Take me back to Piauí

Explain these lyrics (write the explanation in English)

Take me back to Piauí
Juca Chaves

Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Adeus, Paris tropical
Adeus, Brigitte Bardot
O champanhe me fez mal
Caviar já me enjoou
Simonal que estava certo
Na razão do Patropi
Eu também que sou esperto
Vou viver no Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Minha terra tem Chacrinha
Que é louco como ninguém
Tem Juca, tem Teixeirinha
Tem dona Hebe também
Tem maçã, laranja e figo
Banana quem não comeu
Manga não, manga é um perigo
Quem provou, quase morreu
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Mudo meu ponto de vista
Mudando de profissão
Pois a moda agora é artista
Ser júri em televisão
Tomar banho só de cuia
Comer jaca todo mês
Aleluia, aleluia
Vou morrer na BR-3
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
(Everybody)
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
(Meu Deus, meu Deus)
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
(Take me back to Piauí)
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí
Hey, hey, dee-dee, take me back to Piauí

This song is basically a funny, ironic love letter to Brazil – especially to a very “non-glamorous” Brazil – dressed up as a cheerful, dancey tune.

Juca Chaves was a Brazilian singer, comedian and sharp political satirist, active under the military dictatorship and later exiled in Europe. His song “Take Me Back to Piauí” (early 1970s) sounds playful, but it’s full of jokes about class, pop culture, and the image of Brazil as a “tropical paradise.” (Far Out Magazine)

Below I’ll go part by part.

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The chorus: “Take me back to Piauí”

He keeps repeating in English: “Take me back to Piauí.”

• Piauí is a poor, hot, rural state in Brazil’s Northeast, often seen as “backwards” and forgotten compared to rich, modern cities like Rio and São Paulo. (Wikitravel)
• Using English (“take me back”) over a Brazilian groove is already a bit ironic: it’s like a Brazilian artist using “cool foreign pop language” to say he wants to go to one of the least glamorous places in the country.
• So the chorus is both comic and symbolic: instead of dreaming of Paris, New York or even Rio, he says, “No, no, send me back to this forgotten Brazilian place.”

It can also be heard as the voice of someone in exile wanting to go home, since Juca Chaves really was forced abroad for criticizing the dictatorship. (Far Out Magazine)

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Verse 1 – Goodbye to “tropical Paris” and luxury

“Adeus, Paris tropical… Adeus, Brigitte Bardot
Champagne made me sick, caviar already disgusts me”

• “Paris tropical” is a sarcastic nickname for Brazil (especially Rio): a country that wants to be sophisticated like Paris but is in the tropics, marketed as an exotic paradise. It also plays with the hit song “País Tropical” (“Tropical Country”), recorded by Wilson Simonal, which celebrated Brazil as a joyful, sunny land. (Wikipedia)
• Saying goodbye to Brigitte Bardot (the French film icon) means: “I’m done with this obsession with European glamour and celebrities.”
• Champagne and caviar making him sick = rejection of elite, imported luxury. He’s mocking the rich Brazilian who wants French lifestyle while living in a poor, unequal country.

“Simonal was right / in the logic of ‘Patropi’ / I, who am clever / will go live in Piauí”

Here are the layers:

• Wilson Simonal was a very popular singer who made “País Tropical” a huge hit, tied to a nationalistic, optimistic image of Brazil that the dictatorship loved to use. (Wikipedia)
• “Patropi” comes from the way “país tropical” was chopped up rhythmically in that song (“pa-tropi”), and became slang for “this tropical country,” with all its contradictions and stereotypes (beaches, football, carnival, fun, and nonsense). (Wikipedia)

• There was a kind of musical “discussion” going on:

  • Jorge Ben wrote “País Tropical” (sung by Simonal).
  • Juca Chaves answered with a satire called “Paris Tropical”, criticizing the overly rosy picture.
  • Then Jorge Ben answered back with “Resposta”, defending Brazil.
  • Finally Juca releases “Take Me Back to Piauí”, half-admitting, half-mocking: “Ok, Simonal was right about this crazy tropical country.” (Wikipedia)

So “Simonal was right in the logic of Patropi” is a very ironic way of saying:

“Brazil really is this absurd, tropical mess. Knowing that, the clever thing is to embrace it – I’ll go hide out in Piauí.”

It’s affectionate and teasing at the same time.

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Verse 2 – My homeland has TV clowns and fruit (parody of a famous poem)

“Minha terra tem Chacrinha… tem Juca, tem Teixeirinha, tem dona Hebe também”

This is a parody of Brazil’s most famous patriotic poem, “Canção do Exílio” by Gonçalves Dias, which starts “Minha terra tem palmeiras / Onde canta o sabiá…” (“My homeland has palm trees, where the thrush sings”). Juca swaps palm trees and birds for TV and pop stars. (docs.lib.purdue.edu)

• Chacrinha – a wildly eccentric TV presenter and comedian, known for chaotic variety shows. (Wikipedia)
• Juca – Juca Chaves himself; he humorously includes his own name.
• Teixeirinha – a hugely popular singer of gaucho music from southern Brazil. (Wikipedia)
• Dona Hebe – Hebe Camargo, one of the biggest Brazilian TV presenters, known as the “Queen of Brazilian Television.” (Wikipedia)

So, instead of “my homeland has beautiful nature,” he’s saying:

“My country is defined by loud TV shows, famous singers and talk-show hosts.”

It’s a funny but critical picture of a Brazil dominated by mass media and entertainment, not by poetry and nature.

Then he goes into the fruit:

“It has apple, orange, fig / Everyone ate banana / But no mango, mango is dangerous / Whoever tried it almost died”

This keeps parodying the idea of Brazil’s “natural riches”:

• He lists fruits as if they were noble national treasures.
• Banana and mango also carry sexual and joke meanings in Brazilian culture, so there’s probably playful double-entendre there.
• “Mango is dangerous, whoever tried almost died” sounds like nonsense, but it likely hints at the old Brazilian myth that eating mango with milk kills you (a legend from the slavery period used to stop slaves from consuming expensive foods). (Rádio Itatiaia)

So the whole verse is mocking clichés about Brazil’s nature and turning them into absurd humor.

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Verse 3 – TV culture, simple life, and BR-3

“I change my point of view / by changing profession
Now the fashion is to be an artist / to be a TV judge”

Here he jokes about the rise of television and show business:

• “Changing profession” to become an “artist” and especially a TV talent-show judge is portrayed as the fashionable, easy way to be famous and respected.
• He’s poking fun at celebrities who gain status just by being on television, not necessarily for real artistic talent.

“Take a bath only with a gourd / eat jackfruit every month”

• Bathing “only with a cuia” (a gourd/bowl) evokes rural poverty and simplicity – as if there’s no running water; you pour water over yourself from a bowl.
• Eating jackfruit (jaca) every month is another image of rustic, sticky, messy tropical life – opposite of champagne and caviar.

“Aleluia, aleluia / I’ll die on BR-3”

• BR-3 was the name of a very popular Brazilian soul song by Tony Tornado in 1970, itself about a federal highway (old designation for part of today’s BR-040). (Wikipedia)
• Highways like that symbolized modernization and internal migration – especially poor people traveling from the interior to big cities seeking a better life, often in dangerous conditions.

• Saying “I’ll die on BR-3” is dark humor:

  “Hallelujah, my glorious destiny is to die on a Brazilian highway.”
  It mixes religious language (“aleluia”) with a bleak, very earthly reality: traffic accidents, long journeys, the harshness of Brazilian roads.

So this verse wraps together:

• The shallowness of TV celebrity culture.
• The romanticized “simple life” in the Northeast.
• And the brutal reality of Brazil’s development, symbolized by a highway where people live and die.

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So what is the song saying overall?

Putting it all together:

• On the surface it’s a catchy, silly song about wanting to go back to Piauí.

• Underneath, it’s:

  • Laughing at Brazil’s obsession with European glamour and luxury (“Paris tropical”, Bardot, champagne, caviar).
  • Answering the optimistic anthem “País Tropical” with a more ironic view: yes, Brazil is a “tropical country” – but full of contradictions, media circus and inequality. (Wikipedia)
  • Making fun of a culture dominated by television idols (Chacrinha, Hebe) and showbiz.
  • Romanticizing and mocking at the same time the idea of escaping to the poor interior (Piauí) as the “real” Brazil.
  • Sneaking in criticism of the social reality of the dictatorship era through joking images (BR-3, Patropi, mango myth).

Because Juca Chaves was a comedian and a political satirist, the tone is deliberately playful and absurd. The chorus sounds like a fun party chant, but the details show a guy who sees Brazil very clearly – both the charm and the absurdity – and uses humor to talk about that instead of giving a serious political speech.