" translates to "useless landscape," which is a metaphor for the surroundings that had once seemed beautiful and awe-inspiring but have now become pointless in his eyes. The lyrics become more despairing as he thinks about the possibility of his loved one never returning, "Pode ser/Que não venhas mais/Que não venhas nunca mais." It's evident that he feels like a part of him is missing and perhaps can never be recovered.

As the song progresses, the lyrics touch upon the fragility of existence and how fleeting it all is. The line "De que servem as flores que nascem/Pelo caminho/Se o meu caminho/Sozinho é nada" translates to "What is the use of the flowers that bloom along the way/If my way Alone means nothing?" This line conveys how the mundane things of life also appear unbearable when one goes through a painful experience.

Overall, the lyrics of "Inútil Paisagem" are poetic and focus on themes such as loss, desolation, solitude and the impermanence of life.

Line by Line Meaning

Mas pra que
What's the point?

Pra que tanto céu
What's the use of so much sky?

Pra que tanto mar
What's the purpose of so much sea?

Pra que
What's the point?

De que serve esta onda que quebra
What's the point of this breaking wave?

E o vento da tarde
And the afternoon breeze?

De que serve a tarde
What's the use of the afternoon?

Inútil paisagem
A useless landscape

Pode ser
It could be

Que não venhas mais
That you won't come back anymore