“Rok en Rol Jugoslavija !” - Yugorock: Yugonostalgia meets social commentary at the end of an era
The cover art of Električni orgazam; the self titled 1981 album
of the popular Yugorock band. (Image belongs to author.)
My first encounter with Yugoslavian ‘rock and roll’ came on a bus ride to Belgrade; about 20 miles from the Serbian border with Croatia. I was on my way to take up my job at an NGO centre in Serbia’s capital city, attempting to connect to the Flixbus WiFi— a rookie error, as every frequent eurotraveller knows—when a message from my new boss, now close friend, Luca came through: some key Serbian music to soundtrack my journey.
This was my first encounter with the band “Električni Orgazam” and their hit Yugoslav track “Igra Rok en Rol cela Jugoslavslavia” (“Everybody’s rocking and rolling in Yugoslavia”). From the first pangs of Srđan Gojković’s guitar, it’s practically impossible not to sway along to the high-energy exuberant rhythm. Gojković’s lyrics proclaim “Zaboravi na juče, hajde pogledaj u sutra” (Forget about yesterday, let’s look towards tomorrow”); these lyrics of solidarity and optimism, paired with the jovial tone of the soaring backing track, look forward to times of hope and fellowship.
Yet, this “tomorrow” of Yugoslavia that Gojković’s sings of was increasingly uncertain, a stark contrast to the lyrics of seeming Yugo-positivity. 1988, the year in which Električni Orgazam released this sell-out track, was the final year teams from SFR Yugoslavia competed in the Olympics, and 8 years after the death of the country’s founder and leader Josef Broz Tito. It was not exactly the ‘golden years’ of the republic. As Mitja Velikonja, professor of cultural studies at the University of Ljubljana examines, this song reveals Yugoslav-rock’s puzzling enigma. The nostalgic lyrics of Yugorock often dream of a past that is dramatically distant from the present, and perhaps ‘one that never really happened at all’. At the same time, they have a real capacity to draw on some of the key dreams and optimisms of early Yugoslavia, perceived already to be slipping away at the time of the “New Wave’ and ‘Primitivist” musical movements of the 1980s.
Yugoslav ‘Rock en Rol’ is a genre full of paradoxes - filled with social critique and nostalgia for the earlier days of the republic; and one that tackles these issues with a healthy dose of wit and tongue in cheek.
I have compiled below a playlist of my favourite examples of this truly intriguing genre, and alongside I have written some short comments about the songs I find the most interesting - I hope you’ll soon agree with me when I say there is a piece of Yugorock for everyone.
Link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0TvSEE38QaDA5O8S7uujp2?si=88753019e5314eaf
1. Dan Republike (“Republic Day”) - Zabranjeno Pušenje (“No Smoking!”)
A good place to start is the very parodical “Dan Republike” by Zabranjeno Pušenje - a song which takes its name from Yugoslavia’s national holiday of remembrance of its own founding on the 29th November 1945.
Bosnian “Zabranjeno Pušenje” play on the ideals of different generations: the singer’s father reminiscing about the Yugoslavia of his youth, the fights of the partisans whilst in the present ‘everybody’s waiting to get their passport out,’ his drunken musing curtailed by his wife telling him to close the window to keep the heat in, or to prevent his criticism of the state from being overheard.
With each reprise of “Danas je dan, Dan Republike” (Todays the day, Republic Day) it’s clear that this once glorious day has lost the gleam of hope and promise for a better future it once had for Yugoslavia’s founding generation. With a hearty mix of nostalgia, and social critique of the present - Zabranjeno Pušenje’s 1987 track draw’s heavily on the sketch comedy and satirical attitude of the “New Primitives” group that emerged in Sarajevo in the late 1980s.
Listen while: swaying with a rakija (Balkan brandy)
2. Ukja Sam (“Uncle Sam”)- Zabranjeno pušenje
A personal favourite of mine, and one that I have subjected many of my friends to listens of, is Zabranjeno Pušenje’s “Ukja Sam” - a song that catches New Primitivist’s tongue in cheek, sharp cutting wit at its prime.
The protagonist of the track wonder’s whose knocking on his door at 8:30 - is it someone collecting for heating? To sell him a new TV package? No! It is in fact America’s Uncle Sam, who tells the Balkan protagonist that he owes him a great deal of money. All the while, the narrator hears a politician promising jubilees as ‘bread and circuses’ on the radio, and he is quick to reminds his colleagues that work is the only true road to freedom
It’s a cracking track that is prime for a groove - especially the ‘Bam-Bam-Bam Boogie-Woogie Honeys’ of the soaring chorus. All the while the lyrics tap into a nostalgia for Yugoslavia’s socialist roots and values, increasingly compromised as leadership started to face towards a Western world— a jarring departure from Tito’s policy of non-alignment.
Listen while: Dancing in the kitchen, your pasta spoon as your microphone
3. Maljčiki (“The Lads”) - Idoli
From poking fun at the capitalist West, to making a musical jab at the Eastern bloc, Idoli’s Maljčiki makes a farce of the Stakhanovite idealism that filled Soviet propaganda of the period. Set to an upbeat tune that is distinctly reminiscent of Madness’ “Baggy Trousers”, the song’s melody plays on the traditional Russian “kozachok”— folk music that accompanies a traditional quick paced dance.
The music video for this track, which caused significant protest from the Soviet embassy, is well worth a watch. It features the band dressed as Soviet bureaucrats, while actors dressed in garb of traditionally proletarian, industrial ministries strike poses that mock up socialist realist artwork. It makes the glory portrayed in Soviet propaganda seem silly, and it’s no surprise why it caused such uproar when it was played on the popular Rokenroler show on New Year’s Eve 1980.
Listen when: you are running late, and/or need a spring in your step
4. Ona se Budi (She’s Waking Up) - Šarlo Akrobata
Onto a track with a far moodier tone, and the opening track on the most definitive compendium of tracks of the Yugoslav “New Wave”, the ‘Paket aranžman’ (Package Deal),: “Ona Se Budi”, or “She’s Waking Up”.
Šarlo Akrobata charts the experiences of a young girl moving out of home for the first time to impending urban environment. The dark, murky uncertainty that emanates from Akrobata’s leering lyrics also speaks to the mood of the Yugoslav nation at large as it moves into a period of similarly dark and murky political uncertainty.
Though, in a more immediate context, the female protagonist’s plight that she “doesn’t know what to do after graduating” will surely strike a chord to a university students …
Listen while: walking moodily to a 9am meeting, hands in pockets
5. Da bog da crko rokenrol (I hope Rock and Roll Croaks!) - Elvis J. Kurtović
The satirical scene of Yugoslav rock is one that truly does not take itself too seriously, an attitude that I discovered from new friends in my own travels through the Balkans.
In a track which tackles the perception of New Primitivism’s own rockstars, taking parodical inspiration from the more earnest Stones track “It’s Only Rock and Roll (But I Like It), living the high life; Elvis unmasks the often unglamorous realities of stars of the New Wave, in a self deprecating but ultimately very appealing manner.
Alongside sliding piano scales and hits of electric guitar, and to Elvis’ strip-teasing stage performances, this certainly make for dynamic track - and it’s hard not to bop one’s head along to this catchy beat.
Though to speak for a moment of Elvis’ lyrics, I for one hope that Yugorock, with its satirical commentary, nostalgia and New Wave melodies, doesn’t croak for a long while yet.