Cat in the Tuba

Walking down Rio's Avenida Rio Branco with Joao de Barro last week was like taking a stroll with Joe Louis in Harlem. Friends embraced him, girls waved, shoeshine boys grinned admiringly. Joao, whose real name is Carlos Braga, is no boxer, but last week he was champ. In a land where everyone loves song, Joao had written (with Collaborator Alberto Ribeiro) the song everybody was singing.

There's a Cat in the Tuba, which won the $750 citywide song contest, had just what it takes to make a carnaval hit: a catchy tune (reminiscent of the Maine Stein Song) and a daffy lyric. Because the government was out to make carnaval bigger & better after some wartime flops, De Barro and Ribeiro wrote Cat in lilting, one-step marcha time--quicker even than the sprightly samba beat.

Cat is the story of one Serafim, a tuba player whose booming at local Sunday concerts gave him an audience for miles around. His hearers were surprised, runs the chorus, when

One day a cat climbed in The tuba of Serafim And the result Of this merger Was that the tuba went Pum pum pum--meow!

At week's end, as carnaval hit its stride, gay cariocas chanted Cat's lyrics as they danced up & down the swarming streets.

Hanging three deep on the sides of streetcars, celebrators sang "Pum pum pum" and the motorman punctuated the "meow" with a clang of his bell. Meanwhile, "There's a cat in the tuba" had become a solid part of Brazilian slang--a rough equivalent of "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

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