| Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo | |
| Type: | Studio album |
| Artist: | Bijelo Dugme |
| Cover: | Pljuni i zapjevaj.jpg |
| Released: | November 1986 |
| Recorded: | RTV Sarajevo Studio I, Sarajevo Jugoton Studio, Zagreb |
| Length: | 37:59 |
| Label: | Diskoton / Kamarad |
| Producer: | Goran Bregović |
| Prev Title: | Bijelo Dugme |
| Prev Year: | 1984 |
| Next Title: | Mramor, kamen i željezo |
| Next Year: | 1987 |
Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo (trans. Spit and Sing, My Yugoslavia) is the eighth studio album by Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme, released in 1986.
Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo is the band's first album recorded with vocalist Alen Islamović, who came to the band as replacement for Mladen Vojičić "Tifa". It is also the band's first album since 1977 live album Koncert kod Hajdučke česme to feature keyboardist Laza Ristovski as the official member of the band and the band's last studio album to feature keyboardist Vlado Pravdić.
The album was polled in 1998 as the 53rd on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav Rock and Pop albums in the book (YU 100: The Best Albums of Yugoslav Pop and Rock Music).[1]
Divlje Jagode vocalist Alen Islamović, who took over as Bijelo Dugme's singer in early fall 1986, had been unsuccessfully pursued two years earlier by the band's leader Goran Bregović in the immediate aftermath of long-time vocalist Željko Bebek's spring 1984 departure from the band.[2] Unsure about volatile interpersonal relations within the band and fearing Bebek's possible return into the fold, Islamović had decided to turn the offer down at the time and stay with Divlje Jagode;[2] twenty-three-year-old upstart Mladen "Tifa" Vojičić thus became Bijelo Dugme's new vocalist, recording only one studio album, 1984's Bijelo Dugme, with the band.[2] Under the pressure of professional obligations, sudden fame, and media scandal that revealed his LSD usage, Vojičić left Bijelo Dugme after only a year, and Divlje Jagode's Islamović got approached once again about joining.[2] This time, Divlje Jagode were based out of London, pursuing an international career under the modified name Wild Strawberries. Doubting Divlje Jagode's international prospects, 29-year-old Islamović decided to take the offer this time, leaving Wild Strawberries and returning to Yugoslavia to join Bijelo Dugme.[2] Talking about the second vocalist change in two years and the band's personnel issues in general, Bregović stated at the time:
Keyboardist Laza Ristovski, who had left Bijelo Dugme in 1978, first returned as guest for the band's 1984 self-titled album's recording sessions before rejoining as a full-fledged member following the album's December 1984 release.[2] Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo thus became the first Bijelo Dugme release since 1977 live album Koncert kod Hajdučke česme to feature Ristovski as an official member. For the first time in Bijelo Dugme's history, the lineup included two keyboardists: Ristovski and Vlado Pravdić.[2]
Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo features similar Balkan folk-infused pop rock sound as Bijelo Dugme, and was similarly inspired by Yugoslavism within communist and socialist patriotic framework, containing numerous references to the Communist League (SKJ)-defined Yugoslav unity as well as the lyrics on the inner sleeve printed in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.[2]
Due to pressure from Yugoslav communist authorities, Bregović would eventually give up on implementing some of the ideas he had originally envisioned for the album.
When he began conceptualizing it, Bregović wanted Yugoslavism-inspired Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo to contain contributions from individuals known for holding political views outside of SFR Yugoslavia's official ideology as espoused by the SKJ, the only legally allowed political party in the country. To that end, he and the band's manager Raka Marić approached three such individuals who had at that point been effectively proscribed from public discourse in Yugoslavia for over a decade:
Bregović's idea was to have Vukov sing the ballad "Ružica si bila, sada više nisi" ("You Were Once a Little Rose"). However, despite Vukov accepting, the plan never got implemented after the band's manager Marić got detained and interrogated by the police at the Sarajevo Airport upon returning from Zagreb where he had met with Vukov.[3]
Mića Popović's contribution to the album was to be his Dve godine garancije (A Two-Year Warranty) painting featuring a seemingly down-on-his-luck pensioner sleeping on a park bench while using pages of Politika newspaper as blanket to warm himself, which Bregović wanted to use as the album cover. When approached, Mića Popović also accepted though warning Bregović of possible problems the musician would likely face.[3] The album ended up featuring a photograph of Chinese social realist ballet on the cover.
Finally, Koča Popović was reportedly somewhat receptive to the idea of participating on the album, but still turned the offer down.[3]
Eventually, under pressure from the band's record label, Diskoton, Bregović gave up on his original idea and turned to alternative solutions.[4]
Sticking to the socialist-communist Yugoslavism overall theme, he decided to secure at least one aging pre-World War II Yugoslav revolutionary's appearance on the album. Reaching out to surviving individuals of that ilk was done through Duga journalist and writer Milomir Marić who had been known to keep contact with many of them as part of the preparatory work for his upcoming book (Children of Communism). Bregović was able to get seventy-three-year-old Svetozar Vukmanović Tempo to agree, visiting him in his home and arranging for Tempo to travel to Sarajevo where—backed by the Ljubica Ivezić Orphanage choir—he recorded the old revolutionary song "Padaj silo i nepravdo" ("Fall, (Oh) Force and Injustice").[5]
All songs written by Goran Bregović, except where noted.
The album's biggest hits turned out to be "Hajdemo u planine", "Noćas je k'o lubenica pun mjesec iznad Bosne", "A i ti me iznevjeri" and ballads "Te noći kad umrem, kad odem, kad me ne bude" and "Ružica si bila, sada više nisi".[2] The subsequent promotional tour was also very successful with sold-out sports arenas across Yugoslavia.[2]
Large section of the critics, however, disliked Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo. In his Danas review, Dragan Kremer drew parallels between the developing economic and political crisis in SFR Yugoslavia and what he sees to be the band's ongoing creative crisis:
In 1987, Kremer went further while appearing as guest on TV Sarajevo's show Mit mjeseca (Myth of the Month), a programme pitting Yugoslav rock critics against the country's rock stars—allowing critics to directly pose questions to musicians sitting across from them in the same studio. In the case of Kremer's appearance, however, Bregović wasn't in the studio due to being on tour—Kremer's taped questions were thus shown to Bregović while his reaction was filmed.[6] Expressing his dislike of the band's new album, Kremer looked into the camera and addressed Bregović directly:
Upon stating the above, Kremer tore up the Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo album cover. A visibly angry Bregović reacted by cursing under his breath and launching into an insult-laden tirade directed at Kramer:
The incident got a lot of attention in the Yugoslav media at the time with the angle of usually calm and collected Bregović losing his temper being the focus.[2]
Vukmanović's appearance on the record gained attention of The Guardian, which described this move as "some sort of Bregović's coup d'état".[2]
In terms of individual tracks and their respective melodies, some in Yugoslavia have noted similarities between "Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo" and Survivor's 1982 hit "Eye of the Tiger" as well as between "Zamisli" and Red Hot Chili Peppers' 1985 track "Jungle Man".[7]
Alongside Plavi Orkestar's Smrt fašizmu!, Merlin's Teško meni sa tobom (a još teže bez tebe), and Hari Mata Hari's Pljuni i zapjevaj, moja Jugoslavijo has occasionally been categorized as part of New Partisans, a mid-1980s collection of albums by Sarajevo-based bands, featuring sound centered on the Balkan folk-inspired pop rock music as well as containing either direct lyrical/visual references or allusions to Yugoslavism within communist and socialist patriotic framework.[4]
The term New Partisans was introduced during fall 1986 by Plavi Orkestar's manager, during Smrt fašizmu!s promotional cycle as means of promoting his clients' latest release and potentially jump starting another (sub)cultural movement, similar to what he had participated in achieving three years earlier with the New Primitives. Unlike the New Primitive bands that all came from similar background and were of the same generation, the supposed New Partisan bands were much more disparate. Though the New Partisans never took off as a coherent movement, the term was nevertheless picked up by numerous Yugoslav journalists who continue to use it when describing various phases in Bijelo Dugme's, Dino Merlin's, Plavi Orkestar's and Hari Mata Hari's respective careers.[8]
In addition to its successful commercial performance, over the decades since its release, Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo made a number of Yugoslav pop-rock all-time lists in different categories.
In the 1998 book , Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo was ranked 53rd on the list of 100 Greatest Yugoslav Rock and Pop Albums.[1]
In 2015, Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo album cover was ranked 3rd on the 100 Greatest Album Covers of Yugoslav Rock list published by web magazine Balkanrock.[9]
Furthermore, the album gained retrospective significance in the context of the breakup of Yugoslavia and Yugoslav Wars. In 2016, looking back on Goran Bregović's overall career and specifically Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo within it, Politika columnist Aleksandar Apostolovski wistfully opined that "due to seeing Yugoslavia as an inseparable part of his being, Bregović was convinced his own Partisan aesthetic dressed up in rock'n'roll arrangements, with even the Communist International's enforcer Svetozar Vukmanović Tempo taking part on the microphone, would stop the country's disintegration".[10]
Hit tracks off Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo—primarily "Ružica si bila" and "A i ti me iznevjeri"—saw a number of covers, mostly by performers from the newly-established, post-Yugoslav countries. Additionally, Bregović himself repackaged some of the songs for his collaborations with Iggy Pop and Sezen Aksu.