Marcos Valle

Marcos Valle

1983

Cover of Marcos Valle
Top 100

Why This Album Matters

The self-titled 1970 album, Marcos Valle, represents a significant landmark in the artist's career, marking a transition from bossa nova sounds to a bolder, cosmopolitan pop. In this work, Valle integrates influences from American soul and Wilson Simonal's "pilantragem", forging a musical identity that connected him to modernity, technology and the image of a global citizen. This album reflects a period of maturity and experimentation, in which the composer, with his natural talent for creating grooves and rhythms, imbues a new sound. The lyrics, in partnership with Paulo Sérgio Valle, adopt a critical character, addressing issues of consumer society and the military dictatorship, elevating the work to a level of artistic protest.

Context

The recording of this album occurred at a time when bossa nova was experiencing a decline in Brazil, prompting Marcos Valle to explore new musical landscapes. Deeply influenced by North American music and rock and roll since his youth, with references to songs such as Gene Vincent's "Be-Bop-A-Lula", Valle enriched his work with these diverse strands. However, his image as a German descendant, blond and considered a "well-born representative of the Carioca elite", often distanced him from the "guerrilla" profile that dominated post-Tropicália MPB, affecting the reception of his provocations and criticisms during a period of strong repression by the military dictatorship.

Songs

The album features emblematic songs such as "Quarentão simpático" and "Pigmalião", the latter probably alluding to the telenovela. One of the highlights is the provocative "Ele e ela", in which Marcos Valle and his sister Ângela Valle insinuate a sexual relationship. The album cover functions as a complementary narrative element, displaying the artist in a tidy room on the front, and the same room empty and disarranged, with women's clothing scattered about, on the back cover, visualising the story suggested in the track.

Legacy

Despite the depth and critical character present in the lyrics and the album's visual conception itself, the dissenting aspect of Marcos Valle's work during this period did not receive due recognition. His subtle and ironic approach was, at times, misinterpreted or ignored by critics and audiences who expected more explicit engagement. Songs from that era, such as "Flamengo até morrer" (present on a later album, but representative of the same lyrical phase), were mistakenly labelled "adesistas", when in fact they expressed sophisticated irony towards social alienation, highlighting the complexity and incomprehension that surrounded the reception of his critical phase.

Rankings

Tracks

Credits

Arranged By

Marcos Valle

Arranged By, Conductor

Eduardo Lages

Co-producer

Jorge C. Castro

Producer

Paulo Sérgio Valle

Producer, Arranged By, Conductor

Lincoln Olivetti

Bass

Fernando Souza

Cello

Ana Bezerra De Mello Devos, Eugen Ranevsky

Coro

Aécio Flávio, Fabiola, Jane Duboc, Leon Ware, Loma Pereira, Luna Messina, Marcio Lott, Miriam Peracchi, Regininha, Rosana, Viviane De Carvalho

Drums

Picolé

Percussion

Ariovaldo Contesini, Peninha

Production Manager

Max Pierre

Saxophone

Leo Gandelman, Oberdan Magalhães, Zé Carlos

Trombone

Serginho Do Trombone

Trumpet

Bidinho, Marcio Montarroyos

Viola

Adolpho Pissarenko, Nathercia Teixeira

Violin

Bernardo Bessler, Ernani Bordinhao, Jean Arnaud, Luiz Carlos Campos Marques, Michel Bessler, Nelson Abramento, Robert Arnaud, Stanislaw Smilgin, Walter Gomes De Souza

Engineer

Cesar Barbosa, Mário Jorge, Nestor Lemos

Engineer

Andy Mills, Moogie Canazio

Engineer

Beto, Carlos Dantas, Jackson, João Ricardo, Julio Martins, Leco, Luiz Guilherme D'orey, Mário Jorge, Sergio Seabra

Engineer

Andy Mills

Lacquer Cut By

Paulo Torres

Art Direction

Cosme De Oliveira

Artwork

Tuninho De Paula

Photography By

João Bosco

Podcasts

Marcos Valle: O som do verão

Podcast da Semana · Gama Revista

41 min·5 Jan 2025

O verão é sinônimo de mais diversão, aventura, amor e festa para muita gente. É também para o músico e compositor Marcos Valle, que aos 81 anos comemora 60 anos de carreira com a autoria de algumas composições que são a cara da estação. "O melhor do verão é a possibilidade das pessoas poderem se divertir mais", ele conta ao Podcast da Semana da edição especial sobre o calor do verão. "Eu fico torc

Videos

ESTRELAR E EMPOLGANTE: OS 40 ANOS DE 'MARCOS VALLE' (1983) | ALBUM REVIEW

Som de Peso

Analyses

Discogs

Marcos Valle – Discogs

discogs.com