Search - António Variações :: O Melhor de António Variações

A Pop Star Fell From The Sky

Sister Kray | London, UK | 04/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"António Variações, was a true original who lived fast, died young and only recorded two albums. That is why this is easily a good "Best Of" and a perfect introduction to one of the most original characters in world Pop.

If he had not been born in a small peripheral country (Portugal) and sung in non mainstream language (Portuguese) he would have been a huge Pop star and taken over the world. The secret of his success in his home country was a vicious sense of melody, an acute social eye (Ex.: Quando Fala Um Português - When A Portuguese Speaks) and emotional honesty (Ex.: Olhei P'ra Trás - Looking Back - about a nostalgia of Innocence and going to the big city to make it just as big).

There are perfect Pop Numbers such as "Estou Além" (I'm Beyond - about an inexplicable sense of longing to be somewhere else, with someone else - which has a somewhat Joy Division beat sprinkled with Human League keyboards); "P'rá Amanhã" (about procrastination in hardtimes - here we have traditional Portuguese percussion mixed with accordions and a sax as if the sax player at the end of Walk on the wild side had lent Variações a hand during a holiday in Lisbon) and "O Corpo É Que Paga (The Body Pays For It - about a somewhat S&M relation between a wild mind and its body- an electrodisco flavoured number which may remind some people of Blondie in the 70s).

As you may notice there are two very silly, ridiculous, songs in this compilation: "Deolinda De Jesus" (about his mother) and "Voz-Amália-De-Nós" (about Amália, the Queen of Fado) 2 of the people he loved the most. Fernando Pessoa once wrote that all love letters are ridiculous but that more ridiculous are those who never wrote a ridiculous love letter. Here we can paraphrase him and say that more ridiculous are the ones who never wrote a ridiculous love Pop song.

In 1982 there was no one like him, with his sound or his look. Check this pic at (http://home.wanadoo.nl/alberto.lopes/antovar.htm) not great but gives an idea. There has been no one, even remotely, like him since. Despite his outrageous looks and his sometimes wild lyrics at the time of his death in 1984, after only 2 years as a mainstream performer and 2 records, he was the biggest Pop star in Portugal. This is a true achievement. London had had David Bowie and Marc Bolan opening the doors to the androgynous New Romantic Movement. Variacões was (and still is) on his own in a, at the time, awkward but charming capital city...

I leave you with a translation of Canção de Engate. Literally,"Song of Cruising". There is a sense of tragedy to it though, a wicked take on the Schopenhauer dilemma between predator and prey... He sings it in a very moving way.



You are free and I am free/ And there is a night to spend/ Why don't we go together/ Why don't we go along/ Into the realm of senses /You feel lonely and I feel lonelier/But you've caught my eye/I give you my open hand /waiting to close on your/Hand deserted/ Come that love is not time/And time does not make it/ Come that love is the moment/ I give myself/ And you give yourself/ You are looking for someone/And I'm looking for anyone/Be the end of this desire/ Be a body of pleasure/Be the end of another day/ You are still waiting/For a better one to come/But hope was found/before you by someone else/I am just better than no one.



Useless to say he didn't hide is love away ... These days it is hard to find genuine Pop characters. Maybe this is why his popularity has never stopped growing. I wonder what he would think of having his music sold at Amazon. Well I'm sure he would like it. Hope you do too."