The Band

I was thinking about what to say here, and I think it's important to say some words about the band members...
I'll write here what I think is important about them, some things I read and some things are my way to see them:

Herbert Vianna
Herbert Lemos de Souza Vianna is the guitar player, singer and the composer of most of the songs. heá born in 4/5/1961 in João Pessoa/PB and lived in Brasília, where he met Bi. His Father was a plane pilot of Brasilian Air force. Herbert wanted to be a pilot like his father, but his sight problems got in his way. He played and love guitars since he was a kid, and leaned to play it really fast. He's 2 brothers, Hermano(older) e Helder(younger).

He moved to Rio in 1978 and was really lonelly there, then Bi moved there either and they started to play together. the've met Vital, the band's former drummer, in school (preparatory to the brazilian college tests). He went to architecture college in Rio (UFRJ) but stopped it when the band started to make some money.

he has 3 kids, Luca Benedict, Hope Isabel and Phoebe Rita, and he is a widower, he lost his british wife, Lucy, in 2001, in the same plane crash that almost killed him. He slowly got back to the stages and nowadays he makes concerts as always using his weelchair.

He's a devoted father and very kind man, he likes to make jokes and songs making fun of all his friends and some situations they've been thru.

In 2009 was released a movie about Herbert's life, "Herbert de perto", it shows his history since he's a kid, and also shows some of the band's history. You can find it in DVD.

Bi Ribeiro
Felipe de Nóbrega Ribeiro is the band's bass player. He's brought some of the jamaican sounds to the band, he's his unmistakable sound that makes it impossible for those who like PdS to thik that basists are just basists... he's one of the souls of this band...

Bi have 4 siblings, Andréa, Pedro, Fernando e Rafael. He's born in 30/03/1961, in Rio, have lived in Brasilia and moved to Rio in 1979 to study to go to college. He went to Zootechnique college in Seropédica (UFRRJ) and, because of the constant strikes of the teachers, he travelled a lot to Brasilia that time, getting to know all the Capital Bands that were emerging that time, some of then become the greatests bands of the contry, along with PdS. When the band launched he left the college.

He's two Kids, Teresa and Tito, he's the last one to have kids, had his first in 2001. He is know for his warm way to treat everyone and his great hugs. He's a really easy to handle guy and in some interviews they say that he mediate any fight in the band.

In 2001 he founded "Reggae B", a reggae band with some musicians of PdS and some friends from other bands (Negril, Affroreggae, Black Alien, Nando Reis etc.)... the band formation varies sometimes 'cause its the "b" band of all members and all of them have their other stuffs.

He's a simple kind of guy, likes to wear the same stile of clothes, have a ranch in Rio de Janeiros contryside, a Land Rover and a pub in Brasília with some friends. He doesn't really like tecnology, like internet and computers.

João Barone
João Alberto Barone Reis e Silva is the band's drummer. He was the last one to join the group, in seropédica, he had always lived there and studied Biology in UFRRJ by the time. he also left college when the band launched. When he joined the band everything changed, the sound and the possibilities of the group. He was a good player already in that time, had studied music and used to play in a Beatles' cover band.

He's born in 05/08/1962 in Rio. João have 3 siblings: João Henrique, João Guilherme e Maria Elisa all of them older than him, and 3 kids and one stepkid: Clara and Laura from his first marriage, Vicente from his second Marriage and Branca, the daughter of his second wife.

Barone is a Beattles and Police fan(all of them are Police fan) and is an enthusiast of Second World War, specially the vehicles used in that war. He had a lot of them and now have a restaured jeep calleg Gisella (the war cars were named after girls in that time). He made and video documentary and a book about the Second World War and the celebration of the 60 years of D day, that he went with his Jeep. he's also the one who likes new technologies, uses internet and portable pcs.

Foi o Mordomo

Song and Lyrics By: Herbert Vianna

Estou trancado no meu quarto
Esperando que algum fato
Emocionante venha a ocorrer
Assisto muito sério um destes filmes
De mistério que não fazem mal
Em qualquer canal que eu
Ligue o mordomo é o culpado

E a tarde cinza vai passando e eu
Espero o tempo pela hora
De estar com você
Eu digo o seu nome
E olho para o telefone
Que não dá sinal
Mudez total
Você não liga
E o mordomo é o culpado

Eu tenho andado sério, preocupado
Você não liga e o mordomo
É o culpado


It was the Butler

I'm locked up in my room
Waiting that some exciting fact happens
I Watch deeply serious one of these mistery movies that aren't any harm
in any channel that I turn on the butler is the culprit

And the gray evening is going on and I wait all the time for the time to be with you
I say your name
And look to the fone
That gives no sign
total silence
you don't call
And the butler is the culprit

I've been serius, worried
you don't call
And the butler is the culprit

Vital e sua Moto

Song and Lyrics By: Herbert Vianna

Vital andava a pé e achava que assim estava mal
De um ônibus pro outro aquilo para ele era o fim
Conselho de seu pai "motocicleta é perigoso Vital
É duro de negar filho, mas isto dói bem mais em mim"

Mas Vital comprou a moto e passou a se sentir total
(sentir total)
Vital e sua moto mas que união feliz
Corria e viajava era sensacional
A vida em duas rodas era tudo que ele sempre quis

Vital Passou a se sentir total
Com seu sonho de metal
Vital passou a se sentir total
Com seu sonho de metal

Os Paralamas do Sucesso iam tentar tocar na capital
(na capital)
E a caravana do amor então prá lá também se encaminhou
Ele foi com sua moto ir de carro era baixo astral
Minha prima já está lá e é por isso então que eu também vou

Os Paralamas do Sucesso vão tocar na capital
Vital e sua moto mas que união feliz


Vital and his Motorcicle

Vital went by foot and thoght that this was bad
From a bus to another, that was the end to him
His father advised "mototcicle is dangerous Vital
It's hard to deny son, but it hurts me more"

But Vital bought the motorcicle and begin to feel utter
(feel utter)
Vital and his motorcicle, what a happy matchup
Runed and traveled it was sensational
The life on two wheels was everithing he ever wanted

Vital begin to feel utter
with his metal dream
Vital begin to feel utter
with his metal dream

Os Paralamas do Sucesso was going to try to play in the Capital
(in the capital)
and then the love caravan went there too
he went by his bike 'cause going by car was gloom
My cousin is already there and there's why I'm going too

Os Paralamas do Sucesso will play in the capital
Vital and his motorcicle, what a happy matchup

Cinema Mudo

This is the bands first album, it was released in 1983. Some songs were hits by that time, the most sucessfull song of the album is: "Vital e sua moto", about the band's ex drummer Vital Dias and the motorcicle he bought.

List of songs:
Vital e sua Moto
Foi o Mordomo
Cinema Mudo
Patrulha Noturna
Shopstake (instrumental - no lirics)
Vovó Ondina é Gente Fina
O que eu não disse
Química
Encruzilhada
Volúpia

Albuns

in this post you can reach the post of every album of the band and then every music.... but, I'm still translating and postings the songs, so, the links will be avaliable as soon as I post it....

if you don't know wich album holds the song you're looking for, use the search engine above the posts

Os Paralamas do Sucesso's albuns:
Cinema Mudo (1983)
O passo do Lui (1984)
Selvagem? (1986)
D (1987)
Bora Bora (1988)
Big Bang (1989)
Arquivo (1990)
Os Grãos (1991)
Severino (1994)
Vamo Batê Lata (1995)
9 Luas (1996)
Hey Na Na (1998)
Acústico MTV (1999)
Arquivo II (2000)
Longo Caminho (2002)
Uns dias Ao Vivo (2004)
Hoje (2005)
Brasil Afora (2009)

Herbert Vianna's Solos
Ê Batumaré (1993)
Santorini Blues (1997)
O som do Sim (2000)

Some infos before we start

Hi, I'm Ceres.
I'm the writer of this blog and a fan of the band since I was 13, it's been more than 13 years from their first concert i've seen.
I'm a journalist major, but I've never worked as a journalist, now I'm studing to be an physical education teacher. but I do love to write (specialy about music) and take pictures...

I habe a blog about the band in portuguese, where I tell people about the concerts and news about them... I also have a blog about music in general, but this one is really out of date, you can find the two of them in the links. You can also find the link to the oficial Os Paralamas do Sucesso website and the blog of a friend of mine, o Lua (it's his nickname, lua=moon)... All of them ar in portuguese, sorry...

oh, yeah, to beggin with, the band is brazilian, so, the speak portuguese, no spanish.... but, they are quite famous in the whole latin america, so, they've taped some of their songs in spanish also....

the name of the band: the name is "Os Paralamas do Sucesso", yes, the "os" is part of the name... is hard to translate the name, but, only for you to have an idea of how nonsense it is, it's something like "The splashboards (or mudguards) of success"... it's a really weird name, but once you get used to it you almost forget what it means.. I usually call them only (Os)Paralamas (mudguards) or "Os PdS"... this second way is really easier, so get used to it....

The band was formed in Rio de Janeiro, to be more precise, in a little city near Rio (about an hour by car) called Seropédica, that holds the Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), College that two of the members studied. The three members of the band are:
- Herbert Vianna (Guitar and Vocal)
- Bi Ribeiro (Bass)
- João Barone (Drums)
The first two have met in Brasília, that's why some people think the band is from Brasil's capital, but they started to play together in Rio, when they've met their first drummer, Vital Dias. But in a concert, in UFRRJ they've met Barone when Vital didn't show p to the concert, and that's how they started.
In that time, Bi was studing zootechnie in UFRRJ, Barone was studing Biology in the same place. Herbert was studing in Rio, architecture in the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro.
The concert that get them together was in 1981, but the band only assumed the new drummer in 1982. They've taped a demo to the famous radio program "ronca ronca", this was the beggining of their way to success.

In 1983 they taped their first album, Cinema Mudo (silent film)... they got a contract with the Music company EMI, the same that released all their albuns until now...
teh songs I'll translate in the next posts are from this album. if you get the taped song you have to have in your mind that they were in their twenties and they knew nothing about that world, so, there's some stuff that they were induced to change in the songs... it's really nice to hear them playing the same songs today, so, if you happen to find some bootlegs of this songs, try it and see how it changed....

I was thinking about what sequence to use to translate the songs, my favorite, easiests?? I've decided to take a hard choice, I'll try to translate the in order, so, the songs of the first albun, from take one to the last.... then I'll start the Herbert's solos and then the songs they never taped (rare songs, songs other people taped etc.) I hope it works, if you wanna help sending your translation, be my guest, I'll see if it's ok and post it with credits, but if I'm in the first album and you send me the latest song they've taped i'll only post it when I get there....
I think this way you'll all understand the history and the phases the band've been through...
if you wanna correct some of my mistakes, please, do it... I don't write in english that well and I'll love to improve this skill...

All the songs will have the original and translated version, so you can try to figure out portuguese stuff and it may help you to understand better the songs.

that's it.... it's late, so, the first song will be posted tomorrow.

good night sleep Tight
Ceres

Why Os Paralamas do Sucesso In english?

Os Paralamas do Sucesso are one of the most important brazilian bands. In the recent past i've found some articles about them in english in the internet, they are not very common and some of them are not really good, there're many common mistakes.... I also realized that there's no lyrics traductions.

Os Paralamas recorded some songs in english and I think they'd be a huge hit if they reach the whole world... so I decided to make this blog to try to translate all the songs and write some articles about the band, it'll be more an information blog than a news blog, cause most of the news are important to those who are in Brasil and can go to the concerts... but the general information about the band, and some concerts articles would help those who don't live here to understand who are they and hopefully will make some new fans of the band...

I realize that my english skills are not that great and that thraslating lyrics are a risky job, but I'll try my best to make it usefull to those who doesn't speak my mother leanguage....

Why english, you would ask, I have some answeres
- I speak english, and no other leanguage besides, obviously portuguese
- Os paralamas recorded some songs in english, and Herbert did it also in his solos.
- with the internet, many people in the world at least understand something in english, not everything, but a good picture.. that's why I won't use those short forms of words (like smth meaning something and this kind of stuff) I'm not familiarized with this kind of stuff and many non english native speakers don't either.

and let this thing begin
farewell
Ceres