How the British Invasion influenced Rock in The Former Yugoslavia

Image result for yugo rock
So far in this blog, we have covered several facets of former Yugoslav rock music such as the New Primitives Movement, which took off in the late 70s/early 80s.

But there's more...

 ...in the height of the era, especially in the 1980s, another influence came about, the traces of the British Invasion.
Image result for british invasion
To elaborate, the British Invasion is considered the era of popular music in the 1960s where British bands such as the Beatles, Rolling Stones, the Who, Free, and the Zombies were big in the US. Twenty years later, there was a so-called "Second British Invasion," less popular than the original one.

So what does this all have to do with Yugo Rock?

 Excellent question. Actually quite a bit. Perhaps the most notable band to have benefited from the British Invasion was Crvena Jabuka (the Red Apple), who, it is believed, got its name as a tribute to the Beatles' Apple Records. The initial members consisting of the songwriting partnership of Drazen Richl and Zlatko Arslanagich were described as being akin to being a redoing of the Lennon-McCartney collaboration.

Particularly in one track of their first album, the band has quoted the Who's 1966 hit My Generation  in the lines of "Volio bih umrijet prije nego ostarit," roughly translating to "I hope I die before I get old."

The Richl-Arslanagich partnership did not thrive. En route to their first ever concert, one of their cars were involved in a fatal accident. Then bass player Aljosha Buha was killed on impact, Richl dying fifteen days later in a Belgrade area hospital; however, even after the fact, the band rebounded and actually released a true tribute to the Beatles, a Bosnian version cover version of "Twist and Shout.".

Other bands paid respect to the Beatles, and other acts of that day as well. For their debut album, Plavi Orkestar (The Blue Orchestra) created a near replicated version of the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. Croatian rockers Prljavo Kazalishte (The Dirty Theatre) created a logo that was near identical to one used by the Rolling Stones. While I'm at it, did I mention taht Serbian rock band Elektricni Orgazam made a cover of the Rolling Stones' Out of Time?

The takeaway:

 The British Invasion really played a big part of music in my former birth country. Not only did bands write music in partnerships like some past musical heroes, but many created cover versions of their songs and even adopted simillar logos. There's no doubt here that generations of the past have some level of influence or another on newer generations.

I do wish former Yugoslav music could be more popular to the rest of the world. Who knows how some future rock band would be influenced by that?

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