Baby - Os Mutantes

There was one time when I was spending a lot of time out in the hinterlands of the Bay Area. I would get a map, find some semi-remote destination, get on a bus and head off into the woods to go hiking and camping. I spent most of my nights outdoors, my legs were generally tired, I bathed when I got back to civilization, and I liked it that way. It was like voluntary sporadic homelessness, except I had a base-camp in civilization to which I could return. In any case, one night when I was camped up in the hills of the Point Reyes National Seashore-- somewhere between Point Reyes Station and Bolinas-- I was listening to the radio as night fell and I happened upon the college station where they were playing the strangest line-up of Mexican metal bands and this Brazilian group called Os Mutantes. Turns out Os Mutantes was big in Brazil at around the time of the Beatles and was part of that whole explosion of brilliant rock during the 60s and 70s. Much of their oeuvre is insane, quirky, fun experimental stuff (reminiscent of the Beatles' more experimental work), but I fell immediately in love with this one track "Baby," which is a little ballad with a sparse instrumental track. I just love it. It doesn't really matter what it means exactly. There's just something refreshing and simple about it that stands the test of time. For me, at least. It also takes me back to that campsite in the woods, where I hiked for two days straight through beautiful coastal woodlands and along the rugged seashore. How do you beat that?