“A Man Who Lived On The Very Edge, In Every Way Possible”

Devendra Banhart narrates the story of "the greatest (and craziest) soul singer you never heard of":

Infamous in Brazil, Tim [Maia] was a soul grenade that exploded in the 70s. He single handedly revolutionized Brazilian popular music and had the best time ever doing it. His story is one of humourous excess in every way imaginable and there’s something for all the family: drugs, women, money, guns and even a UFO cult thrown in. He REALLY lived the dream, always with a smile.

In a profile last October, the NYT discussed Maia's impact at his peak:

Maia’s enormous popularity in the ’70s triggered a shift in Brazilian pop culture that extended far beyond music, notably the emergence of a movement that came to be called Black Rio, with the English word "black" used instead of its Portuguese equivalent. The most obvious manifestation was that record companies signed acts that drew on Maia’s style… 

But fans of those bands also adopted Afro-American fashions and attitudes, which alarmed the all-white military dictatorship then in power, fearful of the importation of notions of black power into a country that had the largest black population outside Africa. In the working-class suburbs of Rio and São Paulo, fans would gather on weekends for exuberant all-night dance parties that featured Maia’s or other bands. 

(Video by Superheroes Amsterdam)