ZIVJELA JUGOSLAVIJA

Starting from 1967, the year it was established, Indexi were regular guests of the Sarajevo pop music festival "Vas slager sezone" (Your Hit of the Season), which they never missed until the release of this single, except in 1974 when Slobodan Bodo Kovacevic and Davorin Popovic were in the army. Therefore, "Vas slager sezone 79" was their 12th appearance at this "light music" event. It was held on April 7, 1979, in the KSC Skenderija hall in Sarajevo, and Indexi performed two compositions that would soon be found on their 24th 7" record overall, or their 11th single released by Diskoton record label. The lineup of Indexi at that time had stabilized with drummer Djordje Kisic and keyboardist Nenad Jurin, along with the standard bass guitarist Fadil Redzic, and the aforementioned duo. When talking about Indexi, the terms disco or punk rarely appear in the same sentence. Yet, although extremely opposed to each other, these two musical styles were very popular during 1979, both abroad and in Yugoslavia (albeit the former declining and the latter just emerging), which certainly did not bypass Indexi, who always listened to what new was happening on the world scene.

The A-side of the single featured a patriotic pop song with a slogan-like title, "Zivjela Jugoslavija" (Long Live Yugoslavia), for which Kemal Monteno wrote the music and lyrics, and Redzic made the arrangement. It was recorded on March 24, 1979. It begins with the strumming rhythms of an acoustic guitar, gradually joined by orchestral strings, vocals, and the rhythm section. Playful keyboards further embellish the sonic picture, and subtle influences of disco music can be felt in the beat pattern and the treatment of the electric guitar, bass, and drums. The lyrics are quite weak and banal, and seem as if they were "commissioned" by the country's political leadership for the purpose of promoting the policy of non-alignment ("Just come, just come/Black brother, white brother/Here a white dove flies to every heart/With a branch of peace"). To avoid any misunderstanding, Indexi were no exception in occasionally performing patriotic songs. On the contrary, it was standard practice during the seventies, and it would be much easier to list the performers of pop and rock music who did not engage in this. However, such songs were too often short-lived, and their artistic reach was usually minimal. Such is the case with this song too. Despite a solid musical performance - with which Indexi won fourth place at the festival - which also featured former band member Ranko Rihtman as the conductor of the RTV Sarajevo Revue Orchestra, "Zivjela Jugoslavija" remains only as an interesting historical reminder of the time in which it was created.

A much better track, however, is on the B-side, which was often the case in Indexi's singles discography. The music and arrangement for "Prazne noci, a beskrajni dani" (Empty Nights, and Endless Days) are the work of Bodo Kovacevic, while the lyrics were written by another former member, Ismet Arnautalic. It was recorded in a Sarajevo studio on March 9th. The instrumental introduction is characterized by a fierce riff on the electric guitar that Bodo employs in a hard rock manner. This extremely catchy and effective sequence was used in the early eighties as the opening theme of a popular music show on Radio Sarajevo. The boogie/rock and roll pattern is also enhanced by the electric organ, which gives the track the "old style" of classic Indexi, while the chorus also shows influences of punk in the way the guitar is played. Bodo's acrobatics with a pick scratch, on the other hand, also evoke the style of "guitar heroes" in the heavy metal genre. Only the funny and long-outdated electronic drum effects, with their high- pitched tones like those from arcade video games, clearly date the track to 1979, when these sound effects, thanks to the market availability of Simmons instruments, were very popular and often used without measure or taste. In any case, it is one of Indexi's rockiest songs in the second half of the seventies, at a time when they were gradually moving away from rock and inevitably falling into oblivion by their previously loyal audience. It is indicative, for example, that in the text summarizing the domestic scene for 1979, published in "Hit strana" of "Politikin zabavnik" youth magazine at the end of December of that year, Indexi were not even mentioned, nor did any of their songs enter the selection of 20 domestic hits. However, in the same magazine, "Prazne noci" managed to enter the top 10 chart of domestic singles during September and October, peaking at the 4th position.

The record was released during the summer of 1979 (the vinyl matrix was cut on July 16th) in a standardized graphic design of the cover, which Diskoton used for a series of single records with hits performed at "Vas slager sezone 79". On a blue background, a photograph of the band is framed to resemble a TV screen, and it shows the current lineup of Indexi. However, the image was taken from an earlier photo session done for the cover of the album "Modra rijeka" (The Blue River), which can be concluded from the somewhat Elton John-esque extravagant dark glasses worn by drummer Kisic. All in all, this single is not among the Indexi's more significant releases, although the B-side song has enough interesting moments, which remind us that even in their most pop mainstream phase, Indexi knew how to dust off energetic rock and roll when they wanted to.

PA rating: 2/5 Personal rating: 3/5