09 June 2017
This song has absolutely nothing to do with Capoeira – but it has a Forró connection and a lot of people who do Capoeira seem to get into Forró too. I have become obsessed with it since yesterday, while waiting for the UK election results… I occasionally look for nursery songs to play and sing along with my granddaughter – to expose her to her grandmother’s native tongue in a fun way. During one of these searches I found this one:
I like learning new songs, they are like crossword puzzles to me in a way… A fun way to exercise my brain. But also the song sounded familiar so I went in search for the original.
Firstly I learned this was a MASSIVE hit in Europe in the Summer of 2012, starting with an Italian version that was then translated to various languages. I honestly don’t remember hearing it back then… Not down with Europop hit parade 😉
Different language versions here
So originally this song was written by Erisvaldo Da Silva in 1985 and interpreted by “Trio Nortista”, a Forró band. I have failed to find the “Trio Nortista” version (if you like Forró quite a few of their albums and songs are on YouTube) , but found this instead, claiming to be the original, sang by Erisvaldo himself? It’s not clear to me. (17 March 2019 edit: please read the comments section for more information on the origins of this song.)
This version has ‘veado’, not present in the latest version, possibly because of the homophobic, similarly sounding viado? Not sure, just a guess.
Trailing through the comments section, someone said this is actually an adaptation of an older song
“A velha debaixo da cama” by Geraldo Nunes – which is a brilliant song by the way, about all the animals an old woman kept under her bed. Finally all the animals are bitten by the snake under her bed (including a lion!!!!) and the old woman dies from the snake bite.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O8me3FrS8o
This slower version turned out to be the easiest for me to learn, with lyrics everywhere and a less frenetic speed than the one at very top of the page, which is the speed I intend to get up to once I master it the slower version. I’m almost there already! This is how I’m remembering:
Pintinho piu – Galinha có – Galo Corococó – Peru gluglu – Capote tô fraco – Gato miau – Cachorro au au – Cabra mé – Bode bé – Vaca mó – Boi mú – Moça ó.
This song can’t be from 1985, and neither is an adaptation of “a velha debaixo da cama”. They don’t even have the same melody, and “a velha…” is from 1976.
In 60s, Banco da Lavoura de Minas Gerais released a disc with children’s songs. “Pintinho piu” is one of the two songs, and is listed as “Na minha casa tem – folklore song”, without a composer. The other song is about the bank.
You can listen to the LP here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcBNE_FTttg
Banco da Lavoura terminated it’s activities in 1971.
The song has many versions. Some say “capote – tô fraco”, other say “guiné – tô fraco”, both names refering to the same animal, a galinha d’angola/guinea fowl. Some versions start with “na minha casa tem um pintinho”, others are like “a minha velha tem um pintinho”. The woman and the “veado” (and yes, it’s a reference to the homophobic slur) are also absent in some versions. The italian one from 2012 includes a tractor that kills the chick in the end, while originally there’s no tractor and nobody dies.
wow, that is really interesting and I had no idea! Thank you so much for sharing this!