Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo

Background

After vocalist Željko Bebek left Bijelo Dugme during spring 1984, band leader Goran Bregović extended the offer of becoming Bijelo Dugme's new singer to Divlje Jagode vocalist Alen Islamović. Islamović turned it down, however, fearing Bebek might decide to return to the band. Twenty-three-year-old Mladen "Tifa" Vojičić thus became Bijelo Dugme's new vocalist, recording the 1984 Bijelo Dugme album with the band.

After Vojičić left in 1985, Islamović got approached once again about joining the band. At the time, Divlje Jagode were based in London, working on their international career. Doubting Divlje Jagode's international prospects, Islamović decided to take the offer this time, leaving Divlje Jagode and returning to Yugoslavia to join Bijelo Dugme. Talking about the second vocalist change in two years and the band's personnel issues in general, Bregović stated at the time:

Keyboardist Laza Ristovski, who left Bijelo Dugme in 1978, participated in the recording of Bijelo Dugme, but became an official member of the band once again only after the album was released. Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo was the first Bijelo Dugme album since 1977 live album Koncert kod Hajdučke česme to feature Ristovski as an official member.

Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo featured similar folk-oriented pop rock sound as Bijelo Dugme, and was similarly inspired by Yugoslavism, containing numerous references to Yugoslav unity as well as the lyrics on the inner sleeve printed in both Cyrillic and Latin alphabets.

Censorship

Some of the ideas Bregović envisioned for the album ended up not being implemented due to political pressure by Yugoslav authorities.

Bregović originally wanted the album to contain contributions from individuals known for holding political views outside of SFR Yugoslavia's official ideology as espoused by the Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ), the only legally allowed political party in the country. To that end he and the band's manager Raka Marić approached three such individuals who were effectively proscribed from public discourse in Yugoslavia:

Bregović's idea was to have Vukov sing the "Ružica si bila, sada više nisi" ballad. However, despite Vukov accepting, the plan never got implemented after the band's manager Marić got arrested and interrogated by the police at the Sarajevo Airport upon returning from Zagreb where he met Vukov. Mića Popović's contribution to the album was to be his Dve godine garancije (A Two-Year Warranty) painting featuring a pensioner sleeping on a park bench while using pages of Politika newspaper as blanket to warm himself, which Bregović wanted to use as the album cover. When approached, Mića Popović also accepted though warning Bregović of possible problems the musician would likely face. Koča Popović was reportedly somewhat receptive to the idea of participating on the album, but still turned the offer down.

Eventually, under pressure from the band's record label, Diskoton, Bregović gave up on his original idea, instead turning to alternative solutions. A World War II holder of the Order of the People's Hero still appeared on the record, however, instead of Koča Popović, it was Svetozar Vukmanović Tempo. He, together with Bregović and children from the Ljubica Ivezić orphanage in Sarajevo, sang a cover of "Padaj silo i nepravdo" ("Fall, (Oh) Force and Injustice"), an old revolutionary song.

The album cover featured a photograph of Chinese social realist ballet.

Track listing

All songs written by Goran Bregović, except where noted

Personnel

Additional personnel

Reception

The album's main hits were pop song "Hajdemo u planine", "Noćas je k'o lubenica pun mjesec iznad Bosne", "A i ti me iznevjeri" and ballads "Te noći kad umrem, kad odem, kad me ne bude" and "Ružica si bila, sada više nisi". The promotional tour was very successful.

Large section of the critics, however, disliked Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo. In his Danas review, Dragan Kremer drew parallels between the developing economic and political crisis in SFR Yugoslavia and what he sees to be the band's ongoing creative crisis:

In 1987, Kremer went further while appearing as guest on TV Sarajevo's panel show Mit mjeseca (Myth of the Month). Expressing his dislike of the band's new direction, Kremer stated:

After stating this, Kremer tore the Pljuni i zapjevaj moja Jugoslavijo album cover. This provoked Bregović, who appeared in the following edition of the show, to describe Kremer as "little fat pig with sideburns, who in his forties probably still masturbates orderly". The incident turned into a large media scandal at the time.

Vukmanović's appearance on the album was described by The Guardian as "some sort of Bregović's coup d'état".

Legacy

Pljuni i zapjevaj, moja Jugoslavijo is, alongside the albums Smrt fašizmu! by Plavi Orkestar and Teško meni sa tobom (a još teže bez tebe) by Merlin, considered the main representative of the New Partisans movement from Sarajevo, based on folk-inspired rock music and Yugoslavism.

The album was polled in 1998 as the 53rd on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav rock and pop albums in the book YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike (YU 100: The Best Albums of Yugoslav Pop and Rock Music).

Covers