Biography
A prolific tunesmith whose works found their way to the leading voices of Brazilian popular song, Lupicínio Rodrigues came to embody the entire lineage of theatrical, heartfelt, and brooding expression known as fossa and dor-de-cotovelo. He entered the world in a Porto Alegre district that served as a gathering spot for players booked on transatlantic liners. Though his family lacked means, his father still secured him a place at the costly Colégio São Sebastião, yet the boy was dismissed after repeatedly breaking into rhythm and melody amid lessons. He finished junior studies and took employment as a mechanic at the Carris and Micheletto workshops. In 1928 he produced his earliest piece, “Carnaval,” which the band Moleza performed to victory in a municipal competition. Concerned over his son’s freewheeling lifestyle, the father enlisted him in the Army at age fifteen by means of falsified papers presented as a “volunteer.” While fronting the vocal group Catão he earned praise from Noel Rosa on the latter’s visit to Porto Alegre, and Rosa foresaw a luminous path ahead for the young man. Rodrigues was subsequently dispatched to the front lines in São Paulo during the 1932 Constitutional Revolution. After the campaign he was posted to Santa Maria, where “Carnaval” again triumphed, this time rendered by the carnival troupe Rancho Suco. There he encountered his initial beloved, Inah, who would furnish the emotional wellspring for an extended catalogue of amorous laments; the xote “Felicidade,” still widely performed, and “Zé Ponte” both date from this interval. Back in Porto Alegre by 1935, he left military service and hunted work so he might fetch his intended. That same season he captured the mayoral contest marking the centenary of the Farroupilha Revolution with “Triste História,” his first collaboration with Alcides Gonçalves, whose stature as a nationally recognized singer helped launch the pair’s joint output. The following year he was hired as an attendant at Porto Alegre’s Law College, after which Alcides Gonçalves committed “Triste História” and “Pergunte aos Meus Tamancos” to disc for RCA Victor, enabling Rodrigues to bring Inah to the city. In 1937 Newton Teixeira, himself an established composer, waxed “Quando eu for Bem Velhinho” (co-written with Felisberto Teixeira). In 1938 the still-emerging Ciro Monteiro, soon to become a celebrated interpreter, cut the samba “Se Acaso Você Chegasse” (with Felisberto Martins) for RCA Victor and scored a sweeping national triumph; sailors had already spread the tune from Porto Alegre’s waterfront brothels to numerous coastal locales before its official release. Abandoned by Inah in January 1939 because she rejected his Bohemian ways, he later recalled that he “almost died.” That anguish would later yield the imperishable “Nervos de Aço” in 1947. At the time, however, he quit his post and Porto Alegre altogether, boarding the third-class vessel Ibatinga bound for Rio. Upon arrival he was guided to the storied Café Nice, rendezvous of both celebrated and obscure artists, where he met Wilson Batista, Germano Augusto, Orlando Silva, Nássara, Francisco Alves, and others. His delivery of “Quem Há de Dizer” drew fervent applause; at Alves’s urging he continued with “Torre de Babel” and additional numbers. Alves promptly escorted him to the Jockey Club, where, while Rodrigues performed, the older singer accompanied on violão in order to master the material, exclaiming, “Look, kid, stop showing this to other people because I’ll record all of them.” Although not every song was eventually waxed, the selections that were—“Pra São João Decidir,” “Quem Há de Dizer,” “Esses Moços, Pobres Moços,” “Cadeira Vazia,” “Nervos de Aço,” and “Maria Rosa”—all became major successes under Alves’s voice. In 1939 Rodrigues himself recorded “Dona Divergência,” in which he drew parallels between romantic strife and the battles of World War II. In 1945 Orlando Silva, counted among Brazil’s finest vocalists, delivered the samba “Brasa” (with Felisberto Martins) to resounding acclaim. In 1946 Rodrigues helped found SBACEN and served as its Rio Grande do Sul delegate. The following year the then-unknown Quitandinha Serenaders gained nationwide attention with their version of “Felicidade,” further elevating the composer’s profile; that same year Alves recorded “Nervos de Aço,” and the next year he added “Quem Há de Dizer” (with Alcides Gonçalves) and “Esses Moços, Pobres Moços,” the latter dedicated to his newlywed friend Hamilton Chaves. Rodrigues wed Cerenita Quevedo Azevedo in 1949. In 1950 he inaugurated Porto Alegre’s first inferninho, the Vogue, and would subsequently launch several more such venues that functioned as gathering places for fellow artists and friends; patrons were invited onstage to perform, and a supposed Chinese proverb attributed to Chaves was inscribed on the wall: “He who talks when someone plays displays his own ignorance at the shop window.” That year Alves also committed “Cadeira Vazia” to disc via Odeon. In 1951 Linda Batista scored a major hit with the samba-canção “Vingança,” drawn from Rodrigues’s own five-year liaison with a woman who transferred her affections to one of his employees; he recounted in interviews that the employee revealed the betrayal, prompting him to end the affair, after which remorse drove her to seek him fruitlessly in every nightclub—this episode constituting his “revenge.” The darkly dramatic song sparked heated press debate when two unrelated individuals, a man and a woman each recently forsaken, took their lives while the record played. In 1952 publisher Emílio Vitale witnessed one of his club performances in Porto Alegre and, struck by the number of weeping women in attendance, urged the proprietor of São Paulo’s nightclub Oasis to engage him at once; an intended ten-day engagement stretched to three months. Rádio Record mounted a program titled Diário de Lupicínio Rodrigues, and his samba “Divórcio,” dedicated to congressman Nelson Carneiro then campaigning to legalize divorce, premiered on Rádio Bandeirantes. He also cut two albums comprising six discs, collectively titled Roteiro de um Boêmio, with Trio Simonetti for the Star and later Copacabana labels. The ensuing year he sketched the “Hino Oficial do Grêmio” on a café table. In 1959 the esteemed romantic singer Jamelão recorded “Ela Disse-me Assim” to notable success. In 1960 Elza Soares’s rendition of “Se Acaso Você Chegasse” on Odeon met with nationwide acclaim. In 1963 Rodrigues contributed a weekly column on music, serenades, and romance to an RS newspaper. On 21 February 1968 the Museu da Imagem e do Som in Rio de Janeiro recorded his historic testimony. That year RCA Victor issued the anthology LP Encontro com Lupicínio Rodrigues. At the following year’s V FMPB his composition “Primavera” (with Hamilton Chaves), performed by Isaurinha Garcia, reached the ten finalists. In 1970 he himself recorded “Esses Moços, Pobres Moços” for the inaugural volume of Abril Cultural’s Nova História da Música Popular Brasileira series. The next year João Gilberto paid tribute by singing “Quem há de Dizer” on a TV Tupi broadcast. Julio Bressane’s film Crazy Love incorporated “Vingança” (in Linda Batista’s version) and “Nervos de Aço” (sung by Alves) into its soundtrack. In 1972 Caetano Veloso introduced “Volta,” later recorded by Gal Costa on the Philips album Índia. In 1973 Rosicler released the LP Dor-de-Cotovelo and a gathering of artists honored Rodrigues at Rio’s Teatro Opinião; that same year Paulinho da Viola recorded “Nervos de Aço” while Bressane’s Rei do Barulho featured “Ela Disse-me Assim” as interpreted by Jamelão. In 1974 Caetano Veloso included “Felicidade” on the Philips live set Temporada de Verão ao Vivo na Bahia, where it enjoyed strong reception; Bruno Barreto used “Esses Moços, Pobres Moços” as the theme for A Estrela Sobe, and Elis Regina recorded “Cadeira Vazia.” During the 1980s pop star Cazuza achieved success with several of Rodrigues’s songs, and Zizi Possi scored a hit with “Nunca.” Marking the composer’s eightieth birthday in 1994, the government of Rio Grande do Sul proclaimed the Ano Lupi— Ano Cultural Lupicínio Rodrigues. In 1996 Revivendo issued a four-CD box set containing eighty-eight of his compositions; that year his erstwhile partner Rubens Santos mounted the tribute Lupicínio às Pampas in Rio and Buenos Aires, featuring Luís Melodia, Paulo Moura, and Adriana Calcanhoto among others. In 1997 Editora Globo released the CD and booklet Lupicínio Rodrigues as part of its MPB Compositores series. He was also the subject of Rosa M. Dias’s book As Paixões Tristes—Lupicínio e a Dor-de-Cotovelo (Leviatã, 1994) and the 1995 anthology Foi Assim, a collection of his own chronicles recounting the incidents that inspired his songs.
Albums