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Bijelo Dugme: Sta Bi Dao Da Si Na Mom Mjestu

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Šta Bi Dao Da Si Na Mom Mjestu
Dušan Vesić
352 Pages
Laguna, Serbia
2014

These days composer/guitarist Goran Bregovic is revered for his soundtrack work and more than that, he is better known for his explosive cocktail of Balkan Gypsy music and various other folk musics from the region, thus becoming the best known exponent of world music. His concerts are a different affair as he and his Wedding and Funeral Orchestra easily command concert halls and festivals with their breakneck signature stomps and blistering soloings. But long before this stage of his career, Goran Bregovic forged a very successful career as a band leader and author in chief of one of the most popular rock acts, if not a towering one, in former Yugoslavia— Bijelo Dugme or White Button. For 15 active and very productive years, the band forged a reputation like no other, writing memorable songs, selling huge quantities of records and had sellout tours. The band had a similar galvanizing effect on the music scene in Yugoslavia as the Beatles or Led Zeppelin had in their heyday as its record sales reached dizzying heights and had an undeniable effect on the music industry and popular culture as well. It's influence spread way outside the borders of that country, but sadly, the band's demise coincided with the violent break up of former Yugoslavia and never reaching the status it deserved.

Renowned journalist and documentary director, Dušan Vesić makes the uneasy task of going through the ashes of this phenomenon and gives a unique look at the history, adventures, myths and realities behind this band, eventually its aftermath. The publishing of What Would You Give to Be in My Place coincided with the release of a lavishly designed vinyl box set that comprised of the band's complete studio output that was remastered at the Abbey Road Studios. Both the book and the box set were released to mark the 40th anniversary of the band's formation. Ever since the band achieved its first successes in the mid '70s it was a subject of scrutiny by the press, but there weren't many books written about it as much as there were TV documentaries.

Vesić sets out as a kind of detective to tell this story that comes with a lot of luggage, expectations and myths. But contrary to how many approach biography writing these days, his storytelling is much more personal and deep, after all he has met and known the band even before his career as a music journalist had started. Even when directing documentaries, as he did with the heart-rending and outstanding documentary about another band, EKV, his focus of interest was not only in the way a machine functions, the grinding of the gears and the ways its parts perform. His approach also tells what purpose the music serves to the culture at large, but much more how it has affected people's lives on an individual level.

The story begins in the city of Sarajevo, a multicultural city with a turbulent history, which was far from the politically and culturally dominant centers within Yugoslavia where an act like this was more expected to appear. And yet, regardless of that, the city gave a lot of music, both good and bad, that have meant something. The band's trail to any success or stardom was littered with small bands that played dance halls, pubs, hotels and disintegrated fast. Vesić provides a historical and occasional critical overview of the lives of each band member and the band's output, and has done an impressive quantity of research, that includes statements and testimonies of many whose paths have crossed with this band.

The band initially had a another name and since it coincided with another band's name it soon changed into Bijelo Dugme which was taken from a song they had written at the time. Armed with a songwriting talent that went to combine popular rock and blues riffs with harmonies from traditional Balkan music, the band began releasing songs and albums that people loved. This melange was at the time was called "shepherd rock" because of its folkish nature. Very soon they began touring and recording in studios in London. Vesić carefully marks the band's stylistic stages, internal clashes, scandals, anecdotes and provides fresh view on motives behind certain occurrences. As with any other big selling band, so was the band and its chief writer Bregovic aware of the changing climates and styles in music. The band began as a blues rock combo in the '70s, but very soon it began morphing into a new wave act at the turn of the '80s. Rather than becoming a relic of the past, Bregovic began incorporating different approaches in order to stay relevant, sometimes with dubious results. But records sales never waned and the band was playing stadiums and huge crowds like the famed concert at Hajducka Cesma in 1977 when they played to a crowd of 100.000 people.

Back then, during the '80s former Yugoslavia had a colorful and potent music scene that was second only to the British and the American music scenes. It was a world of its own in any sense—records by domestic and foreign performers were sold in shitload quantities and foreign bands shared the bills easily with domestic ones. Regardless of its enormous popularity, both Bregovic and the band were revered and loathed in equall measures at every stage of their career. While the book is a labor of love, Vesic is aware and notes what were the realities or the peaks and the valleys of the band's output in each stage. Ever since the '80s the band began changing its lead singers and when the first lead singer Željko Bebek left the band he was eventually replaced by Mladen Vojicic Tifa and Alen Islamovic. Each singer marked a different stylistic change eventually turning into a synth pop-ballads—folk band. Simoultanousely to his career as a pop-rock star, Bregovic also began composing soundtrack music for the films, most notably Emir Kusturica's Time of The Gypsies. As the band went touring in 1989 the concert halls were full of nervousness and the winds of war could be felt with strong premonitions of what was to come. Due to inner turmoils, musical exhaustion and lack of interest, the band quickly disintegrated and very soon the country went into violent disintegration. The civil war torn the country apart and most of the band members went different ways. Bregovic began a new chapter as a film composer with great success and creating quasy gypsy -symphonic melanges along the way, but with varying success. The others were not so fortunate. Since its demise, the band had regrouped only for a brief tour in 2005, when they played three concerts in Belgrade, Sarajevo and Zagreb. It was estimated that 200.000 people had attended the concert in Belgrade.

The challenge for any biographer approaching a subject which life story is ingrained in the people's memory is to introduce something new to that tale. Vesić's book is a rewarding tribute to the band's members and its greatest legacy—the songs. While the band's influence cannot be measured only by sales charts, it left a body of work that has become a yardstick for many aspiring bands and songwriters. The band's songs also became fuel for Bregovic's excursions in music as most of the hooks and melodies that comprise his music these days were taken or were recycled from the band's past output. Many biographies of music figures focus on one area at the expense of the other. Vesić, through years of research, has done an exemplary job of that here. While this story is very eventful he is providing details to every major occurrence in the band's history without overloading with unnecessary details or gossiping. There are many issues that are part of the band's story and those details are carefully interwoven without breaking its narrative.

Some of the omissions may be Bregovic's occasional plagiarisms when he borrowed themes from various folk musics or other popular songs at the time, or shedding more light to outsiders who were crucial to the band's oeuvre like poet Duško Trifunović or guitarist Vlatko Stefanovski, who is only mentioned in a context outside the band's work. While he is mentioned that he participated in a solo project by two of the band's members, his guitar is featured on memorable tracks such as "Uspavanka za Radmilu M" (Lullaby for Radmila M.) and "Polubauk polukruži poluevropom" ("Half-Spectre is Half-Haunting Half-Europe").

Stylistically excellent and rich with details this book is a page turner. And it could have easily been three times the size than this and still be interesting. Several decades since the band broke up What Would You Give to Be in My Place is a sad reminder that bands such as this one are a thing of the past.

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