Transa

Exiled in London since 1969, Caetano was allowed a month in Brazil in January 1971 to attend a mass for his parents' 40th anniversary. In Rio the military interrogated him and asked him to write a song praising the Transamazônica highway. He refused, went back to London and made Transa, which came out in Brazil in January 1972, when he returned for good. The title means lovemaking.

Jards Macalé played guitars and handled musical direction and arrangements, and Gal Costa sang on three songs. The record was popular, partly because of a new version of the old samba Mora na Filosofia, by Monsueto Menezes and Arnaldo Passos. Caetano calls it one of his favorite records. Rolling Stone Brasil in 2007 and the Discoteca Básica podcast in 2022 both listed it among the ten best Brazilian albums. In 2016 Pitchfork ranked You Don't Know Me the 73rd best song of the 1970s, and its writer Kevin Lozano called it a song that could only be written from the point of view of an exile. The success of Transa set up the failure of its far more unconventional follow-up, Araçá Azul.