Kodeksi

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Kodeksi were a cover band from Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, SFR Yugoslavia that existed from the early 1960s until 1971. It is most notable as one of the predecessors to Bijelo dugme, the most commercially popular band ever to come out of Yugoslavia. Many of the future Bijelo dugme members came up through Kodeksi.

[edit] Activity

[edit] 1960s

Kodeksi were formed in 1965 by Edo Bogeljić as a hobby cover band. The band also featured Ismeta Dervoz on backing vocals and Luciano Paganotto on drums. Not too long afterwards Bogeljić invited Zeljko Bebek to join the band as singer and rhythm guitar player. Simultaneous to high school, Kodeksi spent the rest of the decade covering tunes they would hear on Radio Luxembourg, playing local dance parties, and building up somewhat of a local youth following in the process.

As the band had problems filling the bass player spot all throughout this period, Bebek recommended young 18-year-old Goran Bregović after seeing him play with another local cover band Bestije in 1969. Realizing Kodeksi were more established on the scene than Bestije, Goran jumped at the opportunity and immediately joined them.

The band's musical activity began to take on a more serious form immediately following Bregovic's arrival.

In the summer of 1969, Kodeksi got a season-long gig playing in Dubrovnik's Splendid bar, but just before they were set to depart for Adriatic coast Ismeta Dervoz left the band chosing to devote her full attention to university studies. Their Dubrovnik repertoire was aimed at tourists and consisited mostly of pop covers, folk standards, and easy-listening tunes.

Though it clearly didn't inspire much in terms of creativity, Dubrovnik stay still proved successful as they got spotted by Italian club owner Renato Pacifico who offered a two-month gig in his Naples club. Infused with new energy the band went back home to hone a new progressive rock set (along the lines of Cream, Jimi Hendrix, etc.), and to obtain the necessary paperwork.

[edit] 1970s

Kodeksi left for Italy in early 1970. However, it soon became apparent that the Italian club owner was clearly disappointed with their new musical shift and wanted them to play kazachok and other similar Eastern European folkish stuff from their Dubrovnik repertoire instead. The band unwillingly agreed.

Just before the first two-month stint ended, the band's founder Edo Bogeljić gave up and went back to Sarajevo, which is when Bregović assumed the lead guitar role for the first time. Local Italian musician was brought in to play the bass, but after he quit too, Bebek called up old friend Zoran Redžić. Redžić in turn brough along Milić Vukašinović to replace Paganotto on drums as he also quit in the meantime.

At that time Kodeksi were enjoying a fairly successful run on the club & bar circuit throughout southern Italy playing a commercial repertoire and building up a fairly devoted following. Vukašinović's arrival was particularly significant in this regard as he brought new musical influences along the lines of what Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath were doing at the time. Additionally, he convinced the rest of the band on incorporating new sound into the set. Within two weeks of his arrival, Kodeksi were fired from all the places they were playing.

With no gigs and very little savings, the foursome of Bebek, Bregović, Redžić and Vukašinović stayed on the island of Capri. They found gigs extremely hard to come by with the new sound, but eventually got a low-paying one on Ischia island. As the summer season of 1970 drew to a close that gig ended as well, and they relocated back to Naples where they struggled to make ends meet.

This is when the band began to disregard Bebek more and more. First, they made him stop playing the rhythm guitar reasoning that it's not fashionable any longer. Bebek also had trouble adapting to the new material vocally. He'd sing the intro on most songs and then step back as the other three members improvised for the remainder of songs. After being a key band member only months earlier, Bebek was seeing his role gradually reduced. It was more than he was willing to take and sometime during the fall of 1970 he left Kodeksi and returned to Sarajevo.

For their part, Vukašinović, Bregović, and Redžić continued soldiering on under the new name Mića, Goran and Zoran, but eventually also returned to Sarajevo in the spring of 1971 when Goran's mother and Zoran's brother Fadil came to Italy to take them back.