Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66

One of my guilty musical pleasures is listening to my Sergio Mendes and Brasil 66 album, The Very Best. I haven't heard any of their other albums and I don't especially like bossa nova music, but this album has several appealing features. Firstly, it contains several covers of Beatles songs, including a great version of Norwegian Wood with the pronouns reversed ('I once had a guy, or should I say, he once had me') which totally changes the power balance of the gender roles in the song. It also contains some Latin stuff (Mais Que Nada) and covers of other songs such as Night and Day, Going Out of My Head, Watch What Happens, Like a Lover and Look of Love.

I can again blame my parents for this- well, Dad at least. He played us Norwegian Wood once and this is what made me decide to listen to the rest of the album. This must have been at least twelve years ago. I remember it being winter, having returned from a game of football at Optus Oval which Melbourne lost to Geelong and Dad playing this on the CD player, back when our amplifier actually worked.

I find this to be great background music for writing. In fact, I think I'll have to put it on again now when I go off and do some more writing tonight, before Mythbusters starts.