Author: Urban Bolta
Artist: Bajaga i Instruktori
Label: Dallas Records
Release: 2012
Running time: 142:52
Rating: 4/5
In recent years, Dallas Records has been making sure that many names from the once-colorful Yugoslav music scene don’t end up in the graveyard of history, reissuing gems from the rich vault of Yugoslav rock. Thanks to his huge popularity, Bajaga won’t be landing there anytime soon, but putting his first four albums out on a double CD is still a hugely welcome move for every fan of the Serbian musician.
Momčilo Bajagić – Bajaga started honing his musical talent back in the mid-seventies, getting his chops in various Belgrade bands before his friend Rajko Kojić invited him into the newly formed Riblja Čorba. Bora Đorđević was the main man there, and quite a bit of water flowed under the bridge before Bajaga managed to establish himself in Čorba to the point where he started co-writing their music. But the basic hard rock sound was cramping Bajaga’s yearning for lighter rhythms. Already the songs from the album »Buvlja pijaca« (1982), Baby, Baby, I Don’t Wanna Cry and Pravila, Pravila, both written by Bajaga, hint at a slight departure from Čorba’s raw sound, which only got more intense on the following albums (even after Bajaga’s exit).
As the creative rift between Čorba and Bajaga kept widening, in 1984 Momčilo left the Serbian rockers, who were hugely popular at that moment, and threw himself completely into his own band, Bajaga i Instruktori, whose debut was by then already turning into a mini Yugoslav hit. Bajaga’s own musical ideas finally got free rein, and so did the rivalry between the two bands, which never quite came to be.
Over the next five years came the albums »Pozitivna geografija« (1984), »Sa druge strane jastuka« (1985), »Jahači magle« (1986) and »Prodavnica tajni« (1988), which shot Bajaga and his Instruktori up among the stars of Yugoslav music. Despite following one another in quick succession, the four albums deliver quality stuff. The band settled into radio-friendly pop rock, but you can still hear the influence of plenty of other genres in their sound: jazz, folk and world music. Through lighter melodies, Bajaga found it easier to show his more emotional side, and so he distanced himself from Čorba’s controversial themes about the troubled life of an idle man living on the edge of the law. That’s how Bajaga became a great master of the ballad.
Who doesn’t know hits like Berlin, Sa druge strane jastuka, Verujem-ne verujem, Plavi safir, Zažmuri, Godine prolaze and all the rest? Listing all his hits would take too long, and so would listing the other successes that his successful start as a solo artist brought with it. Well-attended gigs followed one another like on a conveyor belt, and Bajaga’s voice even reached the Soviet Union, where he was invited to tour. Every new album was received brilliantly by the target audience, and by the time »Prodavnica tajni« came out, the Instruktori could already rival the popularity of Riblja Čorba, whose star no longer shone as brightly as it had a few years earlier.
A quarter of a century later, then, we’ve got a compilation capturing the sounds of the beginning of the story of Bajaga and the Instruktori, which is still going. Older music fans will reminisce nostalgically about bygone times while listening to it, and younger ones will get to know their parents’ music at the same time. The compilation also bridges the gap until Bajaga’s studio comeback, which we’ve now been waiting on for a solid seven years, and that’s just one more plus for this retrospective story spread across two discs.
Lineup
Momčilo Bajagić »Bajaga« – guitar, vocals, backing vocals (all albums)
Miroslav Cvetković – bass guitar, vocals (all albums)
Vlada Golubović – drums, backing vocals (all albums)
Neša Japanac – bass guitar (I.)
Bata Kovač – keyboards (I.)
Ivan Švager – clarinet (I.)
Kire Mitrev – trombone (I.)
Nenad Stamatović – guitar (II.), saxophone (III.)
Dejan Cukić – vocals (I., II.)
Žika Milenković – vocals, guitar (II., III., IV.)
Rade Radivojević – keyboards (II.)
Dušan Bezuha – guitars (III.)
Slobodan Božanić – bass guitar (III.)
Goran Grbić – trumpet (III.)
Aleksander Lokner – keyboards, vocals (IV.)
Nenad Stamatović – guitar, vocals (IV.)
Tracklist
I. Pozitivna geografija:
01 Berlin
02 Mali slonovi
03 Poljubi me
04 Limene trube
05 Znam čoveka
06 Tekila – gerila
07 Marlena
08 Kosooka
09 Tamara
10 Pustite me, druže
11 Papaline
II. Sa druge strane jastuka:
01 220
02 Vidi, šta sam ti uradio od pesme, mama
03 Nemoj da budeš nja nja
04 Ti se ljubiš (na tako dobar način)
05 Dobro jutro džezeri
06 Sa druge strane jastuka
07 Šarene pilule za lilule
08 Dvadeseti vek
09 Francuska ljubavna revolucija
10 Nemoj da se zezaš sa mnom
11 Zažmuri
III.Jahači magle:
01 Ja mislim 300 na sat
02 Kao ne zna da je gotivim
03 Gde stiže moje secanje
04 Red i mir
05 Rimljani
06 Samo nam je ljubav potrebna
07 Strah od vozova
08 Bam bam ba,
09 442 do Beograda
IV. Prodavnica tajni:
01 Gore – dole
02 Plavi safir
03 Verujem – ne verujem
04 Godine prolaze
05 Ruski voz
06 Vesela pesma
07 Tišina
08 Život je nekad siv – nekad zut
09 Otkada tebe volim
