Crvena Jabuka: Greater than Bijelo Dugme?

Image result for crvena jabuka
In the history of rock music in the former Yugoslavia, there have been many successful artists. During the 1980s came the so-called New Primitives Movement, preceeded by the punk scene.

It's during this former New Primitives movement that one of the greatest bands with a singer ever popular as all its members combiend came to existense (perhaps the band itself being greater than the greatest). The band we're talking about...Crvena Jabuka (The Red Apple).

How it all began:

 It all began in the early 80s when eighteen-year-old Drazen Richl (Z pronounced like "S" in "Risotto), hooked up with sixteen-year old Zlatko Arslanagich to form a short-lived band called Ozbiljno Pitanje (The Serious Question). Naturally the band fell apart before anyone knew them, and Richl went on to become lead guitarist/backup singer with Elvis J. Kurtovich and His Meteors.

Now we come to 1985 and Richl, dissatisfied with Elvis J Kurtovich, decided to up and leave the band and talk to Arslanagich about starting a new band. After a while, the band found twenty-year old Darko Jelchich (drumsk), twenty-five-year-old Aljosha Buha (bass), and twenty-one-yearold Drazen Zeric-Zera (again Z like "S" in Risotto), (backing vocals/keyboards). Richl and Arslanagich made a killer songwriting team in the day and their name is believed to have been a tribute to the Beatles' Apple Records.

After some time, they got a deal with https://rockingaa.blogspot.com/2019/07/yugo-rock-103-history-of-jugoton.html, Jugoton, through which they released their self-titled debut in the spring of '86. The album contained their signature song, Dirlija, I still haven't been able to figure out what that means.

And what did the boys do? That very summer they began carving their NEXT album while their debut album was STILL popular.

But what they didn't know was that tragedy awaited...

 After their first taste of success and the starting of the second album recording, Crvena Jabuka set out on their massive promotional tour. The year was 1986, the month September, and it was the 18th. On that fateful day, the band  traveled in two cars to the historic city of Mostar (some two hours away from their Sarajevo hometown). Sadly in the nearby town of Jablanica, one of their cars colided with a tractor trailer truck. It was then that Aljosa Buha lost his life, with Drazen Richl dying two weeks later at a Belgrade area hospital where he was airlifted. Even Arslanagich sustained injuries, though they were not life-threatening.

At this time, the band organized a "farewell concert" on October 13, 1986. They would halt their work, but not before going back to the studio to finish what they started - the second album. Titled Za sve ove Godine (For All These Years), the album features much more darker, acoustic ballads unlike the light-hearted sound of their debut and future albums. At the band's request, there were no tours, no promotions, no nothing. Some of these songs, did however set the scene for the style of future ballads.

...but they turned tragedy to triumph.

 Crvena Jabuka spent most of 1987 absent from the scene. They came back in 1988 with new producer Niksha Bratos in a popular Zagreb studio called Rockoko to record all their subsequent records there. After singing on their second album, Zera resolved to definitely become the band's new singer then and there.

It was then that the band recorded and released Sanjati (To Dream). In stores in April of '88, the record just smashed the 250,000 copy minimum to be gold-certified. It's on this record that the band really showed off their respect for the Fab Four by covering one of their own signature songs. The success of the album led to a successful nationwide tour.

In 1989, they released their peak album Tamo gdje Ljubav Pochinje (There, Where Love Begins), being mostly a collection of love songs. It led to some personel configurations and a successful world tour.

One more before the war

 Coincidence or not, their 1991 album Nekako s' Proljeca (Somehow with Spring) came out in the spring of '91. The song features a cover of a popular Dalmatian anthem (Dalmatia being a region of Croatia) Da Nije Ljubavi and the title track features a colab with one of the then popular singers, Kemal Monteno.

But they knew success could not last forever. The looming wars and the ever destablizing political climate saw the band taking a massive hiatus. It all started when Arslanagich left the band in 1992. In the end only Cunja and Zera stayed in Sarajevo - Zera becoming a successful cafe/bar owner.

...but they rebound again.

The war knocked Crvena Jabuka down, but couldn't keep them down. In 1994, Zera made a pilgrimage to move to Zagreb to continue the band. There with the help of Niksha and former keyboardist known as Dilajla (Delilah), they reformed the band and released a comeback record which saw them contracting with outside songwritters and with Zera's lower pitch saw a shift to adult contemporary of the modern day. They celebrated their tenth anniversary with a memorable concert at Zagreb's Sports Arena and saw more reconfigurations as the decade went by. Svijet je Lopta Sharena (1997) and Sve Shto Sanjam (2000) were modestly successful albums but by 2005ish the band's popularity really went south and it only nudged up a bit into the next decade.

Today many see Crvena Jabuka as being "Zera with a backing band." I'm saddened that although their music still sounds good, the band structure has been lost through the years. I would give anything to at least hear the adult contemporary sound they had going in the 90s/early 2000s again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Legacy of Davorin Popovich and Indexi

Image
In the former Yugoslavia, there were many successful artists, but one of the most important, and even overlooked sometimes, was a popular band called Indexi (The Indeces). They had an awesome lead singer. The late, great Davorin Popovich today is remembered for has raspy, tenor voice - to me, a bit comparable to Burton Cummings of The Guess Who fame. Over the years, he has earned various nicknames such as Dacho and Pimpek. They were the seeds for other bands. Formed back in 1962, Indexi set the stage for what is now known as the Sarajevo School of Pop Rock - a movement that would live for the next three decades (a la before the Yugoslav wars). Their name, by the way, is the plural of Index - a student's gradebook. Each student was expected to record and maintain their own grades. The core  members, aside from Popovich, consisted of late guitarist Slobodan Bodo Kavachevich and bass player Fadil Redzich (pronounce "dz," like "s" in "risotto)."
Read more

Jimmy Stokley and Exile

Image
  Although of minor significance, today is 35 years since we lostJimmy Stokley of Exile. A little known Kentucky band, Exile is perhaps only known for their 1978 hit Kiss You All Over . In the 80s, the band shifted to more of a country sound, and has not made any noteable chart hits since. A Jagger-like frontman Born James Carr Stokley on October 18, 1943, Stokley joined The Fascinations in 1963, who then became Jimmy Stokley and The Exiles, featuring future Exile guiarist J.P. Penington  Jimmy Stokley and The Exiles, were, towards the end of the decade, shortened to simply The Exiles, before the plural form was dropped in the mid 70s, becoming Exile. Interestingly, Stokley's attire and attitude on stage led to many calling him the American Mick Jagger. One hitters In 1978, Exile issued their LP Mixed Emotions  through Warner Bros. records. The record features the disco-ey hit Kiss You All Over , written by producer Mike Chapman (also notorious for working with Blondie). Despite co
Read more

Bijelo Dugme - Former Yugoslavia's Greatest Rock Band

Image
In today's blog post, we will examine perhaps one of the GREATEST rock bands of the former Yugoslavia. Bijelo Dugme (The White Button), which by sound is largely influenced by the heavy metal likes of Deep Purple, Zeppelin, and Sabbath; however in culture, they were most simillar to the Beatles. In fact, there was a Dugmeania in the former Yugoslavia in the late 70s akin to Beatlemania in the US in the 60s. The brainchild of the band was a young man named Goran Bregovich, aka Brega. He was born on 3, 22, 1950 in Sarajevo to a Serbian mother and a Croatian father. At some point, his mother enrolled him into a music school with violin as a chosen instrument, but around twelve he was expelled showing lack of interest. Consequently, his mother bought him a guitar in his early teenage years. Brega's first bands were high school bands. He played bass guitar for Beshtije (The Beasts). At a  br in 1969, Bregovich met Zeljko Bebek who was part of a band called Kodeksi (The Codexes)
Read more