Charles, Anjo 45

Charles, Anjo 45 closes the 1969 album. Its hero is a malandro, a hustler-protector of the favela who carries a .45, takes an enforced vacation in a penal colony, and comes home to a party. According to the festival historian Zuza Homem de Mello, the model was a friend of Ben's, Charles Antônio Sodré, who ran a jogo do bicho spot and was jailed; Rolling Stone Brasil describes him as a famous bookie from Tijuca. Homem de Mello called the song a premonition of the Rio favelas of today, and later writers hear in its half-spoken delivery a forerunner of Bezerra da Silva and of Brazilian rap.

Ben sang it with Trio Mocotó at TV Globo's International Song Festival in the Maracanãzinho in 1969. As the percussion built at the end, the crowd split between euphoria and boos. Caetano Veloso recorded it as a single the same year, with Ben backing him, shortly before Caetano left Brazil for exile, which is why it is often wrongly credited to him. Ben still plays it inside a medley with Caramba... Galileu da Galiléia and Cadê Tereza?, as on the live Ao Vivo no Rio.