Manuel Freire

He was born in 1942.¹ He studied for a year in Coimbra, during the 1962 academic crisis, and for another in Porto; after his military service, he went to work for a metalworking company in Ovar, operating punched-card machines, and the PIDE would call there once a year to ask about the employee with the ballads. He sang at weekends, on bank holidays and during the holidays.²

In 1969, on Zip-Zip, at the Villaret Theatre, he sang “Pedra Filosofal” (Philosopher’s Stone) in public for the first time, on the poem by António Gedeão, and at once became one of the faces of the new Portuguese song.² He sang it again on the last programme, on 29 December.³ In 1971, on the same stage, the Zip-Zip label gave him the “bronze disc”, for ten thousand copies sold.²

On 29 March 1974, at the 1st Portuguese Song Meeting (I Encontro da Canção Portuguesa), at the Coliseu, the lyrics came back cut by the censors; he told the audience, ironically, that he had left them behind on the train, and the hall understood, gave him a standing ovation and sang “Pedra Filosofal” with him — “they do not know, nor do they dream, / that the dream commands life” (eles não sabem, nem sonham, / que o sonho comanda a vida).⁴ At the end, he was one of those who sang “Grândola” with José Afonso and five thousand people.⁴ In May, with freedom already won, he sang “Vai no Vento” (It Goes with the Wind) at the 1st Free Popular Song Meeting (I Encontro Livre da Canção Popular), in Porto.⁵