This song was yet another set of lyrics written by Chico Buarque as a protest against the Brazilian military regime. It was a thinly veiled protest against the government led by the authoritarian President Médici, who ruled in 1970 when this song was released. However, the song was quickly banned by the government when Buarque was unable to convince the censors that it was not critical of the government. It was eventually re-released in 1978, when the government was beginning to re-democratize. This meant the gradual dismantling of the authoritarian aspects of the government, including the ability to censor. It was from the album it was released on that it gained notoriety.
This song, like so many others, is a great example of how Brazilian musicians attempted to trick censors into releasing songs with anti-authoritarian lyrics. Buarque is famous for releasing many songs that managed to avoid banning or censorship despite containing veiled critiques of the regime. This song is an example of a song that was not subtle enough and was banned. The lyrics did not have enough plausible deniability in the eyes of the censors, leading to its banning. The song is both an example of how a musician could accidentally cross a line with coded lyrics and and what the government was able to permit once it began to loosen its grip. However, it does not show how subtle a musician could go without being censored. This can be seen in Buarque’s other songs.
Lyrics (English Translation):
Today you are in charge
If you said, we agree
There’s no discussion
My people today
Talk about you behind your back
And looking to the floor, you see?
You invented this state
And tried to invent
All our darkness
You invented a sin
But forgot to invent
To forgive
In spite of you
Tomorrow will be
Another day
I ask you
Where you will hide
From our happiness
How will you ban
When a cock insists
To sing
New water will be sprouting
And people loving each other
All the time
When the time comes
My suffering
I’ll ask you to pay with interest
All this love repressed
This shout contained
This samba in the dark
You invented sadness
So please just
Disinvent it
You will pay doubled
Every tear that fell
On my face
In spite of you
Tomorrow will be
Another day
You’ll have to endure
When the morning is born
With its poems
How will you explain yourself
When the sky get clear
Out of the blue, with impunity
My people are gonna sing
Next to you
In spite of you
Tomorrow will be
Another day
You’re actually going down
And stuff
Make sure to include the full, Chicago-style citation for each primary source.