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)
What Is This?
Sergio Mendes Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
And everything looks so sad
When you get up from your bed
It's in your left foot not knowing
What to do with your life
So you turn on the radio looking for music
But you can only hear waste, waste
Only waste
Then you return to bed
And decide to pay a visit
For the places you've never seen before
And so you walk, you walk
So you walk and walk and walk and walk
When you look around you in the place
You've never seen before before before before
Hearing the sound sound sound
Who makes you think you are in heaven
And so you ask ask ask
I answer, brothers
And so you ask, ask me
What does it mean
Don't you know this is like a flame my brother
Don't you know this is the music of the hour
Don't you know this is like a flame my brother
Don't you know this is the music of the hour
You know those days when you don't feel good
And everything looks so sad
When you get up from your bed
It's in your left foot not knowing
What to do with your life
So you turn on the radio looking for music
But you can only hear waste, waste
Only waste
Then you return to bed
And decide to pay a visit
For the places you've never seen before
And so you walk, you walk
So you walk and walk and walk and walk
When you look around you in the place
You've never seen before before before before
Hearing the sound sound sound
Who makes you think you are in heaven
And so you ask ask ask
I answer, brothers
And so you ask ask ask
I answer, brothers
And so you ask, ask me
What is this?
Don't you know this is like a flame my brother
Don't you know this is the music of the hour
Don't you know this is like a flame my brother
Don't you know this is the music of the hour
Don't you know this is like a flame my brother
Don't you know this is the music of the hour
Don't you know this is like a flame my brother
Don't you know this is the music of the hour
What is this?
We are in heaven
The lyrics of Sergio Mendes's song "What Is This?" describe those days when we feel lost, confused, or unhappy. The opening lines of the song set the mood, describing gloomy days when nothing seems to go right. The singer then tries to seek solace in music but only finds despair, making them retreat back to their bed in hopelessness. They then discover that there are places they haven't been that might lift their mood, so they start walking, eventually finding themselves in a beautiful place that makes them feel like they are in heaven. They ask, "What is this?" and the answer is that it's like a flame, the music of the hour.
The lyrics convey a sense of despair, hopelessness, and escapism, but eventually, the singer finds a way out by discovering new places and surrendering to the beauty of the music. The song seems to suggest that there's always hope, even in the darkest moments, and that looking around for beauty and inspiration might lead to unexpected places.
Line by Line Meaning
You know those days when you don't feel good
Sometimes we all have days when we feel down and low.
And everything looks so sad
On those days, even the little things around us look gloomy and upsetting.
When you get up from your bed
When we wake up from such days, we feel lost and unsure about what to do with our lives.
It's in your left foot not knowing
We feel lost and unsure about what to do next and where to go.
What to do with your life
We are confused about the path we want to take in our lives.
So you turn on the radio looking for music
We try to distract ourselves by listening to music.
But you can only hear waste, waste
However, the music we hear feels meaningless and unsatisfying.
Then you return to bed
Unable to find solace in music, we go back to bed.
And decide to pay a visit
We suddenly feel the need to explore new places and try new things.
For the places you've never seen before
We want to go places we've never visited before.
And so you walk, you walk
We start walking aimlessly, hoping to find something new.
So you walk and walk and walk and walk
We keep walking, hoping to find something that gives us purpose.
When you look around you in the place
As we keep walking, we start appreciating the beauty around us.
You've never seen before before before before
The new places we explore awe us, and we want to see more.
Hearing the sound sound sound
The beauty of the place we explore is enhanced by the sounds surrounding it.
Who makes you think you are in heaven
The sounds and the beauty of the place make us feel like we are in a heavenly paradise.
And so you ask ask ask
We start to wonder about the beauty and its purpose.
I answer, brothers
I reassure you that there is a meaning and purpose behind everything.
And so you ask, ask me
We still have questions and want to get answers.
What does it mean
We need an explanation to the beauty around us.
Don't you know this is like a flame my brother
I tell you that the beauty around us is like a flame, giving us warmth and light in our lives.
Don't you know this is the music of the hour
I tell you that the beauty around us is the defining aspect of our current times, just like music is.
What is this?
We come to the realization that the beauty we found is something special and unique.
We are in heaven
We finally understand that the beauty we found and appreciate is a form of heaven on earth.
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Jay Graydon, Mira Waters
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@Del-Lebo
Such a brilliant story and jam
@JOVO1971
What a groove, master!
@MrTavis-vg8uu
Timeless 🍀✨✨
@_ENDURE_
Instant playlist
@juniordamatah
Samba reggae da Bahia.
@ismaelmartinezbernal9613
Este álbum esta super genial 🖒🖒🖒👏👏👏🇲🇽
@wajobu
Such a great album!
@kerwinjohnson1349
Me encanta!
@isarodriguez8290
Que ritmo! tan misterioso ♥
@vilmacalderon8359
Que preciosidad