More than “the friend of the king”, in addition to “Tremendão”, one of the greatest Erasmos, according to him, who lived in the 70s
It would be a reduction of the species, e Erasmus Charles he knew well what he was, starting any text about his existence by considering “Roberto’s friend”, “the tremendous”, one of the fathers of Brazilian rock, brilliant author of Sitting on the Paththe conqueror of the shots of the 60s (he himself claimed to have more than a thousand), one of the creators of the Brazilian soul in the early 70s with three flawless albums or the definitive designer of an era with break-in party🇧🇷 Perhaps the time has come to tell, before the phonographic realizations that illustrated his room in the form of gold and platinum records, the man. And Erasmo Carlos, in small things, was immense.
Erasmus’s outbursts, even if they had some reason to exist, were rare, and his subsequent reaction was all that remained. When he heard that the photographer was destroyed by his scolding him, passed out and head down, he began to act as if he was willing to do anything to repair the damage. He offered coffee, juice, biscuits, told a joke and showed them around the house. Forgetting the reporter and the report, he offered his little finger like a boy wanting to make amends. He no longer counted the story, the space in the newspaper, the show, the career, nothing. Erasmus didn’t want that boy to leave the house sad. And he did. “He’s a good boy, isn’t he?” commented the photographer. Yes, and even a little more.
Erasmus had a lot of resilience, to use a word his generation didn’t use, since his friend Roberto became the perched giant of Urca. Especially for a generation of journalists who arrived on the scene after the 1990s, he became a sort of spokesperson. A cruelty. “Did Roberto really mistreat Tim Maia early in his career?” “What do you think of Roberto having his bio taken down from the shops?” “Why doesn’t Roberto compose anymore?” “How is Roberto in privacy?”. To these and other questions that the archives will preserve as proof of how much we wasted Erasmus, his answers were cordial, with a “you should ask him” between the lines. Erasmus had much more to say, just ask.
The 70s were, for Erasmus, the place where he found the best of himself. This, according to himself, in an interview with Stagebreaking with the idea that the Young Guard he would have been unbeatable in his trajectory. In projection and money, he undoubtedly gave JG, but in reality maybe not. Because? “I really enjoyed doing those stories with suburban characters that I started writing in the ’70s. Mané João🇧🇷 Mechanical cachaça🇧🇷 It had more to do with my origins”. Which of the origins? The first, pre-Jovem Guarda, everyone knows. Almost. Tião Marmiteiro, Tim Maia, The Sputniks band. He was an Elvis Presley fan and read nothing but the sports news. They called them insane, and they really were.
When things started working out almost a decade later and TV Record needed a couple to have a youth program in the free slot on Sunday afternoons, following the couple format that Elis and Jair Rodrigues had consecrated with Or Fino da Bossa – called Erasmo and Wanderlea (after trying other singers). Erasmus accepted, but made a counteroffer, according to the memoirs of Manoel Carlos, known as Maneco, then director of the Young Guards programme🇧🇷 “I’m going, but if you need I’ll give you a part of my salary so you can bring someone else too, a friend of mine from Rio”. The friend was Roberto Carlos.
About the second origin, few people know. After all, it was necessary to be reborn when Roberto went to Italy, to the San Remo Festival, already with one foot off Jovem Guarda, to return transformed into a romantic singer, in 1968. Without the euphoria of rock, with the program extinct, Erasmo listened to the his 70s Elvis, Otis Redding, and decided to change everything too. “The one who brought me soul music (so that I could mix it with samba, calypso and gafieira) was Otis Redding. He and Carla Thomas recorded one of the ten most important LPs of my life, King Queen1967. Then came James Brown and Ray Charles, the greatest singer in the world,” he said in an interview in 2015, before the plane passed.
Mané Joãofrom the album Dreams and memories, became one of his suburban tragic epics of these years. The story takes place in a gafieira, with Mané João dying after being shot, causing “a lot of blood to flow down a small slope”. More than two years earlier, when he made his pass saying he was “sitting by the side of the road that has no end,” or in full Jovem Guarda, singing letters and love notes, his villainous fame would be even better placed in Let’s leave Roberto Carlos saying: “Roberto didn’t like it when I killed the characters in the songs”, recalled Erasmo, in 2015. “He said ‘hey, poor thing’. die”. Roberto insisted: “But get rid of that guy, Erasmo”. And he: “You can’t save the boy’s face.”
In the 1970s Erasmus’ question, unlike in the 1960s, was to equal someone willing to touch him. His work most respected by DJs and researchers is concentrated in this period, but his projection suffers a decline. Up until that show in 2015, he’d never performed live like that Maria Giovanna, for example, a tribute to marijuana made with Roberto Carlos, see, in 1971. “Of course censorship came into play with us,” he said. And it has only recently been reactivated Two animals in the dirty jungle on the roadwhich Taiguara had created for him and his wife, Narinha, also in 1971.
Sensitivity in front of the wounded photographer is a sign of a delicacy that not even fame has won. When they started saying their song Mechanical cachaça it looked like plagiarism Construction, by Chico Buarque, because of the meter and the theme, Erasmo started not sleeping well. “I was afraid I’d done something unintentionally and someone would think I’d acted in bad faith.” His discomfort lasted until the day Chico himself spoke on the matter. “He said he had nothing to do with the plagiarism, and that took a huge weight off my shoulders.”
Elis Regina also had her heart abused when she started shooting “electric guitar fanatics.” Erasmo and Roberto, two who “only did disposable nonsense”, according to the singer, have become the number one public enemies of artists of enormous prestige in the country, praised by critics, intellectuals and university students. In addition to Elis, Geraldo Vandré, MPB-4, Edu Lobo, Jair Rodrigues and even a little Gilberto Gil marched against the electric guitar of the two friends. This without them saying an “a” against anyone. Erasmus’ anguish lasted until 1970, when he was invited to attend a concert by Elis. Sitting in the audience, he heard the singer who teased him so much in the 60s sing The curves of Santos Road with uncontrollable energy. Erasmo cried and said that only that night did he realize he had done something that could go down in history.
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Source: Terra
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
