SÉRIE 2 LPS EM 1 CD: "Ninguém Proibe o Amor" e "A Vida é Só Pra Cantar"

It is curious to listen again to two Wilson Simonal LPs from the 70s in 2001, a year after his death and almost 30 years past the accusations of collaboration with the military government that helped bury his career. As time goes by, it is possible to analyze his music in a more detached manner and find out a pleasant and interesting singer. The problem lies in the phase when he recorded Ninguém Proíbe o Amor (1975) and A Vida É Só Pra Cantar (1977), which have just been re-issued on the 2 LPs in 1 CD series (BMG). Simonal wastes a crystal clear, soul-driven voice with an incoherent repertoire - the true reason for his artistic suicide.

For the first LP, he picked mostly unknown songwriters which were combined with names like Cassiano (Partitura de Amor), Lupiscínio Rodrigues (Sozinha), Carlos Lyra & Vinicius de Moraes (Sabe Você) and Chico Buarque (Cordão, which has a lounge taste). But these are exceptions. Instead of the fiery sambas, Simonal chose a more romantic and intimate mood, miles away from the power of his first albums from the mid-60s.

The second LP has a different atmosphere. It is more lively, but the arrangements are stale, worse than the ones on the first album. It sounds like a revival, with medleys of his previous hits: one with Sá Marina, Galha do Cajueiro, Vesti Azul and Mamãe Passou Açúcar em Mim; another with The Banana Boat Song (an old Harry Belafonte hit), Nanã and Tributo a Martin Luther King.

With a Brazilian-flavored gospel (Queremos Deus) and a few bad sambas like A Vida É Só pra Cantar, it is easy to notice that the singer was far from the aesthetics that had made him more popular than Roberto Carlos in the 60s. Hopefully, EMI should print his first LPs so that the listeners can compare the phases themselves, and find out the true reason why Wilson Simonal fell into oblivion. (Rodrigo Faour)