MARIA QUIETER
febuary 2024 // Aix-en-Provence

I want to apologize to all rock music fans (especially 70s hard rock), in this article, i’m going to say a lot of seemingly mean things, without any grounding whatsoever. I have been extrapolating my purpose so it’s clear and understandable, but i am not against rock music and its communities as well.

Maria Quieter : Music by Astrud Gilberto, re-composition and visuals by Luna Faure

I haven’t been bottle-fed to rock music, like many people I know. This is something that I discovered pretty late compared to others, and it makes me sad. So I joined a rock band as the guitarist/singer for a few years to have the opportunity to discover that brand new world.

But today, I’m SICK of rock music. I’m done with this. I’ll never listen to some again.
CAUSE : Overdose.

I can’t not pull my hair out when someone plays the first three laborious notes of Highway to Hell. I really want to murder someone when I hear the voice of Axl Rose. And Livin on a Prayer gives me an instant ick. And don’t get me started on With or Without You.

Deep Purple is quite unfamiliar to me, apart from Soldier of Fortune which is a really graceful song in my opinion (especially when Opeth covers it on the album Ghost Reveries). I haven’t listened to any of their albums from start to finish, even if people told me to. To sum up, i am just barely aware that Smoke on the Water exists.

So, when I discovered that this song was probably plagiarized on a song by Carlos Lyra from the 60s, later performed by Astrud Gilberto, “Maria Quiet” (Maria Moira), my eyes popped out of me.

These are the english lyrics of Maria Quiet as sung by Gilberto.

Maria Quiet

They say that I was born
Of slave mogama and white man
My father slept in iron bed
My mother on cold sand

When my father called
My mother would come
Never said a word
As if she were dumb
A woman who will talk too much
Is soon to lose her man

This song contained a deep feminist subtext that seemed to have been suppressed from the plagiarized version.

It talks about misery with a lot of bitterness, but it also talks about the condition of women within this poverty. An when you know that bossa nova at that time was historically used in a subversive way by musicians like Antonio Carlos Jobim since the 50s as a tool of protest, it adds to the purpose of the song and reinforces its evocative power.

SO (please keep in mind that i am biased by the fact that I can’t stand rock music anymore) an american rock band stealing such a song to turn it into an hymn to the great capitalist, not well written, not touching in any way, dumb, awkward, clumsy, shallow… I really felt a brand new kind of anger. I was so sorry for all these women performers that had something very deep yet very urgent to say, not knowing that they were going to be crushed by some triple A rock band with the subtlety of a monster truck driving over a small house made of straw with a large family inside.
Moreover, Ritchie Blackmore said that this riff was inspired, not by bossa nova, but by Beethoven’s Vth. Really? Beethoven’s Vth? Stealing things wasn’t enough, so you just rely on plain lying?

I’m sorry if this is elitist. But it really made me angry about rock music, its values and most of all the whole “sex, drugs and rock’n’roll haha :p” facade. But I knew it wasn’t rational to be mad at a whole music genre, especially if it had helped to build me.

So, what do I do with all of my non-rational thoughts? I turn them into songs.

Maria Quieter

who do you think you are,
with your pity ideas of liberty?
you can’t just take my song
AND STAIN MY HISTORY.

now, let’s not be as friends as you’d like
you’re the toxic one that f_cks up all right
your shallows values, kept by duct tape
everybody knows they won’t hold tight

// CHORUS //

why would you feel sorry for us?
we’re not from the same world
the problem is not what you’ve done
but what you’ve just become

so molest our children, burn our heritage
come on, just turn it into dust again
i know that someday YOU WILL FALL
and we’ll all dance on your graves
I HOPE THAT SOMEDAY YOU WILL FALL
SO WE’LL ALL DANCE ON YOUR GRAVE

// CHORUS //

To conclude, if you steal things to a big brand in order to feed yourself, it is rightful (i do not encourage that though). But if you’re already wealthy, well fed and you steal to those who are oppressed and in poverty, those who need to be heard more than anything else, then without overstating, you’re a bad person.

I learnt something, years after I thought I was done forever with rock music. The Doors, Alice Cooper, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beatles, the Beach Boys… Not all rock music has this thick layer of dullness and superficiality, it even seems very dense and profound. Thinking about it, you can really tell great stories with it. I might have to listen to Deep Purple a bit more.

By the way, if you have a suggestion of something that I should listen in that genre, feel free to DM me on my Instagram! Except if it’s Highway to Hell of course, but that goes without a saying.