Štulić could be downright scathing and the audience loved him for it. More than that, his incisive, often caustic songs tapped into the human psyche in a way so few others had. The music was wholly original no one song sounded the same, really. His prescient lyrics reflected that, providing the kind of light and shade-with biting socio-political commentary-that hadn’t been seen before. Azra’s sharp-witted frontman, Branimir “Johnny” Štulić, was a dylanesque force of nature: enigmatic, singular, whip-smart, charismatic, no-nonsense. It’s no embellishment that Azra were, in a way, the crème de la crème of the Yugoslav music scene, most especially in the way their songs differed so greatly from anything preceding (or following) it. Other songs by Idoli to check out: Nebeska tema / Maljčiki / Devojko mala / Odbrana / Malena / Ime da da / Amerika / Poslednji dani / Zasto su danas devojke ljute / Nemo Azra
Sadly, the incomparable Divljan passed away five years ago in Vienna after a long battle with cancer he was only 57.
Idoli were lamentably short lived, breaking up in 1984 after only four years together, but their legacy remains and has deep, far-reaching roots. It’s worth listening to it in its entirety to get a feel for the cohesive, thematic sounds. Where do I even begin here? Do I start with the fact that they were one of the defining Yugo bands of not only the 80s-and its incredible New Wave era, which they all but ushered in at the start of that decade-but of all time? Do I start by mentioning how Vlada Divljan, its frontman and head songwriter, was one of the most beautiful men I’ve ever clapped eyes on? And how if I were single and time-travelled to the 80s and he rocked up on my front stoop… (Er, I’ve said too much.) Their 1982 album Odbrana i poslednji dani is widely considered by music critics to be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, from the Former Yugoslav region. Other songs by Bijelo Dugme to check out: Pjesma mom mladjem bratu / Ne gledaj me tako / Pristao sam bicu sve sto hoce / Bitanga i princeza / Ako mozes, zaboravi / Blues za moju bivsu dragu / Sta bi dao da si na mom mjestu / Da te bogdo ne volim / Sanjao sam nocas da te nemam / Zamisli Idoli I can vouch for that: their songs are some of the first and earliest I remember hearing my folks played and sang them all the time (to me and my brother, and in general). They had some fine moments and they were virtually omnipresent, their music permeating countless households even after they parted ways in 1989. I’ll avoid waxing rhapsodic about ‘the Buttons’ and their legacy-it’s covered at length in this Shoot Farken article I wrote in 2018 I encourage you to take a squiz at it for a slightly more detailed rundown-and say only that although they might be dismissed at times as “shepherd rock” (one of the derogatory phrases coined during their heyday), they simply cannot be pigeonholed like that, nor should they be. Dugme (or Dugmići-little buttons-as they were nicknamed) were huger than huge they redefined what ‘big’ meant in the Yugo musical landscape from 1974 onwards, which of course meant that they were, naturally, divisive. And heck yes, I’ve created a Spotify playlist of 16 songs just for your listening pleasure. So without further ado, here is a list of entry-level tunes by defunct Yugo bands you must hear. Not only that, but the Yugoslav sound (particularly the New Wave movement of the 80s) was very progressive and unique, and definitely not ‘less than’ in terms of its Western counterparts. And all of the songs from the upcoming groups are, in one way or another, about themes universal to us all: life, love, lust, loss. Music is music, and you can feel what a song is about from the tone, melody, nuances and vocal dynamics, even when you don’t know the language a band is singing in. All right, reader, what better way to fleetingly forget about the dumpster fire of the world when in isolation, or for that matter even in a post-iso world, than by listening to music from a country that…no longer exists? And the following goes without saying: you may not understand Serbo-Croatian/Bosnian, et al, but we all know that doesn’t matter, nor has it ever.
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