This track of the day is very evocative for me. It reminds me a lot of my dad. He is the most interesting man I know and always has great stories to tell. A story I never forget is how he, as a rambling young man, for a time, would work all day selling donuts on a break-less bicycle in the hilly slums on the outskirts of Mexico City. Having no breaks meant that he had to work his way up the hills until he reached some kind of profit to finally coast down. Coasting down meant he had to journey into downtown Mexico City proper. Here lay for him personal anchors of everything that he dreamed about experiencing: el Bosque de Chapultepec, el Museo de Antropologia, el Museo Nacional de Arte…all exalted cultural monuments for a small town kid like him.
For him, the dream of a true cosmopolitan Mexico existed there in the city. Time transpires, and reality sets in unfortunately. Mexico is a ways away from that dream becoming reality for itself or him, but with this song I can imagine a memory my dad lived through and a dream that he once had. This song is from Pierre Barouh, himself, a very interesting character who came from cosmopolitan Paris and traveled throughout Brazil’s slums to better understand Brazilian music only to come back and fuse it beautifully with the chanson style of France. I guess, after whatever peak you reach, its always nice to coast back down…this track perfectly captures that essence.