It's with great pleasure that we take the opportunity to look back at some of the fast times in Studio 5 through the eyes and ears of PBS' renowned Production Manager, Paul Maybury.
First on Paul's list is Os Mutantes
Well, what can you say about Brasil’s Os Mutantes?
Bastions of the Tropicalia movement, political exiles, musical and social revolutionaries.
They arrived at PBS like a rolling medicine show, a welcome rainstorm after long dry spell, like visitors from an ancient and forgotten realm. The horizon trembled. Electricity cracked the ozone.
Singing, playing, laughing and cavorting, they fell out of their van and into Studio 5.
There was no beginning, and no end to their performance. It was a continuum, a life force.
Recording them was more akin to scooping up a ladle of water from a fast flowing river than anything I had experienced before. And had as little impact on them as the ladle did on the river. There was and is enough water in this river to slake all our thirsts.
After I had collected a little water, they continued their show out in the PBS office, engaging and charming every single person present. The singing continued. It did not stop even when they were heading off to the next stop in their van. I could hear and feel them moving off into the distance, like thunder rolling through hills.
I thought to myself, “now that’s how you musician!”.
Listen back here.
