Almost two decades since his sudden passing at the age of fifty-five, Tim is finally receiving theĪttention and credit he deserves for his contribution to Brazilian and international soul music. Tim’s body of work is mostly unknown outside of Brazil, though this The latter half of his nearly thirty-year recording career, he became just as famous for the headlines he inspired (“Youĭidn’t go to Tim Maia’s show? Neither did he” )Īs his wildly popular remakes of his classic tunes. Tim’s rememberedīy the Brazilian public as a fat, arrogant, hilarious, overindulgent, and yet beloved man-child who died too soon. Among his dozens of hit songs, and others that should’veīeen, you’ll find impassioned odes to chocolate, women, mortality, and his hometown Rio de Janeiro. Brazil’s number one soul brother hadĪ voracious appetite for both carnal and philosophical indulgences. To the metaphysical doo-doo Tim Maia fell in at the height of his fame. Witness, and decades later helped convert Prince, but nothing compares

Hitting the charts Bob Dylan was briefly a born-again Christian during an artistic dip in the late 1970s the Beatles’įoray into Eastern spirituality came at the end of their run and only added to their counterculture credibility Sly and the Family Stone bassist and solo star, Larry Graham, became a born-again Jehovah’s Historically, famous musicians have taken spiritual flights of fancy: Cat Stevens 3 converted to Islam well after he was Tim Maia’s existential detour was unprecedented. Immunized,” a process consisting principally of reading and re-reading the thousand books in the Universo Em Desencanto (Universe in Disenchantment) series. The belief that humans are not from planet Earth and that in order to return to the home planet, one must become “rationally He then re-recorded all of the lyrics to promote Rational Culture, a Scientology-like cult founded in Brazil espousing With international record company RCA Victor for an unprecedented double album of Brazilian soul and funk that was close toĬompletion. Just a year earlier, in 1974, Tim Maia, one of the biggest pop stars in Brazil, calmly tore up his contract The date was September 25, 1975, according to Tim Maia’s biographer, Accompanied by dozens of Rational Culture followers. Tim Maia appears on Mauro Montalvão’s TV Tupi show on Septemberħ, 1975.

Tim maia in concert sussego