"Bezdan": An American's Guide to Balašević Part 9

An album that is adolescence, a turning point. Not my favorite, but filled with great moments. ‪@DJORDJEBALASEVICOFFICIAL‬
TABLE of CONTENTS -
6:17 - Music Turn:Missing Bocek
8:09 - 1986 - Political Turn
13:12 - Track 1 - Sve Je Otislo u Honduras
17:23 - Virovitica
20:09 - Ne volim januar
24:52 - Nema više benda kao Neoplanti
29:45 - Bezdan
31:05 - Stari orkestar
32:40 - Narodnjaci
38:44 - Ne lomite mi bagrenje
53:58 - Slow Motion
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[@nenad-seguljev]

14:04 - "Honduras" - Sometimes Balašević would sing version "Sve je otišlo u Hondurac" (delete "hon" and replace "d" with "k") and you will get some interesting word in serbian. ;) 22:45 - The street where Balašević lived is called Jovana Cvijića Street, and it runs parallel to Dositejeva Street. I think, the distance from Balašević's house to the place where the girl he sings about lives is 206 steps. 24:09 - Cuddling is "maziti se". "Nikada" means "never" 25:25 - "Neoplanti" were a Yugoslav rock band. They were one of the musical groups that left a mark on the domestic music scene in the 1970s. This success enabled them to perform at numerous events and parties. In 1978, Radio Novi Sad invited Đorđe Balašević to record one of his songs that would represent Radio Novi Sad at the Opatija festival in 1978. The chosen song was "Moja prva ljubav", and it was recorded with members of the Neoplanti group, as Rani Mraz did not have members at that time. In honor of the Neoplanti group, their longstanding collaboration and friendship, Đorđe Balašević recorded the song "Nema više benda kao Neoplanti" (There's No Band Like Neoplanti Anymore) on his fourth studio album "Bezdan." 31:45 - "Stari orkestar" refers metaphorically to older communist politicians who maintain a hardline stance, rejecting new liberal ideas and resisting adaptation to changes. 41:20 - "Ne lomite mi bagrenje" Miloš and AI got it right. And, song intro have some interesing, maybe (albanians) instrument/traditional sounds?! 51:42 - "No one is allowed to beat you" is a statement by Milošević in the context of tensions in Kosovo. Specifically, it does not involve interethnic violence but rather violence by the police.

[@MiXeRiOzNi]

Stari orkestar happens to be a really really subtle metaphor of the incompetent government back in the day. The orchestra is so old, singing the same old song over and over again. At one point, he claims that the members are also their own jury, always praising themselves and not letting other bands compete with them, which is a reference to the lack of democratic elections.

[@miloradbabic8730]

I'm a bit late to the party with this video, but I'm glad to see that you kept going because I love your perspective on Balasevic. Also, I'm really excited to see what you will think about Panta Rei. While I love some of the songs on Bezdan I would agree that it's not Balasevic's best work. Panta Rei, however, has my personal favorite of all of his songs, "Requiem". And I'm looking forward to the next video because of that.

[@juricaspindl]

This communication was written in the Serbian language and translated using ChatGPT, so the translation may not fully reflect the respectful tone in which it was originally written. Dear Proffesor, I always joyfully watch each of your analyses of Đole's albums. I greatly appreciate your effort and thank you for another thorough analysis, even though, to paraphrase your statement from the beginning of your video, "this one is convincingly the worst so far". 😊 If you accept well-intentioned suggestions, I would like to point out some fundamental mistakes related to the understanding of Đole's poetry, his personality, and his life philosophy. I hope you will consider them and change your approach to future analyses (or even redo the analysis of a particular album). I will focus on the two most important ones. 1. Balašević is primarily and most importantly - a poet. Therefore, for a successful analysis of his albums, it is necessary to primarily analyze that poetry. And you are more than competent to do so, regardless of language barriers. Although Đole's process of writing songs began with composing music and then lyrics, his poetry is the dominant segment of his creativity. I grew up with the sound of electric guitars in rock music and listening to Đole's songs with Boček's pop-rock arrangements. However, I realized that, for Đole's poetry, later arrangements by Petrović and Dujin are much more suitable. They pulled the music into the background, ensuring it doesn't overshadow the strength of his poetry, creating the atmosphere envisioned by the author. The best example is the next album, "Panta Rei," where Đole gave complete freedom to the band's musicians, which turned out to be - a wrong decision. The album is musically good, the poetry is consistently excellent, but the overall impression is that they don't fit well, and the distinctive atmosphere of Balašević's albums is missing (Fortunately, the masterpiece "Requiem" was not affected by those musical experiments.) Đole's albums demand an unconventional approach to analysis. it is essential to first deeply understand Đole's poetry and only then view the music, arrangements, singing, or the song as a whole through that prism (an approach that you would likely use when analyzing Cohen's "Suzanne" or "Famous Blue Raincoat.") I know that you do these analyses as a gift to your wife, and you do it secretly every year, but it would be best to involve her as a translator in the analysis of Đole's poetry. Due to incorrect lyrics of Đole's songs on the internet, and especially due to the lack of proper punctuation, it is best to use his book of poetry "Dodir svile" (if you had that copy, you wouldn't hesitate when interpreting verses in "Slovenska"). 2. Another important thing you didn't understand well is Đole's ethnic (non)commitment. His mother is Croatian (the daughter of a Croat and a Hungarian), his father is Serbian, but these facts are completely irrelevant, because his parents never emphasized their ethnic origin (in communism, it was considered even impolite, and in the case of such ethnically mixed marriages, downright tasteless). As a child from such a marriage and raised in that way, Đorđe always declared himself transnationally on population census: as a Yugoslav (and when Yugoslavia ceased to exist, he declared himself as a Slav). So, unlike nationalists, he always saw only persons in people, not Serbs, not Croats, not Albanians. - just man. And that's how he perceived himself - not as a member of any nation but as a human being. When human tragedies emotionally affected him, he wrote about them as human tragedies, not as national ones. Such a perception of society is beyond the understanding of any nationalist, so they blame him for defending Serbs from Albanians, then for defending Croats from Serbs, and then for defending Bosnian Muslims from Bosnian Serbs and Croats. But he just saw human suffering and tried to point it out in his songs. Your made catastrophic mistake in the analysis of the song "Ne lomite mi bagrenje" (due to that mistake, it would be best to remove this analysis and replace it with a more quality one). Deeply affected by the misery of unfortunate people who suffered violence, he wrote a poignant song. But precisely because the violence was ethnically motivated, he gave it a universal character of a love song so that it would not be misunderstood or abused. The album "Bezdan" with this song was released on June 17, 1986. Just 12 months later, the live album "Balade" was released, which includes the unreleased song "Samo da rata ne bude" (this masterpiece deserves a separate analysis), as well as an additional single with the song "1987." In one verse of the song "1987," he says: "I'm afraid the Chetnik vampire will wake up. What does a vampire know about migration? He sees everything purely ethnically." If you had insight into this verse (as well as the song "Samo da rata ne bude"), you certainly wouldn't have come up with that blasphemous thinking about the meaning of the verse "sve ću da Vas polomim" (I'll break you all). In that screem of that unfortunate man from the song, Đole shows us in what catastrophe will lead the lack of a state reaction in prevention of ethnic conflicts, closing the eyes and letting violence respond to violence. The intellectual elite has the obligation to warn the nation of the disaster it is marching towards. Đole refuses to be the wise monkey who sees no evil, hears no evil, and speaks no evil. That something is deeply wrong with Your analysis of this album is indicated by the disagreement between your assessment that it is the worst of all seven albums so far and almost unanimous ratings of Yugoslav music critics who consider this album to be Balašević's best (or at least the most significant) album, and song Bezdan one of most significant songs of Yugoslav pop-rock. In the book "YU 100: The Best Albums of Yugoslav Rock and Pop Music (albums released until 1992)," Balašević is represented with two albums: The album "PUB" takes 66th place, and the album "Bezdan" 25th. The reason for this disagreement, in my opinion, lies precisely in the inadequate way of analyzing this album. There are also other numerous errors in this video, but they are not as crucial as the two mentioned. I am available to assist with any new analyses. All the best to You and Your family.

[@SveJEimoNISTAimoNIJE]

Very well written... 🙂

[@SveJEimoNISTAimoNIJE]

First of all, I congratulate you on your effort to understand Balašević's music. You are doing a great job. Many who speak Serbo-Croatian do not bother to understand... I watched all your previous Balasevic videos. I like the analysis of this album the least, but I still love it. Although you have a few mistakes... I'm sure someone will correct you by now. There is no bad Balasevic album. The first 8 Balašević studio albums are not so important, the songs on them are important. Balašević made new musical arrangements for many songs from those first albums. You definitely shouldn't skip "Balade - U tvojim molitvama" the following chronological Live album from 1987. My favorite album, the arrangements are a bit more mature here and the audience support is incredible. When you get to the last song that Balašević published during his lifetime, "Hej, lega", contact me. Greetings from Osijek! Samuel, Presretači-Osijek By the way, Virovitica is in Croatia but that's not important...

[@whatatimetobealive524]

You're so real for the Balašević videos, completely random but makes so much sense, he is a great artist. Pozdrav iz Beograda :)

[@sasas5193]

As always, it was a real pleasure listening to your analysis of Balasevic's album! Sometimes it seems to me that you understand Balasevic better than some people in Serbia! 🦉Ćuk is the name for one of the owl species! Can't wait for the next analysis.... Happz B-day to your wife 💐 AVAA

[@sarabrenko5943]

Oh man nice catch with the "our strange star is fading." I'm digressing a bit now but this reminded me of something when I was a very little kid (I'm a Croatian born in 87) , I guess just before Yugoslavia fell apart, I was in a store with my grandma and there were these tiny flags on toothpicks and they had the Croatian flag, but being a kid, I wanted the one with a cool red star on it. My grandma got it for me but advised me not to show it to my grandpa. I remember that, but what I'd really like to know is what the hell was that store doing in the first place lol SVKIU

[@MacakPodSIjemom]

Professor Skye, I must say I share completely all you said about Boček's importance for production of Balašević's albums. I started to listen to his songs somewhere in 1985-86, and I just got used to his way, and I had some way to go until I used to listen new songs, without Boček. As for songs, some of my thoughts and explanation follow down here: 1. "Sve je otišlo u Honduras" - i think most of S-C speakers would agree that this is just a clever and smart way he used to say the usual (very explicit) proverb "sve je otišlo u pizdu materinu" or "sve je otišlo u kurac". I apologize for explicit words, but that's how it is. The meaning of the proverb is "it has all gone to hell" ; he DOES mock Albanians in this song. Thou he was never a Serb nationalist, Albanians were just universally mocked in whole of Yugoslavia, not just for their accent, but more for their way of life and their attitude to other peoples of Yugoslavia. They always separated themselves, and they were very closely interconnected between themselves. Those years, the other half of 80-s were marked with the news about their ethnically motivated crimes and misdemeanors against Kosovo Serbs. At that time, Kosovo had it's own police forces, run by Albanians, so the Serbs were not protected for most of the time. Why he mocks people who mispronounce the R sound, I'm not sure. 2. "Virovitica" - Virovitica is a little town in northern Croatia. I think it was chosen just for the rime, it could have been some other town in Yugoslavia. Yes, the meaning of the song is very patriotic and ideological (non-alligenment). Balašević was something of a Yugoslav nationalist, even though Yugoslav nation didn't exist as a separate entity. 3. "Ne volim januar" - very powerful song, I have very personal feelings and memories connected with this song. "Nisam te nikada mazio, pazio" - "I have never cuddled you, nor did I take care about you". "Maziti" - actually more like "to pet" than to "cuddle", but in this song it is "cuddle". In everyday speech "maziti" = "to pet", "maziti se (s nekim)" = "to cuddle (with somebody)". "Nikada" means "never" 4. "Bezdan" - even more powerful love song. . very emotional verses, describing a love that fades away inevitably. 5. "Nema više benda kao Neoplanti" - it is very personal song for Balašević, and most of his fans wouldn't know more about it. It is just that this small band had something to do with the beginning of his career, and he always stayed fond of them because of that. And, yes, this is mostly nostalgia about "good old times, when we didn't have to worry to much". 6. "Narodnjaci" - it is not a song primarily about folk singers. He just uses this as a pretext to express his aversion to all the "narodnjaci", as he put it. If he was chauvinist about anything, it was against the "narodnjaci". In his book, those were the people that came to his town mostly from distant rural highlands (or other rural areas, even from suburbs of his city). Very loud people, who know how to use their skills to quickly go up the ladder, they have no shame, no culture, no decency. Together with them he puts all the other people that act according to this stereotype. And, as they mostly do listen to NEO-FOLK music (tamburaši usualy are not considered "narodnjaci" in that sense) he calls them (in this song) simply "narodnjaci". 7. "Ne lomite mi bagrenje" - oh, man! There is so much to say about this song. Many of his fans would easily agree that this is his best song. The two explanation that you came with, are very correct. 8. "Slow Motion" - I share your feelings thougths about this song. It is, in a way, the counter to the Narodnjaci song, he sings about how he is different from their ways, he isn't fast and aggressive, he makes it the old way - "slow motion". 9. "Stari orkestar" - it is very obvious, thong in cheek, parody about the old League of Communists of Yugoslavia. They were the only party in the country since 1946, and they ruled for 40 years before this song was written. At that moment the song perfectly depicted the LCY - they were old, singing the same old song, not letting others to compete (other parties were banned), being at the same time the supreme jury and the only contestant at the scene. "Tra la la la" is just a nonsense chorus, usually in German songs, but it is not connected with Germans in this song.

[@zooom99m]

Re: Neoplanti. They were around since the sixties. Their first single was about 10 years after they were already a cover band in Novi Sad playing at dances. Balasevic wrote their second single Horoskop and a track from their third single. Neoplanti don't have their own section in the encyclopedia, but they are mentioned several times in Balasevic's section, Laboratorija Zvuka section and Boom 77 section. Just the right amount of references given their influence and importance. Ironinically, when in 1986 Neoplanti finally made it to an LP format, it was a nardonjaci album.

[@professorskye]

Thank you for this!

[@OliverKlacik]

First of all AVAA! Personally I always viewed Panta Rei as his weakest album. It's much more depressing and literally has Requiem for Yugoslavia. Here's something about each song: 1. "Sve je otišlo u Honduras" - Everything went to hell (to put it politely) 2. "Virovitica" - Yugoslavia is best 3. "Ne volim januar" - There are actually 206 steps between his house and Dositejeva, beautiful song 4. "Bezdan" - Dark, but I love it 5. "Nema više benda kao Neoplanti" - Times are changing 6. "Narodnjaci" - Josip Bocek 'sold out' 7. "Ne lomite mi bagrenje" - Originally about Kosovo, later about any injustice 8. "Slow Motion" - Just wanna live my life 9. "Stari orkestar" - Politicians / Communist Party of Yugoslavia

[@radeplay3010]

Now-Panta Rei! Thank you,my man. You're the best!

[@dunjadunjic2392]

Thnk you for making this, djordje is genije hope your wifes happy

[@zooom99m]

What the hell is AVAA everyone? Josip Bocek started in Osijek, Croatia with Dinamiti in late sixties. Line up with Bocek didn't make any records, but there are a few recordings floating on YT. Bocek then joined Korni Grupa, a supergroup put together in Belgrade by Kornelije Kovac. Check out their first album (no title) and a few B-sides (A-sides are not that great). He never made a solo album (just one excellent instrumental single). After Korni Grupa he mostly just did studio work and production (including excellent Leb i Sol #2). His best production work was in tandem with Tahir Durkalic He did not turn into a nationalist in the 90s. He continued living in Belgrade with his family despite of nationalism. However, he started recording and playing guitar on turbo folk records. In some sense it was a waste of his talents, although he still did it with integrity .Whenever his guitar solo shows up in those songs, it really stands out.

[@misosky]

Svaka čast kontas dobro

[@irreal2]

SVKIU (Sjajan Video Kao I Uvek) ❤

[@sarabrenko5943]

Patak is a male duck, patka is a female duck. Nikada is never, cuddling would be maziti. In the song, "nikad te nisam mazio, pazio" means "I never cuddled you, protected you". I think the better translation for the word "maziti" is caressing rather than cuddling, but it's not way off. Narodnjaci is how we refer to turbo folk music.. Folk and turbo folk is totally different, and you wouldn't refer to folk music as narodnjaci, you'd say "narodna muzika" or something smilar.

[@MathTravels]

AVAA, brother (please read on, there is a "what happened to Bocek" story). This may be the worst Balasevic album, but it is your best Balasevic review so far (your best review remains , in my opinion, the review of RTJ 4). I just wrote a 1000 word comment, but it ended up in the "abyss" of KZbin (erased or not saved). So the only thing I'd like to re-write is that in the song "narodnjaci", the line "folk singers stole my band" is a reference to the fact that Bocek left Balasevic to play with the folk powerhouse "Juzni Vetar" (Southern Wind). You can youtube it and find compilations of Bocek's solos with "Juzni Vetar". The reason why he left Balasevic is probably because he was better paid by "folkers". I do think that "Juzni Vetar" had amazing musicians and I recommend you hear their collaboration with Serbian folk-rock virtuoso Louis ("Evo Me Opet" is a great example- although I don't think Bocek plays on that album).

[@professorskye]

Wow, that is an amazing insight! Thank you for that.

[@wardpaine8194]

Happy birthday

[@belosevickris3379]

I actually love this album :) it has the best ballads... the top of the top of Balašević's ballads

[@45rg28]

Skye, if you wish, I have Balašević's concert recorded in 1994 almost in full that i captured off VHS on my google drive. Hit me up if you want a copy.

[@kobe2667]

Why only once a year ?😢

[@biserkasertic1208]

Neoplanti was not important band in history of YU rock production, but was important as a memory in his personal life.

[@matrix_x_]

It is a local band that Đole heard about as a child. He is mentioned more in a symbolic and figurative sense. Otherwise, all of Balasevic's songs should be viewed from his shoes. He never did anything other than being a poet and singer, songwriter. At the same time, it should be emphasized that he is first and foremost a poet and that music is only the background for the beautiful texts and messages he carries. Music as such was never a priority for Balašević, but only a backdrop, the text is the main thing and a major part of the time should be devoted to its analysis. It should also be said that all his songs are a whole, and you can't get an impression of a song based on just a few sentences. The entire text must be analyzed. I hope that next time it will be much more detailed and that we will hear some audio with each song, so that we can hear how each of them sounds.

[@user-ly3fy9zc6x]

In Ne lomite mi bagrenje only important thing is that people broke the trees where he kissed a special girl. Without those trees there is no memory of her. All other done damage is irrelevant. I only see it as love song not a political or song about justice or something else.

[@Dimology]

I always considered song "Sve je otišlo u Honduras" like his way of saying....everything went to shit :)..... Virovitica is a small town in east Croatia.... and only song I really liked from that album is "Ne lomite mi bagrenje"

[@raderadumilo7899]

It's simple. Everyone supports their local club. True in Serbia as anywhere in the world. However, every resident of Serbia supports either Red Star or Partisan, on top of their local club support.

[@matrix_x_]

Congratulations on reviewing Balašević's albums (although we would like to see it much more often because we are getting older and don't have the time or nerves to wait). Also the previous reviews were better because you played parts of the songs. For those of us who know the songs, it still seems OK to some extent. For those who have not listened to these songs or know them poorly, this kind of review is of little help. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the text in more detail (sentence by sentence) and play a part of each poem in order to get the atmosphere.

[@MegaSale27]

Nikada-never and kada-when but the word you ask is maziti -cudle or mazio -passt for i was cudle you.....nikada te nisam mazio -I didn't ever cudle you....lies all the way...

[@zeljkacvjetinovic1756]

Avaa

[@mtlmns8167]

"prepare your ajvar, the winter is coming" 😂😂😂 Super video kao i uvek (SVKIU). I always interpreted "Honduras" as just a way of saying things are going to hell. The average Yugoslavian would have been completely clueless about the country. And I suspect the bits about making fun of people's pronunciation was in reference to, as you say, Serbo-Croatian now becoming Serbian and Croatian, and the nationalistic hair-splitting divisions that were starting to gain traction at the time. Patak is a male goose. Patka is grammatically feminine. "Narodnjaci" doesn't literally mean folk singers - it's a pejorative term for the "novokomponovana" (neo-folk) music that was a precursor to turbo folk. He's not talking about the pre-modern (izvorna) folk tradition if you will, but about the rise of nationalism and the division of society it would sow, starting with music. A big piece of the context I believe you're missing from "Bagrenje" is the growing sentiment of anti-Serbian discrimination within Yugoslavia (fuelled heavily by the 1974 constitutional reform which granted autonomy to Vojvodina and Kosovo). This culminated in the 1986 SANU Memorandum (Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences) which set off a polemic about Yugoslavia and nationalism, hence the 1986 Stambolic comment you referenced at the start of the video. But I think in the long term, given Balasevic's many subsequent anti-war songs, this song lost any nationalist stigma it may have had. Here's a clip of a crowd in Zagreb (of all places) singing it after Balasevic's death. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2Kln6iHq52ngposi=Kg0sCAr6WJTOBfAY

[@UserRN7]

AVAA

[@vojteckibranko]

Thank you for Panta rei surprise. I thought I will need to wait one more year 😂 Best and worst album in same year!

[@vojteckibranko]

WHERE IS PANTA REI??? What a surprise... buuuuuu

[@MilickoMijatovic]

people were looking for change, communism that practiced a significant amount of oppression. The economy was at a standstill, nothing new was established or happening, and the country fell into debt. Nationalism was presented as a way out for the majority, but after the war, which nobody wanted, only then did they realize what a mess it was. Honuras means kurac ...

[@Orolig]

Review something by Plavi Orkestar Skye

[@FLK07]

brilliant album. way better than panta rei :D

[@matrix_x_]

All albums are good. Balašević is first and foremost a poet. Songs should be analyzed. The music is just a background that helps the atmosphere. Balašević tells stories in his songs that need to be understood. The Bezdan album is quite good, but I agree that it is a bit gloomy. It would be nice if you could analyze Balašević's album at least once a month. Balašević used to hold a 4+ hour concert two days in a row in order to perform all the songs. Of course there are also stories and books and much more that accompany Balašević's work. The gig itself is less important here. It just follows the songs, he is a great poet. Balašević is a poet and he never considered himself a singer either. He said that he sings his songs because he doesn't know that anyone else would emotionally convey them to the audience in the way that he envisioned. Balašević is an extremely honest author and poet. Directly and indirectly (in the figurative sense), all of Balasevic's songs are autobiographical, biographical or testimony about a certain time. He is very powerful when he talks in a figurative sense, which is best seen in the song Gedo Gluperdo i Devedesete (90's). Geda is Milosevic, and he introduces him by describing him caricaturally and sarcastically, without mentioning him. All this is happening while Milošević is still in power. So he did not hesitate to criticize the government and bad things in society, directly and even more indirectly. For example, one of his best criticisms of society (Serbia as it is today) is the song "Dno, Dna". I think that maybe you and your wife should comment on each of the songs that you have already commented on by yourself through the analysis of the album. I think that her later interpretation of the songs would also be interesting. The text is the most important here, and the music is just the background that creates the atmosphere.

AVAA! Or SVKIU 😊

[@ethanlammar5554]

Day 231 of Asking you to Review Achilles Come Down by Gang of Youth PS Merry Christmas

[@amatonkbi]

avaa

[@zoransubic447]

Never liked 'Ne lomite mi bagrenje' as I always felt it as nationalist one, so unlike his author. But, that was an atmosphere at that time, so he succumbed. In his first book, 'Tri posleratna druga', he is referring to Albanians as 'people without history... Or cello players', something like that. Meh. Never expected something like that from him. I adore 'Slow Motion' though :)

[@jeboshifru]

He didn't succumb. He is not addressing the whole nation, only nationalists, as well as in Honduras. The fall of Jugoslavia started with Albanian nationalists rallies. Perhaps you don't remember that time, I do. Also, it is important to know that Kosovo was to Serbia what Colombia is for South America - narco cartels center.

[@lcschrdngr]

avaa, happy birthday to your wife!

[@BelzertheRippler]

Avaa

[@user-ly3fy9zc6x]

AVAA