Loud and Proud!

Over the last few months my musical taste has acquired a new slant. On the drive to work and back I often have the radio on, tuned in to the local Cascais station, "Cento e Cinco Ponto Quatro", that is, 105.4. The station plays a mix of Portuguese and English songs, and often with a leaning towards rock music of the 80's and 90's. It is not uncommon to hear bands such as AC/DC, U2, David Bowie and many other popular artists that I would have been listening to as a young boy. Each trip in the car is like a flashback to halcyon days and when a song comes on that I remember well, and liked, I crank it up!

Like I said though, the station plays a mix of songs English and Portuguese music, and consequently I'm getting to know some of these Portuguese songs to the point where I can sing along. However, I am very much aware that I am probably making a lot of the words up and hearing them incorrectly, so occasionally I try and look them up on the internet. One song I managed to figure out was "Cavalos de Corrida", which was written in 1980 by Portuguese rock band UHF. They regularly play the song and when they do you will find me driving along, singing (badly) along to the correct lyrics in the choruses, "Agora, agora, agora, agora, tu és um cavalo de corrida." (Translation: Now, now, now, now, you are a racehorse.)

UHF - "Rua do Carmo"

Another song that is played quite frequently on 105.4 is "Rua do Carmo" which I also recently spent some time on the internet looking for the correct lyrics. I suspected from listening that the two songs were by the same band, and a quick search had confirmed this. "Rua do Carmo" is a song written about a street in Lisbon; a street of some historical importance as a through-fare between the popular districts of Chiado and Bairro Alto and also a very popular shopping street. So this morning, driving down the dual carriageway towards work, there I was, singing loudly along, "Olha como é, a Rua do Carmo," through the choruses! 

So today I decided to try and find out a little more about this group, UHF, and after finding their Wiki page and piling it through Google Translate, I was very pleasantly surprised and quite enlightened. It seems that since they formed in 1978 they have shared the stage (during the 80's) with such greats as The Skids, The Ramones and 999. Since the 1980's the band have grown ever more popular, if not calming down somewhat from their punk roots, and have recently released acoustic versions of some of their more popular songs and an football song for Benfica football club, which presumably has become anthemic among their fans. In 2011 their "Rua do Carmo" became the theme tune for a Portuguese soap opera.

I'm not a good singer, and I really only do it in two places. As already mentioned, in the car, with the windows up. And the other place is of course at the football, singing along with the Estoril Supporter's Gruppo. There are many songs that I do not the words for, but some of them I do, such as the classic, "E só que bate as palmas, Estoril" (Clap, clap!) and the immutable, "Saltar! Saltar! Azul e Amarelo!" There is one other song that the supporters sing, which is of course the memorable, "Come On Yellows," sung in English and I suspect a point of some fun-making for the fans of other teams maybe? It is nothing though. Everyone in the Gruppo is obviously very proud to support the team, in either language.

One thing that occurs to me when I look up the lyrics to a song, or ask a supporter at a game exactly what we're all singing, is the hope that in some small measure, it is helping me improve my Portuguese. Hopefully.