Bitanga i princeza
| Bitanga i princeza | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by Bijelo Dugme | ||||
| Released | March 16, 1979 | |||
| Recorded |
Studio PGP RTB, Belgrade January 1979 | |||
| Genre |
Hard rock Symphonic rock | |||
| Length | 32:43 | |||
| Label | Jugoton | |||
| Producer | Neil Harrison | |||
| Bijelo Dugme chronology | ||||
| ||||
Bitanga i princeza (trans. The Brute and the Princess) is the fourth studio album by former Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme, released in 1979.
Bitanga i princeza was Bijelo Dugme's first album to feature Điđi Jankelić on drums.[1] It was the band's last hard rock-oriented album before their switch to New Wave in the early 1980s.[1]
Bitanga i princeza was polled in 1998 as the 10th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav rock and pop albums in the book YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike (YU 100: The Best albums of Yugoslav pop and rock music).[2]
Background
After the departure of drummer Ipe Ivandić and keyboardist Laza Ristovski, who left the band in 1978, after the release of their album Stižemo (Here We Come), the band was rejoined by keyboardist Vlado Pravdić, who left the band in 1976 to serve his mandatory army stint, and Ivandić was replaced by Điđi Jankelić, who previously played on the band's frontman Željko Bebek's solo album Skoro da smo isti (We're Almost the Same).[1] The band started preparing their new album during 1978 in Niška Banja‚ while Bijelo Dugme's leader Goran Bregvić was still serving the army in Niš, but the band definitely reunited in Sarajevo on November 1.[1] The album was recorded during January 1979 in PGP-RTB Studio in Belgrade, and mastered in Abbey Road Studios in London. The album was, as the band's previous two studio albums, produced by Neil Harrison.[3] The album did not feature the band's trademark folk-influenced hard rock sound, as it featured almost no folk music elements, while the ballads "Kad zaboraviš juli" and "Sve će to mila moja prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" featured a symphonic orchestra.[4]
The making of the album was followed by censorship. The original cover, designed by Bijelo Dugme's old collaborator Dragan Stefanović and featuring female leg kicking male's genital area, was refused by the band's label, Jugoton as "vulgar". Stefanović designed an entirely white album cover, however, the album ended up featuring a cover designed by Jugoton's designer Ivan Ivezić.[1] The verse "Koji mi je moj" ("What the fuck is wrong with me") was excluded from the song "Ala je glupo zaboravit njen broj", and the verse "A Hrist je bio kopile i jad" ("And Christ was bastard and misery") from the song "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" was replaced with "A on je bio kopile i jad" ("And he was bastard and misery").[1]
The album was released on March 16, 1979.[3]
In April 1979, in an interview for Džuboks magazine, Bregović, stated that he accepted to edit the lyrics, but that he objected the altering of Stefanović's cover:
| “ | It's ridiculous! Some board consisting of five artists and models is sitting their and giving lessons to the people, telling them what's good and what's not. The [Yugoslav] people were always smart in the worst possible situations, and they won't be smart when they are in the records shop?![5] | ” |
Bregović commented the editing of "Ala je glupo zaboravit njen broj" and "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" lyrics:
| “ | The swearword was dropped off at the recording, but this thing with the Christ they [Jugoton] explained as a "political thing". When they say 'political', the argument is over. That's the famous, universal explanation: 'It might cause political inconvenience'. Although I really don't know what sort of inconvenience it might cause. In the country in which you are free to believe in Christ, you are also free to be against Christ [...] although Christ isn't important in that song in any way. [...] He's there only to highlight a picture. The song's intention is not to deal with religion.[4] | ” |
Track listing
All songs written by Goran Bregović.
| No. | Title | Length | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Bitanga i princeza" ("The Brute and the Princess") | 3:46 | |
| 2. | "Ala je glupo zaboravit' njen broj" ("It's so Stupid to Forget Her Number") | 3:53 | |
| 3. | "Ipak, poželim neko pismo" ("Still, I Wish for a Letter") | 4:29 | |
| 4. | "Kad zaboraviš juli" ("When You Forget July") | 4:29 | |
| 5. | "Na zadnjem sjedištu moga auta" ("On the Back Seat of My Car") | 3:56 | |
| 6. | "A koliko si ih imala do sad" ("And How Many of Them Have You Had Till Now") | 4:18 | |
| 7. | "Sve će to mila moja prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" ("All of That, My Dear, Will Be Covered by Rosemary, Snow and Reed") | 7:49 |
Personnel
- Goran Bregović - guitar
- Željko Bebek - vocals
- Zoran Redžić - bass
- Điđi Jankelić - drums
- Vlado Pravdić - keyboard
Additional personnel
- Neil Harrison - producer
- Maja Odžaklijevska - backing vocals
- Slobodan Marković - synthesizer
- Vojkan Borisavljević - arranged by (track 4)
- Ranko Rihtman - arranged by (track 7)
- Chris Blair - mastered by
- Nick Glennie-Smith - recorded by
- Rade Ercegovac - recorded by
- Ivan Ivezić - design
Reception
Bitanga i princeza was upon its release praised by the critics as Bijelo Dugme's finest work until then.[1] Almost every song on the album became a hit.[1] The album broke all the records held by the band's previous releases.[1] The final number of copies sold was about 320,000.[4]
The tour following the album release was also successful. The band managed to sell out Pionir Hall for five times, dedicating all the money from these concerts to the victims of the 1979 Montenegro earthquake.[1] On September 22, the band organized a concert under the name Rock spektakl '79. (Rock Spectacle 79) on JNA Stadium, with themselves as the headliners. The concert featured numerous opening acts, including YU grupa, Boomerang, Galija, Prva Ljubav, Prljavo Kazalište, Opus, Tomaž Domicelj, Generacija 5, Mama Rock, Metak, Siluete, Suncokret, and others. More than 70,000 spectators attended the concert.[1]
Legacy
The album was polled in 1998 as the 10th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav rock and pop albums in the book YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike (YU 100: The Best albums of Yugoslav pop and rock music).[2]
In 2000, the songs "Bitanga i princeza" and "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" were polled as 10th and 17th respectively on the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times list.[6] In 2006, "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" was polled as 14th on the B92 Top 100 Domestic Songs list.[7]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8 1.9 1.10 Janjatović, Petar (2007). EX YU ROCK enciklopedija 1960-2006. Belgrade: self-released. p. 33.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Antonić, Duško; Štrbac, Danilo (1998). YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike. Belgrade: YU Rock Press. p. 14.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Bitanga i princeza at Discogs
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Krstulović, Zvonimir (2005). Bijelo Dugme: Doživjeti stotu. Profil. p. 34.
- ↑ Krstulović, Zvonimir (2005). Bijelo Dugme: Doživjeti stotu. Profil. p. 33.
- ↑ "100 najboljih pesama svih vremena YU rocka". Rock Express (in Serbian) (Belgrade: Rock Express) (25).
- ↑ The B92 Top 100 Domestic Songs list at B92 official site
External links
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