Hello music lovers! 🎵
My 14th post for #threetunetuesday, started by @ablaze, and I'll continue with a story about rock music in former Yugoslavia, a country between East and West, which ended in violence and blood.
You can read the first post here.
In the first part, I described the beginnings and the music in the 1960s, especially the bands that composed and played their own original music, and I will continue with the music in the 1970s when even the official state labels smelled the money and music became a big business, spreading from the Vardar, a river in the south of Macedonia, on the border with Greece, to Triglav, the highest mountain in Slovenia, in the north, on the border with Austria.
A market for music of 20 million is not even that small (compared to today's countries, former republics, and provinces). There was a solid living from music and bands were springing up like mushrooms after the rain.
From this period I've chosen, according to my personal subjective assessment, some popular and critics acclaimed bands that rule the sound of Yugoslavia rock in the seventies.
Of course, we can discuss this (if I choose the right ones) in the comments, music is a subjective category.
September - Florida
September was the first Yugoslav music group that could be called a supergroup, composed of experienced musicians who attracted public and critical attention with their high technical proficiency on instruments and jazz-rock-oriented music. They were also the first, to my knowledge (someone correct me if I'm wrong), to tour the USA in 1978, and it was there, at Seabird Recording Studio, Edgewater, Florida, that they recorded their second album "Domovina Moja", in English "My Homeland".
This song, Florida, is from this album. In terms of sound and playing style, some critics have compared them to Earth, Wind, And Fire.
YU Grupa - Sama
YU Grupa is a Serbian band, founded by brothers Dragi and Žika Jelič, who played guitar and bass guitar. They are the first rock band from these parts to integrate Balkan folk music into their songs. They have released 11 studio albums and several live albums, they are still playing today and recently celebrated 52 years of activity with a concert. Their musical style is guitar rock and they are still very popular today.
The song, Sama, (Alone in English) is from 1975.
Time - Makedonija
Time is a Croatian rock band founded by Dado Topič, former lead singer of Korni Grupa. The band was characterised by members constantly coming and going due to various commitments. The music could be characterised as progressive rock.
The song MaKedonia is about Macedonia (now Republic North Macedonia), written by Topič and never released on an album, but only as a single or on compilations. It was played regularly.
SMAK - Crna Dama
I thought I would finish, but I have to mention few other bands more, SMAK, Serbian band from Kragujevac, with hard rock and rhytm and blues tunes, sometimes mixed with folk elements. It was founded by Radomir Mihajlovič Točak, who was considered the best Yugoslav guitarist at the time. The band has been compared by international music critics to Deep Purple and Uriah Heep.
Radomir Mihajlovic is still playing now and if he had more global exposure he would certainly be in the world's elite guitarists, along with Clapton, Page, Beck and the like.
The song "Crna Dama" or "Black Lady", is from their second album "Crna Dama" from 1977. Here I have chosen the English version of this song (and album Black Lady), which was released in 1978 for European markets.
Buldožer - Ljubav Na Prvi Krevet
Another bonus :)
I'll finish with this band from Slovenia. It was more avant-garde, ignored by the media, but critics compared it to Frank Zappa and it was well received everywhere, it was named Buldožer (hahah, yeah, that means The Bulldoser in English).
The band was founded by Borut Činč, a keyboard player, and later joined by Marko Brecelj, who was a kind of underground icon and the forefather of the new wave. They were often censored and banned from appearing in the public media because they criticized politics and the Communist Party, as well as the entire music establishment, which made money at the expense of the musicians.
The song "Ljubav na prvi krevet" (Love at first bed in English) is taken from their debut album "Pljuni Istini U Oči" (Spit into the Eyes of Truth in English) from 1975.
This is the second post of the ExYU rock series, thanks again to #threetunetuesday led by @ablade. I hope that what I share is also of some interest to others because then it makes sense.
If you're interested in the latest music news, follow me on #newtunes, or take a look at my rare recordings at Music podcast or 3speak channel.
The cover image is mine, created in NightCafe Creator and edited with Photoshop.
Music4life!
That's all for today, thank you for your attention.
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