Sérgio Dias… He’s the Ganjaman and so are we

Sérgio Dias Baptista (Os Mutantes) on “Ganjaman” and Barack Obama

Published on April 17th, 2013 | Jonny Abrams

So forthcoming was Os Mutantes legend Sérgio Dias Baptista was so forthcoming as an interviewee that we couldn’t fit everything we talked about into the main feature. As such, we’ve got some transcript left over for you: think of this as the bonus tracks to an album, why not?

Read on for the great man’s explanation of the song “Ganjaman” from forthcoming new album Fool Metal Jack, as well as his thoughts on Barack Obama…

Click here to listen to “Ganjaman”!

It is the past vs the present and the future, you know. “And all this crap that was hiding the bush took us all into this pig sty”: so it is a critique. Think about that Thatcher movie, The Iron Lady: come on, to expose her misery in her dying days, I don’t understand why. I heard that the family was pissed and I can relate to that because I was shocked with it. Shocking isn’t always the right thing to do; sometimes it needs more peace.

The thing with “Ganjaman” is that we are the Ganjaman, I am the Ganjaman, I “should have known better” than to believe that all the love and peace could bring an end to all the wars in the world today. I still believe in that but I think we need a new revolution: that’s why I say, “Thomas Jefferson will raise from the dead for a new revolution / The Kennedys will come back to us out of their deadly reclusion”. “Deadly reclusion” because they didn’t have to die, you know?

“Marching down with Luther the king across the Pennsylvania Avenue”: so I’m talking about all those guys and then I say “Benjamin Revere”, “old Abe Adams”, all those fathers of the nation, and I wondered how those guys would feel if they were alive today to see the nastiness happening in the politics that we know of. I think those guys would be doing a revolution, because something’s definitely wrong.

Sérgio’s thoughts on Barack Obama, whom he worked into Os Mutantes classic “El Justiciero”…

He’s just a guy. He has no power. Remember Clinton, he claimed that he was going to see America change. The catch 22 situation here is the mad gulf in the insurance situation: you might as well sell everything you have and then give it to the guy, because the system takes everything that you have before you can give it to your children, to the environment or to the people.

Clinton was about to change that – he even showed a car that people were supposed to have – now there’s Obama with ObamaCare. But he’s just a guy, what can he do against this and the pressure of the world? It’s naive to think that he has any power – I don’t think it works that way – so he shouldn’t be blamed. What is to be blamed is the apathy of humanity as a whole.

Brazil’s a mess, and every time you think it’s going to get better, it gets worse and worse. For example, the guy that is in charge of human rights in Brazil is a racist. Can you imagine this? England is becoming like a second America, which is sad to see because it’s a beautiful place. We used to be allowed to go into Westminster Cathedral but now you have to pay £12 to enter. Come on, there’s a limit. Also Starbucks is all over the place now: where are all the pubs and the fish and chips? They’re the real thing.

When it gets to the point that someone cannot enter Westminster to pray… I told the guard, “Listen, I just want to pray,” and he said, “Okay, come here.” He put me in a small chapel to pray but I was not able to enter Westminster. That was really shocking. There were two lines: one for credit card, one for cash! (Laughs) Honestly, it was weird, man.

Click here to read Rocksucker’s interview with Sérgio Dias in full!

Os Mutantes - Fool Metal Jack

Fool Metal Jack will be released on 30th April through Krian Music. Os Mutantes will be touring the US at the end of April and first half of May: click here for dates. For more information, please click here to visit the official Os Mutantes website or here to visit Os Mutantes on Facebook.

Artists: os mutantes

About the Author

Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.