Mudando de conversa

Lyrics from “Mudando de conversa” by Mauricio Tapajós and Hermínio Bello de Carvalho (1968)

Mudando de conversa onde foi que ficou // Changing the subject, what ever happened
Aquela velha amizade // To that old friendship
Aquele papo furado todo fim de noite // Shooting the breeze at the end of each night
Num bar do Leblon // In a bar in Leblon
(Meu Deus do céu, que tempo bom!) // (My God in heaven, what good times!)
Tanto chopp gelado, confissões à bessa // So much cold chopp and confessions flowing
Meu Deus, quem diria que isso ia se acabar // My God, who’d have said that would end
E acabava em samba // And it would always end in samba
Que é a melhor maneira de se conversar // Which is the best way to converse
Mas tudo mudou, eu sinto tanta pena de não ser a mesma // But everything changed, I feel so sorry I’m not the same
Perdi a vontade de tomar meu chopp, de escrever meu samba // I lost my will to drink my chopp, to write my samba
Me perdi de mim, não achei mais nada // I lost myself, but didn’t find anything else
O que vou fazer? // What’ll I do?
Mas eu queria tanto, precisava mesmo de abraçar você // But I’d so like – what I really need is to hug you
De dizer as coisas que se acumularam // To catch you up on everything that’s happened since
Que estão se perdendo sem explicação // Things that are slipping away without explanation
E sem mais razão e sem mais porque // And without any more reason, without any more justification
Mudando de conversa onde foi que ficou // Changing the subject, what ever happened
Aquela velha amizade // To that old friendship
Aquele papo furado todo fim de noite // Shooting the breeze at the end of each night
Num bar do Leblon // In a bar in Leblon
Meu Deus do céu, que tempo bom! // My God in heaven, what good times!
Tanto chopp gelado, confissões à bessa // So much cold chopp and confessions flowing
Meu Deus, quem diria que isso ia se acabar // My God, who’d have said that would end
E acabava em samba // And it would always end in samba
Que é a melhor maneira de se conversar // Which is the best way to converse…

— Commentary —

Herminio Bello de Carvalho em AP — Hermínio Bello de Carvalho in his apartment in Rio de Janeiro (2015)

“A samba that’s modern, romantic, a little nostalgic and typically carioca…” – Jairo Severiano/Zuza Homem de Mello

Tabern_da_gloria_1972 — Taberna da Glória -1972 – with metro construction

In spite of its nostalgic mention of a bar in Leblon with such perfectly cold chopp, this samba was actually written at Taberna da Glória, the traditional bar in Rio’s Glória neighborhood whose chopps, for their part, made it into at least one of Mauricio Tapajós‘s other sambas. (Hermínio’s 2015 book of stories, organized by Ruy Castro, also took the name Taberna da Glória e outras glorias.)

On the occasion this song was written, Hermínio Bello de Carvalho recounts that the pair had spent the night working in his apartment on what would become the opera “João, Amor e Maria.” In the early morning they went to have breakfast at Taberna da Glória, and not surprisingly, quickly switched to chopp as they started playing around with the ideas for this song. Hermínio said the opera was a “fiasco,” but this song was such a hit that it inspired a musical by the same name, with Clementina de Jesus, Nora Ney, Cyro Monteiro, and the conjunto Rosa de Ouro. The samba was originally meant to be recorded by Cyro Monteiro, but ended up with Dóris Monteiro at the request of Milton Miranda, director of Odeon Records.