Music / Legião Urbana

Left to right: Dado Villa-Lobos, Marcelo Bonfá, Renato Russo, Renato Rocha

Legião Urbana^note Portuguese for Urban Legion was a Brazilian rock band formed in 1982, and its most well known line-up consisted of Renato Russo (vocals, guitars, keyboards and main songwriter), Dado Villa-Lobos (lead guitar), Marcelo Bonfá (drums, percussion) and Renato Rocha (bass, left in 1989).

The band originated after the dissolution of punk rock band Aborto Elétrico, which was formed by Renato Russo and two brothers, Flávio and Fê Lemos, the latter two who would later form the band Capital Inicial, another successful band in the country. Russo formed the band with Bonfá and a few other rotating members until they were set on the line up with Dado Villa-Lobos and Renato Rocha.

The band released eight studio albums during its activity, initially inspired by the British Post-Punk scene, they would later incorporate elements of Alternative Rock, Punk Rock, Folk Music, Psychedelic Rock among others. The band is also known for having lyrics inspired by politics and literature, as well ones that reflect Russo's personal life.

In October 11, 1996, three weeks after the release of A Tempestade..., Renato Russo died over complications of HIV, something he rarely acknowledge publicly. The remaining members, Villa-Lobos and Bonfá, announced the dissolution of the band, with a final album being released in 1997 posthumously.

They're one of the most successful and acclaimed bands in Brazil, selling 25 million copies and, along bands like Titãs, Barão Vermelho and Os Paralamas do Sucesso, they helped popularize the rock scene in the country. There is also media based on the band, including a biopic named Somos Tão Jovens^note We're So Young in 2013, as well two movies named Faroeste Caboclo^note Western Caboclo in the same year and Eduardo e Mônica in 2022, the latter two inspired by two iconic songs from the band.

Discography

• Legião Urbana (1985)
• Dois (1986)^note Two
• Que País É Esse (1987)^note What Country Is This
• As Quatro Estações (1989)^note The Four Seasons
• V (1991)
• O Descobrimento do Brasil (1993)^note The Discovery of Brazil
• A Tempestade ou O Livro dos Dias (1996)^note The Storm or The Book of Days
• Uma Outra Estação (1997)^note Another Season

Live Albums:

• Acústico MTV: Legião Urbana^note MTV Unplugged; recorded in 1992 (1999)
• Como É Que Se Diz Eu Te Amo^note How Do You Say I Love You; recorded in 1994 (2001)
• As Quatro Estações Ao Vivo^note Recorded in 1990 (2004)

Compilations:

• Música p/ Acampamentos^note Camp Music (1992)
• Mais do Mesmo^note More of the Same (1998)

Let's celebrate all the tropes...

• As the Good Book Says...: The opening lyrics of "Monte Castelo" comes from the Book of Corinthians (the rest being a sonnet by Luís de Camões).
• Author Appeal: A lot of the early songs mention Brasília, Distrito Federal, the capital of Brazil where the band was formed.
• Big Town Boredom: The premise of "Tédio".
• Broken Record: The chorus of "As Flores do Mal" repeats the sentence mentir é fácil demais.^note lying is way too easy
• Chronological Album Title: Albums 2 (Dois), 4 (As Quatro Estações) and 5 (V).
• Dance-Punk: The aptly titled "A Dança".^note "The Dance"
• Darker and Edgier: A Tempestade is a much more somber album in comparison to the previous works, with lyrics tackling depression, cynicism and death, a reflection of Russo's final moments.
• Driven to Suicide: The first verse of "Pais e Filhos" ends with a woman throwing herself off the fifth floor. Renato said it is a reference to a friend who did so after a fight with her parents.
• Either/Or Title: The title of A Tempestade ou O Livro dos Dias.
• Epic Rocking:
  • One of their most iconic songs, "Faroeste Caboclo", clocks around 9:03 and it's a full fledged story about the character João de Santo Cristo, a poor boy who moves from the countryside to the country's capital and becomes an outlaw folk hero. It has 42 stanzas, no choruses or solos and its influences range from Northeast Brazilian Country, straight up Punk Rock and a brief tinge of reggae in the middle, making the song almost resemble a Rock Opera.
  • Their fifth album features more longer songs, with "Metal Contra as Nuvens" being their longest, around 11:28. Others in the album include "A Montanha Mágica" (7:48), "Vento no Litoral" (6:06), and "L'âge D'or" (5:06).
  • "Clarisse", an acoustic ballad from Uma Outra Estação, clocks around 10:32, being their second longest song in their discography.
  • "Eduardo e Mônica" might be on the modest side with 4:32, but the density of the lyrics still put it firmly on this trope.
• Face Death with Dignity: From "Faroeste Caboclo":
  E o povo declarava que João de Santo Cristo / Era santo porque sabia morrer^note And the people declared that João de Santo Cristo / Was a saint because he knew how to die
  • The lyrics from the album A Tempestade are arguably about this, as they were recorded and released in Russo's final days.
• Face on the Cover: Their debut, Que País é Este, As Quatro Estações and O Descobrimento do Brasil all prominently feature the band.
• Gratuitous English: A few songs have English titles, like "Acrilic on Canvas", "Love in the Afternoon" and "Love Song". "Feedback Song for a Dying Friend" is also sung in English as well.
• Gratuitous Italian: The Non-Appearing Title "La Nuova Gioventú".
• In the Style of: According to Russo, the main inspiration of "Faroeste Caboclo" was the song "Hurricane" by Bob Dylan.
• Instrumentals: They have put a few instrumental songs since Dois, including "Central do Brasil", "A Ordem dos Templários", "Come Share My Life", "O Passeio da Boa Vista", "Schubert Ländler" and "High Noon (Do Not Forsake Me)".
• Knight in Shining Armor: The entire premise of "Metal Contra as Nuvems", with the protagonist of the song being the knight himself.
• Location Song: "Central do Brasil", "Conexão Amazônica", "Angra dos Reis' and "Monte Castelo"
• Minimalistic Cover Art: Dois and V.
• Mushroom Samba: "Perdidos no Espaço". Ironically it isn't a samba song.
• New Sound Album:
  • The self-titled debut aimed to be a more straight-forward and raw Post-Punk album, setting the tone for the band;
  • Dois takes the post-punk sound from their debut and expand it with a bit more dynamic songwriting;
  • Que País É Esse amps up their sound, being more akin to Punk Rock than anything in their discography. Justified, as half of the songs were composed during the Aborto Elétrico era;
  • As Quatro Estações aims to be Lighter and Softer in comparison to their previous post-punk inspired albums, leaning more towards Alternative Rock, and containing more spiritual lyrics in comparison to previous albums;
  • V is more ambitious, with slower and longer songs and less traditional structures, veering closer to Progressive Rock;
  • O Descobrimento do Brasil has a lighter power pop feel to it, since it aimed to be an album of "pop songs", being composed of quick songs with simple structures. The band also took a bit of inspiration from the Grunge movement that was growing in popularity at the time;
  • As alluded in Darker and Edgier above A Tempestade is bleaker in comparison to previous albums, tackling topics that reflect Russo's final moments.
• Non-Appearing Title: Many, like "Faroeste Caboclo", "Daniel na Cova dos Leões", and "Teatro dos Vampiros".
• One-Steve Limit: Renato Russo and Renato Rocha. That would change with the latter's departure in 1989.
• One-Woman Song: "Natália", "Leila" and "Mariane".
• Opposites Attract: The premise of "Eduardo e Mônica", stating on the lyrics that even if the titular characters were both from different worlds, so to speak, their bond grew closer each time they seen each other.
• Perishing Alt-Rock Voice: A lot of songs in A Tempestade feature a lot of this, due to Russo only contributing to first take vocals for the album and his health deteriorating during the making of it.
• Posthumous Collaboration: The final album Uma Outra Estação was assembled a year after Renato Russo's death, mainly consisting of scrapped songs from the seesions of A Tempestade.
• Protest Song: One of the defining traits of the band. Their most popular examples include:
  • The title track of Que País É Esse is an angry song that reflects the political and economical climate of Brazil in the 80s.
  • "Perfeição" is very tongue in cheek, with most of the song being in spoken word calling for celebration of the worst of the history of Brazil, as well the worst of humanity. The name of the song translates to "perfection" which the song depicts anything but. By the end of the song, however, after the spoken word verses, it is sung as a call for change to a better world, actualy calling for the said "perfection".
• Reggae: The also aptly titled "O Reggae", which is basically a fully inspired reggae song. "Faroeste Caboclo" also has a small reggae section in it.
• Rock Trio: The band started as one, but once Renato cut his wrists and couldn't play bass, it led to the quartet pictured atop this page. And then Negrete left and it was the Renato-Dado-Marcelo trio again.
• Sampling: The main riff of "Que País É Esse" is borrowed from Ramones' "I Don't Care", which the band openly admits of doing so, reflecting their punk roots.
• Self-Deprecation: The last line from the spoken word section of "Perfeição":
  Já que também podemos celebrar / A estupidez de quem cantou esta canção^note Since we can also celebrate / The stupidity of whoever sang this song
• Shout-Out:
  • The first few lines from "Será" were lifted and translated from Soft Cell's song "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye";
  • The name "Perdidos no Espaço" is titled after the show Lost in Space;
  • The chorus from "Pais e Filhos" is lifted from a quote from Vision Quest that was adapted to Portuguese;
  • "Eu Era um Lobisomem Juvenil" lifts its title from the movie I Was a Teenage Werewolf;
  • "Love Song" interpolates a section of "Cantiga de Amor" by Galician-Portuguese trovador Nuno Fernandes Torneol;
  • "A Ordem dos Templários" contains an interpolation of "Douce Dame Jolie" by French composer Guillaume de Machaut;
  • "A Montanha Mágica" is named after the novel The Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann;
  • "Soul Parsifal" takes its name from the Richard Wagner's opera, Parsifal, which in itself is based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's book Parzival;
  • "L'Avventura" is titled after Michelangelo Antonioni's film Lavventura, with a small nod to the movie in the final lines:
  Eu sei porque você fugiu / Mas não consigo entender^note I know why you ran away / But I'm not able to understand
  • "As Flores do Mal" is named after the book French poet Charles Baudelaire, Les Fleurs du mal.^note The Flowers of Evil
• Something Blues: "Baader-Meinhof Blues", after the revolutionary group.
• Stage Names: Renato Manfredini Júnior picked Russo to sound similar to Bertrand Russell, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Henri Rousseau. Eduardo Villa-Lobos used his nickname Dado. While Renato Rocha usually went by his name, the nicknames Negrete (alluding to him being Black and to not confuse him with the Renato Russo who's the main songwriter) and Billy also show up.
• Take That!: "Geração Coca-Cola" is one for the people in the country who dismissed the youth who grew up with exported television and music as alienated and ignorant.
• Textless Album Cover: Que País É Esse and O Descobrimento do Brasil
• Title-Only Chorus: "Que País É Esse"
• Title Track: Que País É Esse, O Descobrimento do Brasil and Uma Outra Estação.
  • Strangely subverted with A Tempestade ou O Livro dos Dias, with the song "O Livro dos Dias" appearing on it as the final track while "A Tempestade" would end up in Uma Outra Estação instead.
• Unreplaced Departed: After Rocha's departure in the late 80's, the band decided to remain as a trio and only hired bassists as touring members.