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A little over a month ago Djordje Balaševic passed away. Since then I was wondering whether to write this post, given that probably no one here ever heard of him, but finally I decided to do it.
He was a poet, singer-songwriter, and really a wonderful human being. For many he was one of the greatest poets and artists on the territory of ex-Yugoslavia, at least in the period after the ww2. People usually say for artists like him that he was Serbian XYZ, but instead I'll say that imho he wrote some incredible things that if written in English (or Spanish) the world would know as examples of the most magical verses about life, love, and tenderness. It's a pity that a translation can't come near the beauty of the original words. He was a gifted storyteller, had a good sense of humor and was known for witty stories he was telling in between songs when performing. His concerts lasted between three and four hours, often more, so in a certain way his performances were a mix of music, poetry, and stand up comedy. His songs are quite diverse in terms of rhythms, many are slow and melancholic, and many are fast and cheerful. Many of his lyrics and stories told on concerts are actually autobiographic.
The first half of 1990s in the Balkans was marked by the break up of Yugoslavia and wars in Croatia and Bosnia. Balaševic was openly against the war, nationalism and the dictatorship regime in Serbia, at the time when doing so was dangerous. The army tried to draft him and send him to war but he refused, many years later saying "Someone comes to me, to draft me to the army, to send me to attack Osijek [a city in Croatia that was bombed and damaged during the war], a city where entering a concert hall people would stand up to applaud me for how happy they are to see me...so they wanted me to go to tear down Osijek, I could not understand that...in the same manner a psycho will come tomorrow and say 'we're now attacking the opposite side of our street'...I could not accept that". After the war, in 1998 he was the first Serbian musician to perform in Bosnia (in Sarajevo). He held two concert and was under constant protection during his stay there. I believe he was also the first Serbian musician to perform in Croatia after the war (in 2001), and no matter how ordinary this might sound to you now, back then it was a huge thing for people there on both sides. For his fight against the war and for performing in Bosnia and Croatia, nationalists in Serbia hated him and they still in fact do. During the two decades after all these events, in the country where nationalism flourished (or still does) you couldn't hear any of his works on tv, he had very few appearances on tv in general, and ruling authorities would sometimes sabotage his concerts by not allowing the rent of concert venues (all public). Despite all that, his concerts in Serbia were always sold out in a couple of hours even without any previous announcements. When Balaševic passed away people all across former Yugoslavia were paying their respect, and for a few days it seemed that everyone were united under the same roof. For Balkans, it was something extraordinary and tells a lot about him as an artist but above all as a human being. There are some incredible stories from those days but they would need quite some context.
I'm putting below a few out of many of his songs that I like very much, and link to online translations (those are not great but you might get an idea about what you are listening). For more, there is this youtube playlist with a compilation album. I'll start with a verse that shortly before his death was stuck in my head for a while (from the first song below, my free translation):
"Do you see where I am now, in what age Just that you know, strange birds are roaming through my dreams For I am too young to think about death And yet too old to count the stars.
You hear the silence, that sound, the time is passing by It buzzes and threatens through the night, shivering like a sneak Don't start any serious matters now, Just come here to cuddle and be good"
His antiwar song, originally recorded a few years before the war in the Balkans translation
I realise most of my favourite ones are actually slow and melancholic. An interesting thing about Balasevic is that he liked to fool around early in his career, and also adopt other styles in some songs, so there's one that's like Argentinian tango, one in blues mood, one like a waltz, one in a Hungarian mood, and of course one in a Spanish mood. Here's one cheerful, in a certain way this one is a tribute to Michael Brecker (in the original studio version he mentions Chubby Checker in the song)
If you read the whole post or listened any of the songs above, I hope you liked it and I hope I manage to transfer a bit of Balasevic's magic to you.
Glad you put your story here. The Balkan war I followed very closely on the news. And later some refugees from that war become my friends. It was unbelievable for me that 1400 km. From my house this horrible things happen. Good to see and hear that in a insane time there still are sane people. They survive, even if they are no longer with us.
Thanks for posting your poignant and affectionate tribute to Djordje Balaševic, Filip. Your description of the Balkan Wars of the 1990s resonates with me. During NATO's 78-day air war against Serbia in 1999, I was a State Department exchange officer assigned to the Pentagon.
Milosevic had been conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign in Kosovo, displacing more than 700,000 Kosovar Albanians into neighboring Albania and Macedonia. The air sorties, flown primarily by the United States and Britain, brought Milosevic to his knees, preventing further ethnic cleansing and genocide, and opening the door to a UN peacekeeping mission.
I had not heard of Balasevic at the time, and in fact had not heard of him until your posting above. He certainly sounds like great singer and entertainer, as well as a marvelous human being. Again, thanks for posting.
Bill
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And the end of the fight is a tombstone white, With the name of the late deceased, And the epitaph drear, "A fool lies here, Who tried to hustle the East."
Since then I was wondering whether to write this post, given that probably no one here ever heard of him, but finally I decided to do it.
I'm glad you did. A while back kitarist put a a RIP post for Juanjo Dominguez. I had never heard of him, but thanks to his post I got to discover some great art. Same here. I've added the link you gave to that playlist and will be giving him a listen.
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"Anything you do can be fixed. What you cannot fix is the perfection of a blank page. What you cannot fix is that pristine, unsullied whiteness of a screen or a page with nothing on it—because there’s nothing there to fix."
Gerundino, Bill, and Piwin, thank you very much for reading my post and reflecting on it. Piwin, if it happens that you find a song that you particularly like and are curious about the context and lyrics, I'll be happy to talk about it.
quote:
Good to see and hear that in a insane time there still are sane people.
I couldn't agree more. Interestingly, these are the same words that Balasevic used to describe Oliver Dragojevic, a legendary Croatian singer (who passed away in 2018 and for me personally is another giant figure in music, and is one of a few along Paco and Balasevic that in a way marked my life forever. It's interesting actually that I find Paco and Oliver to have quite a few things in common. A fun fact, Antonio Serrano played with Oliver on a number of Oliver's concerts (I attended a few), and in an interview to a Serbian newspapers Antonio said for Oliver that he enjoyed playing with him very much and that Oliver was one of the most amazing human beings he ever met).
Duško Gojković (Dusko Goykovich) passed away few days ago.
He was a trumpet player and is widely known in jazz circles in Europe and especially ex-Yugoslavia. He was 91 when he passed and had a very long career during which he recorded many albums and played concerts with a bunch of musicians and bands, including Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Chet Baker, Slide Hampton, and others.
He studied at Berklee in the early 60s and according his own accounts, while there he was invited on several occasions by Slide Hampton, Count Basie, and Duke Ellington to join their bends, but his absolute priority was to finish the studies so he didn't do it and only after the studies played with them and other key figures at the time. He was a friend with Miles Davis, Slide Hampton, and Chet Baker, all with whom he spent time and as he says leaned a lot from them.
Dusko's account of the late 40s in Yugoslavia is interesting. He says that he was harassed by the Yugoslav secret police for playing "western music", and at the time some people were going to jail fo that sin. He said though that playing jazz was liberating because, in contrast with playing local tunes and songs, no one could tell him how to play and how to improvise.
Youtube is scarce with Dusko's videos, but I'll post a few below. There is only one interview, in Serbian, and he seems like a really nice and humble guy.
This is his interpretation of a song from a known Serbian pop-rock band.
Last August marked the sixth anniversary of the death of a singer who impacted me deeply and whose significance in my life comes right after that of Paco. I am talking about Oliver Dragojevic, a Croatian singer from the region of Dalmatia and I would like to tell you something about him and his music, and through that about Dalmatian tradition. Most probably you've never heard of him before, but if you read on you'll encounter some familiar names. If you want to listen to something in the background as an introduction try the video below, or this if you are in the mood for something faster and more jazzy.
Ostavljam te samu (I'm leaving you)
Oliver was born in 1947 in Vela Luka, a small coastal town on the Korčula island in the Dalmatian region of what used to be Yugoslavia, now Croatia. He was interested in music from a very young age and his first instrument was harmonica when he was only 5, although he never played it later on. Oliver played piano which was his main instrument, and also guitar and clarinet. The sea and music were two of his biggest passions, he once said that for him happiness is nothing more than playing the piano and singing (Oliver’s wife told a story of their vacation in Hawaii after Oliver became enormously popular in Yugoslavia, there was a jazz bar next to their hotel with live music which caught Oliver’s attention on the first night; he loved the band and could not resist to chat with them, which he did and then spent the rest of their vacation playing and singing with the band every night on stage). When not touring, Oliver was spending his time between his birth-place Vela Luka (to which he payed tribute in a beautiful song called Memory of Vela Luka) and Split, a coastal town in mainland Croatia. He would usually spend summer months in Vela Luka, often spending days at sea in his small boat fishing and relaxing alone or with a friend or two (picture of his boat here). There is a photo of Oliver sleeping on the floor of this boat while docked in Vela Luka, but unfortunately I can't find it right now. He also loved playing football.
The first phase of Oliver's career was marked by a cooperation with the songwriter and composer Zdenko Runjic. Together they made around two hundred songs, all of which are rooted in traditional Dalmatian music, hence the two of them are considered to be its most important figures. A friend of mine, who is quite knowledgeable about flamenco (much more than I am) once shared a thought that Oliver represents to Dalmatia what Paco represents to Andalucia. Olive's song "Galeb i ja" (the seagull and I, video below) from the 1975 Split festival is widely regarded as the most recognisable song in the history of the festival. Some of my favorite songs from this period (music and lyrics by Runjic) are Poeta, A vitar puse (The wind is blowing), Ca je zivot vengo fantazija (What’s life than a fantasy), Stine (Cliffs), and Zelenu granu s tugom zuta voca which is a poem by Croatia's greatest poet Tin Ujevic for which Runjic wrote the music.
Galeb i ja (seagull and me)
Another prominent name associated with Oliver is that of a Croatian poet Jakša Fiamengo, who is considered one of Croatia's greatest modern poets and who during the late 70s and throughout 80s wrote a number of texts for Oliver, mostly in Dalmatian dialect. Jakša once said that while writing his poems he would often imagine Oliver singing them. The music for all of Fiamengo's texts was written by Runjic. Some of my favorites are Nocturno, Nista nova (Nothing new), and Piva klapa ispo' Volta (Klapa is singing below an arc).
Piva klapa ispo' Volta, this version is a live one with Oliver and a klapa
The second phase of Oliver's career started with a song Cesarica (video below), written and composed by a Croatian singer and songwriter Gibonni. That song is kind of an unofficial hymn of Croatia, it had en enormous success among all generations and is still one of the most recognisable songs of Oliver/Gibonni cooperation. Gibonni's father was a known arranger and collector of traditional Dalmatian songs, so a good number of Gibonni's texts are also based on local Dalmatian tradition and many are written in the local dialect. Oliver and Gibonni kept working together until Oliver's death and his last album is actually a joint album with Gibonni for which Gibonni wrote all the music and texts. Antonio Serrano is a guest artist on that album. It's worth mentioning that Gibonni also has a very fruitful career as a singer, but that's another story. The songs I like most are Dobar dan (Good day), Dobro jutro tugo (Good morning sorrow) and another enormously successful song U jubav vjere nemam (I don't have faith in love).
Cesarica
During those years Oliver also worked with many other composers and songwriters. In 2000 he published probably my favorite album which included songs like Jeska od jubavi (A hook of love), Tko sam ja da ti sudim (Who am I to judge you), and "Dva put san umra (Two times I've died, video below). Trag u beskraju (A trace in endlessness) is from an album after, and Vrime bozije (God’s time) from an album before. An interesting thing told by Oliver’s wife is that throughout his career he recorded quite a few songs which no one else wanted but which are very much loved by the audience.
Dva put san umra
In the last decade and a half of Oliver's career he successfully evolved to more modern and jazzy/bluesy arrangements, while still keeping his Dalmatian roots. The last few albums are indeed different from his earlier works, but do not at all lack in quality or emotions which are strongly associated with Oliver and his Dalmatian songs. My favorite song from that period is Vise nismo svoji. And although Oliver's live performances during that period still included most of his earlier songs, he often gave them a new jazy touch on stage, such as for example in Molitva za Magdalenu (A prayer for Magdalena), or "Sto ucinila si ti" (What have you done, video below). In the last two albums Oliver also participated in writing music for a few songs, my favorite being Za onu viru (For that faith, lyrics by Fiamengo)
Sto ucinila si ti, skip to 3:20 (music and lyrics by Runjic)
There is no doubt that Oliver has been a synonym for Dalmatian/Croatian music in the last fifty years, and will continue to be so. His unofficial nickname "The Cosmic Dalmatian" attests to how much people appreciated his music. Oliver's songs are in large part emotional ballads, with love and sea often as a main motive. His voice was always perfect for this kind of music and tradition, although it was changing over the years, from a soft mellow to a bit more rough due the influence of tobacco since he was a heavy smoker. Interestingly, Oliver himself absolutely loved jazz, probably more than the type of music he is associated with, and while he had qualities for a jazz singer and could have pursued a career as such, he remained faithful to his roots. There are only a handful of songs in faster tempos in Oliver's discography, which he was happy to sing in all of his concerts. Apart from these, in every concert he would sing a song or two from English speaking singers, mostly from Stevie Wonder or sometimes Ray Charles.
Oliver was a tremendously witty person and enjoyed a good laugh and making jokes both on stage and off it. In between two songs on stage he would sometimes say things like "That was one true sea song, but now let's do something completely the same". He was always a positive and joyful character with a gentle smile on his face. He was also extremely humble and his friends and colleagues describe him as an extraordinarily kind and pleasant guy who in spite of his enormous success and popularity remained down to earth and never looked at himself as a star or someone that is good at what he does. Gibonni explains how Oliver was not even aware of his own popularity: "Sometimes when I would talk to him [to Oliver] it would seem to me as if I am in a hidden camera, what the heck is he talking about. Once, Oliver was telling me how when people stop listening to him he would probably be allowed to play the piano in the lobby of a local hotel...he totally thought that his popularity is not going to last, that it's just something that is at that moment". Gibonni also told a story when he and Oliver sang at a concert in an event organized for students in Zagreb. After the event at around four in the morning, they saw a technician carrying the equipment to a transport vehicle when Oliver said "We can't leave the guy alone, we should give him a hand", and then organized a few more persons that were still drinking at a bar to come and help.
This is probably the first Oliver’s song I’ve heard, one of his signature songs among Serbian audience
On one of Paco's last tours Paco gave a concert in Split which Oliver attended. Oliver did know about Paco and liked him (I concluded that via an indirect account which Oliver's close friend gave after Oliver's death), but after the concert Oliver was left speechless by Antonio Serrano and wanted to cooperate with him. Antonio first visited Oliver in Vela Luka where Antonio was Oliver's guest, and later was an invited musician at Oliver's concert in Zagreb in 2015, which coincidentally is the first Oliver's concert I attended, but more on that later. That was the first of many concerts in Croatia and the region at which Antonio would play with Oliver. In this first concert, somewhere in the middle Oliver invited and presented Antonio to the audience, and Antonio first played a solo before they played together. When Antonio finished and Oliver returned to the stage, Oliver said "When I was a kid my dad bought me a harmonica, it's still at home…but later tonight when I get back home I'm gonna throw it in the trash". Oliver absolutely loved Antonio and used every opportunity to invite Antonio to his concerts, including one in Las Vegas. There is an interview which Antonio Serrano gave to Serbian newspapers when he was visiting for a concert in Belgrade, and when asked about the favorite musicians he worked with Antonio said "One musician I enjoyed playing the most with is Oliver Dragojevic, whom you know very well. Oliver was a true artist and the most wonderful human being I've ever met". Unfortunately there's not much footage of these concerts, only a few videos such as this one performing Autumn leaves, or this one. Also this one from the Croatian TV New Year's program. Antonio also played on Olive's last studio album on Kad sam nasamo s njom (When I'm alone with her) and Za tvoje dobro (For yours wellbeing).
With Antonio Serrano, among others
In 2017, Oliver celebrated his 70th birthday with a concert in Zagreb attended by fifteen thousand people. He was joined on stage by a number of musicians and groups he liked to collaborate with, among them the Zagreb philharmonic orchestra and Antonio Serrano. Oliver sang for more than three hours, which was a typical duration of his concerts. At the end, as the audience requested an encore Oliver came back to the stage, alone, and visibly exhausted. I was in the third row at that concert and since people already started moving to the back of the theater to avoid the crowd on their way out, we approached right to the front of the stage to wait for the encore so I had a very good overview. After singing one song in the encore, Oliver wanted to leave but the audience asked for more, and after a while with a heavy expiration he said fine. The same thing happened after the second song, but this time he was more determined to stop since he was exhausted and started walking away at which moment a guy in front of the stage yelled "But it's her birthday". Oliver asked whose birthday it was and a girl raised her hand. Oliver asked her what she would like him to sing, she named a song, and then Oliver sang it. It was really amazing being there and seeing that wonderful gesture. Little did we know that only a couple of months after that concert Oliver would be diagnosed with lung cancer.
Oliver passed away in the summer of 2018 at the age of 70 in the hospital in Split. As the news broke out, in many towns in Dalmatia people started gathering spontaneously to sing his songs. For a day before Oliver's funeral the plan was to have a service in a small church on the main waterfront street in Split (the Riva), after which there would be a procession along the waterfront street to the local port only a few hundreds meters down from the church, where the coffin with Oliver's body would be put on a catamaran for one last sail to Oliver's birthplace Vela Luka. Completely spontaneously, many dozens, if not a couple hundreds of boats gathered along the waterfront to say their farewell to Oliver. When the catamaran started its journey to Vela Luka the boats would follow behind, many of them following all the way to the end of the three hours journey. As the catamaran made stops at a couple more islands along the way, it was welcomed by people in the port and more boats around. That day was incredibly emotional, the farewell and Oliver's last journey from Split to Vela Luka was something I've never seen before.
Farewell to Oliver in Split (skip to 3:44)
Every year on the anniversary of Oliver's death a number of events are held in Vela Luka, one of them being a big concert in his honor in which many different musicians, who cooperated with him and whom Oliver loved, play and sing his songs. Among others, Antonio Serrano is a regular guest, and this year an estimated thirty thousand people attended the concert in the marina. On one of this ocassions, Antonio was asked in an interview about the main things he remembers Oliver by, and he responded "His kindness, humbleness, generosity, and a huge addiction to cigarets". One year after Oliver’s death, on the stadium of a local football club in Split before a game some thirty thousand people sang Oliver's song Cesarica, and it's not the only game over the years on which this happens.
At the end, I would also like to tell you about my personal experience with Oliver and his music, which would also tell you something about him. Being born and raised in Serbia, I knew that I'll have slim chances to see Oliver in concert. During the '90s war (breakup of Yugoslavia), Oliver gave a word that he will never sing in Serbia again, and he kept that word to the rest of his life even though on multiple occasions he has been offered large amounts of money to come. People in Dalmatia supported him, while people in Serbia were divided on the issue. Some thought that a long time had passed since the war and that Oliver could just forget his promise and come sing, while others respected his word and respected him more because of it. To understand Oliver's decision, a context is needed. Oliver's wife told a story that her parents, who lived in Dubrovnik, were with her and Oliver in Vela Luka when they saw a live tv news report with footage of bombing of Dubrovnik by the Yugosavian army. The footage showed Dubrovnik port in which the boats were burning, among them the boat of Oliver's father in law. His father in law was visibly shaken, and at that moment Oliver told him that if it meant anything to him he (Oliver) would never return to Serbia to sing again. In the insanity of war, Yugoslavian army threw bombs on the UNESCO world heritage site, the old town of Dubrovnik, while at the same time the Yugoslavian destroyer named Split was bombarding the city whose name it carried. All that, combined with huge stubbornness and an immense sense of responsibility when it comes to keeping his own words no matter what it's about, never again allowed Oliver to come to Serbia. He never said a bad thing about Serbs though, anytime he was asked if he would come he would just say that he gave his word to himself not to, and pointed out that he sees people from Serbia regularly coming to his concerts in Croatia or Slovenia, and that everyone is always welcome.
Jubav moja (My love), one of my all time favorites of Oliver
To see Oliver live I had to go to Croatia, which I did for the first time in March 2015 when I traveled to Zagreb. It was the first in a series of seven or eight concerts held in a rather intimate but classic concert hall in Zagreb with around 1500 seats. When Oliver came out it was a big dream come true. I knew all of Oliver's songs and was incredibly excited, and I don't know why but honestly before that moment I never thought of Oliver in terms of his singing quality and the beauty of his voice. As soon as he started singing I was blown away, it was like a thousand times better than any other concert or any other singer I've ever listened to. It was an incredibly positive shock. That concert was also the first one on which Antonio Serrano joined Oliver, and when I first heard the announcement several weeks before it was strange but exciting. Back then I lived in Madrid and by coincidence Antonio was on the same flight as me to Amsterdam and then Zagreb. Before boarding in Madrid, I approached Antonio to say hi, we chatted a bit, and then in both flights we continued talking about a bunch of stuff. By coincidence on the first leg my seat was next to Antonio's, and then to Zagreb we just sat together. After that first concert I would go on to see Oliver three more times, one of which was the previously mentioned birthday concert in Zagreb on which Antonio was also a guest.
I also had the chance to briefly meet Oliver on two occasions after his concerts, once in Zagreb and once in Pula. The first time in Zagreb, Oliver was the last person to come out of the venue hall with a friend, and he smiled when he saw me and my brother and stopped for a chat. He asked us how we liked the concert, and when he heard I traveled from Madrid and my brother from Belgrade he asked if it was worth the trip. He said he's always glad when people come from different places to see him. The second occasion I met Oliver in person was one day before the concert in the Colosseum in Pula, after the sound check. We arrived by car to Pula a few hours earlier and it was awesome because after the dinner we heard the sound check when passing by the Colosseum and stopped to see it upclose. During the sound check Oliver sang a bunch of full songs so it was like one and a half hour of concert before the real concert the next day. It’s also interesting that on the sound check Oliver sang quite a few songs which he did not sing later at the concert.
A friend once asked me why I love Paco so much, and after some thinking I realized that it’s about the joy that Paco and his music bring to me. When it comes to Oliver, to me he’s all about tenderness.
Finally, if you want to listen to a concert to get to know Oliver better, my favorite ones are this and this from Split. The one from Olympia in Paris and Arena in Pula are also awesome. Also this one with only piano and cello. I hope you enjoy(ed)!
I think that is the official longest post on foro ever. . The guy sings good. The first video the phrase at 2:44 is very "gypsy" in vocal style. I guess that is his "thing" with the ooo vowel in almost all the videos. Does he have any famous cover tunes in English/Spanish etc.?
I don't understand the lyrics, but having the audience all know your song reminds me of the time Chris Stapleton was in the audience for a play and the people on stage gave him the wireless mic and the place went nuts:
Does he have any famous cover tunes in English/Spanish etc.?
A few. The best quality is of a couple of French songs from his 2006 concert in Paris, and You've got a friend from a 1996 concert in Croatia (all three posted below).
Also with not that great quality, there's Love me tonight (it's kinda like an imitation, it was popular at that times to sing foreign songs on a tv and try to resemble the original), Yesterday (where he fools around with his voice) and Crying time (with a glitch or two, but sometimes he does that :)) Nothing in Spanish, except of a main verse in this old song (skip to 1:01).
quote:
having the audience all know your song reminds me of the time Chris Stapleton was in the audience for a play and the people on stage gave him the wireless mic and the place went nuts:
Woow, haven't seen this before, love it! He's awesome, and the audience reaction is wild.
Printable Version
. The guy sings good. The first video the phrase at 2:44 is very "gypsy" in vocal style. I guess that is his "thing" with the ooo vowel in almost all the videos. Does he have any famous cover tunes in English/Spanish etc.? 
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