Caetano Veloso is simply the most creative musical presence in Brasil. His first album, recorded with Gal Costa and released in 1967, was in the bossa nova mold, but by 1968 had spearheaded the constellation of musical innovators who produced Tropicália ou Panis et Circensis, the declaration of his first war on cultural reactionaries and philistines. The arc of this campaign probably culminated in an improvised harangue where Caetano shouted down an incensed festival audience who disapproved of his plastic costume and the hard rock sound of a song based on a slogan of the French student protesters of 1968. "This is the problem: you all want to police Brazilian music! Gilberto Gil and I are here to do away with the imbecility that rules in Brazil! If you're the same in politics as you are in music, we're done for! God is on the loose! And I say no to no! I say progibiting prohibited . . . Enough!" The speech has attained classic status in the textbooks of Brasil, but in 1969 he was, like Gilberto Gil, jailed before he sought political exile in England for almost a year.

His career has never ceased expanded his musical language, a strength uncommon among classical and jazz composers and more or less unheard of among pop singer/songwriters. At least one of his albums is a long sonic tapestry in the manner of "Revolution #9" while most mix a palette of samba and other Brasilian forms. His listeners are seduced as much as rocked. Due to his affinity to writers like Pound, Mayacovsky, Joyce, and Oswald de Andrade, an expanded consciousness for the listener is as much his aim as the celebration of the colors and textures of his Portuguese.