Happy Halloween from Rita Lee!
Source: Marco Senche from Araçatuba, Brasil, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The incredible Rita Lee herself probably doesn’t associate “Cruela Cruel” (from “Zona Zen”/“Zen Zone” released in 1988) with Halloween, but this surreal, somewhat spooky song has always struck me as fitting for this holiday. Lee is know for, among other things, great word play. In this song, for example, she invents the word “roquebrou” which combines “roque” (“rock”) and “quebrou” (past tense of “to break”). Here I’ve decided to render that as “rocknroll.” In this song she also plays with the word “cruela” which could be the feminine of “cruel” (but isn’t) or the name Cruella. The italicized words below are in English in the original - fitting Lee’s rhymes. And then there’s the strings of words that kind of fit together but don’t always make coherent sentences. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
“Cruel Cruella”
I am a nest in the strange
Dangerous, insane world
Nexus, yoga, and rocknroll
Life has never been so cruel Cruella
Cruel Cruella
I’m a mother from Cacultta
Trying to save the planet
Sometimes I destroy the universe
In the cracked garb of Machiavelli’s black widow
Machiavelli, Machiavelli, Machiavelli, Machiavelli
Cruela cruel, cruela, cruela (cruela, cruela, cruela, cruela)
Cruela cruel, cruela, cruela
Cruela cruel, it's heaven in hell
Hidden enemies
Turn out to be incompetent
Boredom, Anfa, and paranoia
I always found the cruelest glory in love, Cruella
Cruel Cruella
Telepathic earth
Lunatic, lightyears
Without idols, heroes, prophets, gurus
Only in the shadow of a bomb, evil witch, Medusa, Jezebel
Jezebel, Jezebel, Jezebel, Jezebel
Jezebel, Jezebel, Jezebel, Jezebel
Cruela cruel, cruela, cruela (cruela, cruela, cruela, cruela)
Cruela cruel, cruela, cruela
Cruela cruel, it's heaven in hell