Elis Regina – Ladeira da Preguiça

This was supposed to be a simple video with a translation of a few lines of the song included…but as you can see, it has grown! Thanks for the comments everyone! Quanta falta ela nos faz!

Here are some lyrics from the first Youtube clip below as well as a short explanation of the song’s name.

This steep street, what steep street is this?
This is the steep street of laziness
It is not recent
It is from since back when
One would tie down a dog with linguiça*

* – ‘se amarrava cachorro com linguiça’ figuratively means ‘the good ol’ days’

The song was written by Gilberto Gil, who is from Bahia. In the colonial days, the ‘ladeira da preguiça’ was a steep street the African slaves had to climb up while carrying large crates/sacks of goods on their backs. They were injustly called ‘lazy’ by the Portuguese settlers, thus the phrase ‘steep street of laziness’. It seems Gil wrote a regular song while creating a new meaning for the racist phrase.

“De acordo com a antropóloga, a ladeira da Preguiça, no centro de Salvador, é símbolo do preconceito. Nos tempos da escravidão, e também depois dela, quem reclamava da íngreme travessia, carregando nas costas as mercadorias desembarcadas no porto, eram os negros – “preguiçosos” na visão desdenhosa dos brancos que, das janelas de seus sobrados, gritavam: “Sobe, preguiça!”.” – Fonte

Ladeira da Preguiça

As a bonus, here she is again…twice!

20 Anos Blues

Se Eu Quiser Falar Com Deus (obrigado pela recomendação, muito boa!)