Scotsman Obituaries: Fausto, Portuguese singer-songwriter who helped launch the country’s Carnation Revolution

Born on a ship on the Atlantic Ocean, Fausto was brought up in the west-central African nation of Angola, then a Portuguese colony, and his songs against colonialism and dictatorship would eventually play a major role during and after the military-led "Carnation Revolution" which, in turn, led to the independence of Angola and Portugal’s other colonies of Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique and São Tomé e Príncipe.

His lyrics and guitar playing had many influences: from American protest singers including Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger and Phil Ochs to Paul Simon and bluesman Muddy Waters and French-language chansonniers including the Belgian Jacques Brel: but never copying, and always with a distinct Portuguese feel, whether from the dance rhythms of the northern Douro region to the faster beat of the Algarve or from the Alentejo polyphones dating back to the Renaissance or even 15th Century pagan songs.

But his rhythms also echoed those of the African music he grew up with in Angola, while his vocal delivery took on the silky sounds of Brazilian artists such as Gilberto Gil and António Carlos Jobim.

Low-key and self-effacing, Fausto was not quite as well-known or revered as his compatriot José “Zeca” Afonso, whose song Grândola Vila Morena became the theme tune of the revolution and remains something of an unofficial Portuguese anthem, but both men’s experiences of living in Portugal’s military-ruled African colonies, were key factors in igniting the famous, almost-bloodless Carnation Revolution led by disgruntled young pro-democracy army captains and naval officers. And Fausto arranged, played on and produced many of the songs of Afonso, who wrote by ear rather than by manuscript.

Both men, both white, sang about the oppression of native Africans by the Portuguese colonialists and, after the successful revolution, the defeated dictatorship was quickly forced to give up its colonies, which soon gained independence.

So many Portuguese families were disgusted by the loss of their young soldier sons, brothers, daughters or other relatives during the ongoing African independence wars against the Lisbon colonial authorities – and indeed, by the massive loss of African lives – that revolution was almost inevitable.

Perhaps his his best-known song and conceptual album came after the revolution. It was titled Por Este Rio Acima (For This River Above, 1982), in which he sang: “Up this river, leaving behind the deep concave from the smoke house, I came close to the dream, floating in the water of the heaven’s rivers, ginger and honey draining, porcelain and silks, pepper and cinnamon … receiving offers of soft songs in our ears, light as air. This land to sail. My love… How am I going up this river?”

Like Dylan with his A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, Fausto was also one of the first singers to warn about humans’ role in climate change and lethal pollution. In his 1977 song Rosalinda, he wrote: “Rosalinda, if you go to the beach, if you go to see the sea, be careful, don't let your foot fall in dirty oil. Yesterday's white sand it's full of tar, the dunes under wind are made of plastic and coal. They smell bad like avenues of mud and putrefaction.”

Carlos Fausto Bordalo Gomez Dias was born to Portuguese parents on November 26, 1948, aboard the ship Pátria during a trip between Portugal and Angola. His birth was registered to his parents’ home in Vila Franca das Naves, Trancoso, Portugal. He grew up on the outskirts of Nova Lisboa (now Huambo) in Angola, going to school and playing with the local Black kids.

Aged 14, having already self-taught himself African percussion, he learned guitar from a Black man called Ondingo, who played traditional, pre-colonialist Angolan music. Fausto got hooked. He formed a teenage band calling themselves Os Rebeldes (The Rebels), all of them, although white, totally immersed in Black African music and rhythms although influenced by 1960s’ pop bands including the Beatles.

Just before turning 20, Fausto returned to Portugal to study at the Instituto Superior for Social and Political Ultramarine Sciences, now part of the University of Lisbon. But in 1973, with the dictatorship still in power, he was called up for military service but declined to show up. He was declared a refractario (draft dodger), so he went underground. Determined to challenge or tease the dictatorship, however, he drove around Portugal without a driving licence or insurance, to and from friends’ “safe houses,” in a VW Beetle, the same model used by most Portuguese police at the time. (He gained his driving licence only after the revolution, when he also received his degree).

During these underground travels he hooked up with fellow resistance musicians including Zeca Afonso and José Mário Branco, with whom he would collaborate during and after the revolution. In 1994, he was decorated with the Order of Liberty by the then Portuguese president Mário Soares.

Hearing of Fausto’s death, Portuguese president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said: “Fausto, who left over decades a musical legacy intertwined with the history of Portugal itself. Fausto belonged to a group of musicians who translated the feelings of the Portuguese people into songs of intervention.”

Prime Minister Luís Montenegro added: “The music of Fausto Bordalo Dias has fascinated us for decades. It is with great regret that I receive the news of his death, which does not mean that he has disappeared. The contribution he made to music and Portugal is immortal and will continue to inspire us. I will never speak of Fausto in the past tense.”

In a 1986 interview, Fausto himself said: “I was born at sea, I grew up in Angola, and let's just say that I was rocked, at least for part of the journey, by those who, in the 16th century, leaving Portugal, discovered other worlds. I felt I needed to know how this adventure of travelling and discovery took place.”

Fausto is survived by his wife, a son, daughter and grandchildren.

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