Bitanga i princeza

Bitanga i princeza (trans. The Lowlife and the Princess) is the fourth studio album by Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme, released in 1979.

Bitanga i princeza
Studio album by
Bijelo Dugme
Released16 March 1979
RecordedStudio PGP RTB, Belgrade
January 1979
GenreHard rock
Symphonic rock
Length32:43
LabelJugoton
ProducerNeil Harrison
Bijelo Dugme chronology
Koncert kod Hajdučke česme
(1977)		 Bitanga i princeza
(1979)		 Doživjeti stotu
(1980)

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 following year.[1]

In 1998, Bitanga i princeza was polled 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 2015, the album was pronounced the 15th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav albums published by Croatian edition of Rolling Stone.[3]

Background

Personnel changes: Ivandić and Ristovski replaced with Jankelić and Pravdić
Original Dragan Stefanović-designed Bitanga i princeza artwork that Jugoton refused to publish.

After the joint spring 1978 departure of drummer Ipe Ivandić and keyboardist Laza Ristovski—who ended up leaving together amid acrimony while working on their side project Stižemo—Bijelo Dugme got rejoined by former keyboardist Vlado Pravdić while Ivandić was replaced with Điđi Jankelić.[1] Pravdić had previously left the band in fall 1976 to serve his mandatory Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint but ended up not reclaiming his spot even after being discharged from the army as Bregović decided to keep Ristovski permanently. Jankelić, on the other hand, was completely new to Bijelo Dugme, arriving via appearing on the band's vocalist Željko Bebek's solo album side project Skoro da smo isti (We're Almost the Same) that had been released several months earlier to poor reviews and inferior commercial reception.

The band started preparing their new studio album during early fall 1978 in Niška Banja‚ while Bijelo Dugme's leader Goran Bregović was still serving the army in Niš, but they definitely reunited in Sarajevo on 1 November.[1]

Recording sessions

Originally, the band's record label, Jugoton, booked London's AIR Studios on Oxford Street (where the band's previous two studio albums had been recorded) for the end of November 1978 so that the record could be released in time for New Years holidays in Yugoslavia.[4] However, after it became clear that the band would not be able to record in November, and re-booking of AIR Studios could not be arranged on short notice, the recording sessions were moved to Belgrade.[5] 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.[6] It 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.[7]

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".[1] Stefanović then designed an entirely white album cover, but it was refused by Jugoton editors with the explanation that it would demand the album to be cheaper.[8] 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 16 March 1979.[6]

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 sits there lecturing 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?![9]

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 see 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.[7]

In 2005, on the recording of the documentary series Rockovnik, Bregović stated: "Now I probably wouldn't write that verse."[10]

Track listing

All songs written by Goran Bregović.

No.TitleLength
1."Bitanga i princeza" ("The Lowlife 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" ("Once You Forget July")4:29
5."Na zadnjem sjedištu moga auta" ("In the Back Seat of My Car")3:56
6."A koliko si ih imala do sad" ("How Many Have There Been?")4:18
7."Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" ("Everything, My Dear, Will Be Covered by Rosemary, Snows and Reed")7:49

Personnel

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.[7]

The tour following the album release was also successful. The band managed to sell out Belgrade's Pionir Hall for five times, dedicating all the money from these concerts to the victims of the 1979 Montenegro earthquake.[1] On 22 September 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: Crni Petak, Kilo i Po, Rok Apoteka, Kako, Mama Rock, Formula 4, Peta Rijeka, Čisti Zrak, Aerodrom, Opus, Senad od Bosne, Boomerang, Prva Ljubav, Revolver, Prljavo Kazalište, Tomaž Domicelj, Metak, Obećanje Proljeća, Suncokret, Parni Valjak, Generacija 5 and Siluete.[11] More than 70,000 spectators attended the concert.[1]

Legacy
The reactions which followed Bijelo Dugme's mature album and one of the most weighty of Bregović's works included comparisons with Joni Mitchell's contemplative album Blue.

However, the direction of the evolvent was foreshadowed on the previous album, Eto! Baš hoću!, published in 1976, but few people mention Željko Bebek's first solo album, Skoro da smo isti, published in the summer of 1978 (and since forgotten), during the hiatus in Bijelo Dugme's work and Bregović's army stint. It is Bebek who, on his interesting début, his only valuable solo release, coqueted with string orchestra and sophisticated song form, with, just like on Bitanga i princeza, obvious influences by Genesis latest albums, ...And Then There Were Three... and A Trick of the Tail. The pendulum swung from the simplicity of shepherds' rock and hit singles towards sympho-rock and mature songs from Bitanga i princeza [...]

The diaphanous playing, the motive rhythmical patterns, the great songs and, above all, the completely different album context, showed that Bijelo Dugme stopped being a teenage attraction, becoming self-willingly mature band. It was maybe anachronistic in the age of new wave to use a symphonic orchestra (including the following tour), but becoming serious had to be bombastic. Especially when it comes to themes, in introspective love songs about clashes of brutes with princesses, emotional dilemmas in bed, outside of bed, and on the back seat of a car.

The poetic explanation about Christ who was 'a bastard and misery' — probably because he, from the author's point of view, did not manage to redeem anyone – was censored in the song 'Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš', as it was the case with the exquisite cover by the band's regular designer, Dragan S. Stefanović, replaced with the inferior, unmeaning visual solution.

If we bear in mind the 'shocks' that Bijelo Dugme used to cause before and after that, it all seemed unnecessary, because, before and after that, there was not a domestic album, mainstream and with intimate themes, [...] on which everything fit as harmoniously as on Bitanga i princeza.

-Rolling Stone Croatia[3]

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 2015, the album was pronounced the 15th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav albums published by Croatian edition of Rolling Stone.[3]

In 2000, the songs "Bitanga i princeza" and "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" were polled as 14th and 17th respectively on the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times list.[12] In 2006, "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" was polled as 14th on the B92 Top 100 Domestic Songs list.[13]

Covers
  • Radio Television Novi Sad Big Band recorded a cover of "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" on their 1980 self-titled album.[14]
  • Yugoslav pop trio Aska recorded a Bijelo Dugme songs medley on their 1982 album Disco Rock, featuring, among other Bijelo Dugme songs, "Ipak poželim neko pismo", "Na zadnjem sjedištu moga auta", "Bitanga i princeza" and "A koliko si ih imala do sad".[15]
  • Serbian and Yugoslav rock singer Viktorija recorded a cover of "A koliko si ih imala da sad", entitled "Avantura – Ljubomora" ("Adventure – Jealousy"), on her 1995 album Ja znam da je tebi krivo (I Know You're Jealous).[16]
  • In 1993, Bregović wrote music for the film Toxic Affair, and "Ipak poželim neko pismo" melody was used in the song "Man from Reno", sung by American singer-songwriter Scott Walker.
  • Serbian pop group Moby Dick recorded a cover of "Na zadnjem sjedištu moga auta" on their 1994 album Kreni! (Go!).[17]
  • Željko Bebek recorded a version of "Na zadnjem sjedištu moga auta" for his 1995 solo album Puca mi u glavi (My Head is Going to Burst).[18]
  • Croatian singer-songwriter Lea Dekleva recorded a cover of "Ipak poželim neko pismo" on her 2005 album emociJA (emotIon).[19]
  • Croatian and Yugoslav rock singer Massimo Savić recorded a cover of "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" on his 2006 album Vještina II (Art II).[20]

References
  1. Janjatović, Petar (2007). EX YU ROCK enciklopedija 1960–2006. Belgrade: self-released. p. 33.
  2. Antonić, Duško; Štrbac, Danilo (1998). YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike. Belgrade: YU Rock Press. p. 14.
  3. "Rolling Stone – Specijalno izdanje: 100 najboljih albuma 1955 – 2015". Rolling Stone (in Croatian). Zagreb: S3 Mediji (Special editidon): 42.
  4. Vesić, Dušan (2014). Bijelo Dugme: Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu. Belgrade: Laguna. p. 163.
  5. Vesić, Dušan (2014). Bijelo Dugme: Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu. Belgrade: Laguna. p. 164.
  6. Bitanga i princeza at Discogs
  7. Krstulović, Zvonimir (2005). Bijelo Dugme: Doživjeti stotu. Profil. p. 34.
  8. Vesić, Dušan (2014). Bijelo Dugme: Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu. Belgrade: Laguna. p. 169.
  9. Krstulović, Zvonimir (2005). Bijelo Dugme: Doživjeti stotu. Profil. p. 33.
  10. Vesić, Dušan (2014). Bijelo Dugme: Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu. Belgrade: Laguna. p. 168.
  11. Vesić, Dušan (2014). Bijelo Dugme: Šta bi dao da si na mom mjestu. Belgrade: Laguna. p. 181.
  12. "100 najboljih pesama svih vremena YU rocka". Rock Express (in Serbian). Belgrade (25).
  13. The B92 Top 100 Domestic Songs list at B92 official site
  14. RTV Novi Sad Big Band at Discogs
  15. Disco Rock at Discogs
  16. Ja znam da je tebi krivo at Discogs
  17. Kreni! at Discogs
  18. Puca mi u glavi at Discogs
  19. emociJA at Discogs
  20. Vještina II at Discogs
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