Trinca De Ases Lyrics in English by Gilberto Gil, Nando Reis, Gal Costa

Calejado translates to "calloused" or "hardened". While it literally refers to skin that has become thick and tough from repeated friction, it's often used metaphorically in Portuguese.

In this song, it describes one of the

Gilberto Gil, Nando Reis, and Gal Costa make their own trio the subject of the song, opening with "Nos cartazes espalhados / Pelos muros da cidade" [On the posters scattered across the city walls]. From there it reads like a scouting report on a card game or a football match: one player is older and careful, one is still a boy, showy and a little vain, and the woman among them runs the whole field herself, calm and precise. They call themselves "Três mosqueteiros se olhavam / Como se fossem guerreiros" [Three musketeers who looked at each other as if they were warriors], three poets who put everything on the table because the name of the game is to sing, and who admit flat out that winning it is never certain.

That bet gets a punchline at the very end. After nearly six minutes in Portuguese, three of Brazil's biggest voices switch language and borrow the Rolling Stones' old complaint: "I can't get no / Satisfaction." It's a joke at their own expense. However well the "Trinca de Ases" [Three of a Kind] plays its hand, satisfaction was never really on the table to begin with.