Um Girassol da Cor do Seu Cabelo

Lyrics from “Um Girassol da Cor do Seu Cabelo” by Lô Borges, Márcio Borges

Album:  Clube da Esquina (1972)

—–

Solar wind, and starfish
The blue land the color of your dress
Solar wind, and starfish
Do you still want to live with me?

If I sing, don’t cry
It’s only poetry
I only need to have you
For one more day.
I still like to dance
Good morning
How are you doing?

Sun, sunflower, green solar wind,
Do you still want to dance with me?
Solar wind and starfish,
A sunflower the color of your hair

If I die, don’t cry
It’s just the moon
It’s your dress the color of bare marvel
I still live on this same street.
How are you doing? Are you coming?
Or is it too late?

—
My thoughts are the color of your dress
Or a sunflower that’s the color of your hair

–Interpretation–

“Um Girassol da Cor do Seu Cabelo” was released in 1972  on the LP Clube da Esquina (the Corner Club) — the first LP by the musicians’ collective by the same name.   The collective Clube da Esquina was based in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, and three of its best-known participants are Milton Nascimento,Márcio Borges, and Lô Borges, alongside  Toninho Horta, Ronaldo Bastos, Monsueto, Ayrton Amorim,  Beto Guedes, Wagner Tiso, and Flávio Venturini.

Brothers Lô Borges (b.1952) and Márcio Borges (b. 1946) were born and raised in Belo Horizonte, in a family with eleven children and with two musically inclined parents.  Márcio spent much of his childhood and adolescence ill, which encouraged him to spend a great deal of time reading and writing, a habit that no doubt led him to his career as a lyricist.

Milton Nascimento was born in Rio de Janeiro in 1942; at age 3, he was adopted and brought to Tres Pontas, Minas Gerais.  In 1963 – one year before a military coup plunged Brazil into dictatorship for the next twenty-one years – Milton moved to Belo Horizonte.

Upon arrival in Belo Horizonte, Milton met Márcio Borges, who lived in the same apartment building – Edificio Levy. The two became fast friends. Márcio worked as a film critic at the time, and after seeing a screening of  François Truffaut‘s 1962 film Jules et Jim, he told Milton he must see the movie with him when it opened. The pair went to the Cine Tupi and watched three back-to-back showings — 2 p.m., 4 p.m., and 6 p.m. Afterwards, they went home and began to write music together, with Milton composing the music and Márcio writing the lyrics.  From that point on, the two played a central role in the music produced by Clube da Esquina. Clube da Esquina, in turn, had a profound influence on the incipient Brazilian popular music (MPB) movement, particularly because of the group’s eclectic, experimental sounds.  “Um Girassol da Cor do seu Cabelo” is one of the most well-known tracks from Clube da Esquina.