Eto! Baš hoću!

Eto! Baš hoću! continues Bijelo dugme's early hard rock style, although it is on this album that Goran Bregović began to react to changing trends in rock music (both internationally and domestically) by slowly shedding the band's heavy metal and progressive rock leanings in favor of a more soft rock, consequently paving the way for the band's eventual baptism into 1980s new wave. Still, Eto! Baš hoću! is acknowledged as Bijelo dugme's last, true hard rock album from the early period, together with 1974's Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme, 1975's Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu and the 1977 live album Koncert kod Hajdučke česme.

1 Making of...
2 Track listing
3 Personnel
- 3.1 Main
- 3.2 Additional
4 External links

[edit] Making of...

What eventually became Eto! Baš hoću! album was created in extremely stressful circumstances.

Rehearsals and practise pre-recording sessions began at Borike village in September 1976. Of the now established lineup that completed the first two albums, only Zoran Redžić was missing since he was away serving the army stint. His replacement on bass was Ljubiša Racić.

Then in early October both the keyboardist Vlado Pravdić and drummer Ipe Ivandić got call ups to immediately report for their mandatory army stints in Čačak and Belgrade, respectively, which meant that Bregović now had to find two new members on a very short notice. For the drummer spot, he immediately turned to old friend Milić Vukašinović who quickly accepted, but getting a new keyboardist wasn't as smooth. Bregović wanted Laza Ristovski, playing with SMAK at the time, who in addition to being uneasy about leaving his band also felt apprehensive about fitting into Bijelo dugme setup that was much different both creatively and organizationally from what he was used to with SMAK. Ristovski finally decided to give it a shot, and after some initial difficulties, eventually stayed on. His arrival got major attention in Yugoslav media that covered it like a bigtime football transfer.

That wasn't the end of personnel issues, however. Just as the band was about to leave for London to start recording, bassist Ljubiša Racić asked for more money, but instead of giving him a raise, Bregović promptly fired him. Dissatisfied with the way things are going, Bregović also sacked the band's manager Grada Veljković and brought Raka Marić in his place. Racić's replacement on bass became a local musician from Sarajevo Sanin Karić, but they didn't take him to London, so Bebek played bass on the album.

The album was originally supposed to be called Sve se dijeli na dvoje, na moje i tvoje, but despite trying very hard, Bregović wasn't able to come up with a satisfactory melody to a Duško Trifunović-written poem from which the above lyric is taken, so the whole thing got scrapped. The next suggestion for the album title was Hoću bar jednom da budem blesav! which the people at Jugoton didn't like, so finally right before departing for London Eto! Baš hoću! was agreed on as sort of a compromise.

Once the recording sessions began at Air Studios, a new problem arose - the band featuring two new members (Ristovski and Vukašinović) versus two returning ones (Bregović and Bebek) sounded much different from how Bregović envisioned this album should sound. Still, by the end of their time in London most things fell into place and the album was released back home on December 20, 1976.

The record was ushered in by a 7-inch single "Eto! Baš hoću!" / "Došao sam da ti kažem da odlazim" released on December 14, 1976.