Odbrana i poslednji dani: Difference between revisions

{{Infobox album <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Albums -->

| Name name = Odbrana i poslednji dani

| Type type = Studio album

| Artist artist = [[Idoli]]

| Cover cover = Odbrana i poslednji dani.jpg

| Releasedalt = 1982 =

| Recordedreleased = 1982
| recorded = Studios XIII and VI, [[Radio Belgrade]]<br />Autumn and Winter 1981/1982

| Length studio = 44:21

| Producerlength = [[Idoli]]44:21

| Reviewslabel = [[Jugoton]]

| Chronologyproducer = [[Idoli]]

| Last album prev_title = ''[[VIS Idoli (EP)|VIS Idoli]]''<br />(1981)

| Next album next_title = ''[[Čokolada (album)|Čokolada]]''<br />(1983)

'''''Odbrana i poslednji dani''''' ({{lang-sr-Cyrl|Одбрана и последњи дани}}; trans. ''The Defense and the Last Days'') is the first studio album by [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia|Yugoslav]] [[New wave music in Yugoslavia|new wave]] band [[Idoli]] released in 1982.

''[[Džuboks]]'' magazine critics voted the album the greatest [[Yugoslav rock]] album of the 20th century in 1985.{{Citation needed|date=August 2009}} The album was polled in 1998 as Yugoslav greatest [[popular music]] album in the book ''[[YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike]]'' (''YU 100: The Best albums of Yugoslav pop and rock music'').<ref>{{cite book|last1=Antonić|first1=Duško|last2=Štrbac|first2=Danilo|title= YU 100: najbolji albumi jugoslovenske rok i pop muzike|year=1998|publisher=YU Rock Press|location=Belgrade|page=}}</ref> In 2015, ''Odbrana i poslednji dani'' was polled the greatest Yugoslav rock album in the special edition of [[Croatia]]n ''[[Rolling Stone]]''.<ref name="rollingstone7">{{cite journal|last=|first=magazine|title=Rolling Stone - Specijalno izdanje: 100 najboljih albuma 1955 - 2015|journalmagazine=Rolling Stone|publisher=S3 Mediji|location=Zagreb|issue=Special editidon|page=7|language=Croatianhr}}</ref>

The band started recording their first long play album during autumn 1981. The record was originally supposed to be produced by the band members themselves with the assistance of Dušan "Spira" Mihajlović,; however, Mihajlović soon left the recording sessions, so the album recordings werewas produced only with help from Mile "Pile" Miletić and [[Goran Vejvoda]]. The band's initial plan was an album dealing with religion and tradition, which was seen as potentially provocative due to many aspects of these topics still being a taboo in [[SFR Yugoslavia|communist Yugoslavia]]'s public sphere at the time. This was the first release that included a lineup change as Kokan Popović (who used to playplayed with [[Vlada Divljan]] and Zdenko Kolar in Zvuk Ulice) now joined Idoli as their new drummer.

BesideIn addition to the guitar, Divljan also played the piano, while Šaper played keyboards and synthesizers. Guest appearances featured Goran Vejvoda (Casio synthesizer on "Kenozoik" and "Odbrana" in addition to guitar on "Gde si sad cica-maco"), Mile "Pile" Miletić (guitar solo on "Gde si sad cica-maco"), and [[Bebi Dol]] (backing vocals on "Odbrana"). The track "Senke su drugačije" featured Vuk Vujačić (saxophone), Goran Grbić (trumpet) and Slobodan Grozdanović (trombone).

Since the recording process lasted far too long for [[Jugoton]]'s liking, the label wanted to release the album as soon as possible. The record came out very quickly in early 1982. Unlike the band's previous releases, which were well accepted both commercially and critically, the new album had the critics divided with reactions ranging from extremely positive to extremely negative. Since the band wanted to present the record as non-commercial, no promotional videos were recorded for the album. Fifty thousand copies of the album were sold in Yugoslavia, which was in sharp contrast to the band's previous release, the ''[[VIS Idoli (EP)|VIS Idoli]]'' EP, that sold roughly 200,000 copies. This resulted in the stylistic change ofon the next album the bandstudio recordedeffort.

It was further rumoured that Jugoton did not agree with the cover, considering it provocative in communist Yugoslavia where religion was very much suppressed. As the alternate solution, photographer and designer [[Goranka Matić]], who did the cover, went to the [[National Museum of Serbia|National Museum]] in [[Belgrade]] and took the photo which was used as the album cover. It was chosen to be a cloth detail from a [[Saint Nicholas]] icon. Many people also found the shape of the pattern to be similar to the [[Swastika]] and thought it was used as a topic on the album, but Divljan stated that any resemblance of the [[Swastika]] was unintentional and that people were reading too much into it.

The song "Poslednji dani" (originally entitled "Maršal") represents a man who feels very joyous and romantic at night, a time when his hidden personality shows up. Unlike the man in the novel, who loves the river and enjoys spending time at the empty river bank as the river is his "God", the man in the song loves his [[Marshal of Yugoslavia|Marshal]] (Tito) who is his "God". The record company did not agree with the last verse of the song as it was directly referring to [[Josip Broz Tito]] so the band had to change the song title and remove the last verse.

"Senke su drugačije" present a man determined to leave home. He feels a complete alienation in his surroundings, but is also afraid to leave as the paths are "narrow and dangerous". The structure of the song is keyboard and brass oriented with a march rhythm. In the novel the main character was forced to go to [[Germany]]. The story continues with "Nemo" in which the man is completely occupied with the thoughts of the place he is in and continues wandering in the world he can not adopt to.

The next two tracks deal with a complete opposition to the main character in the novel. The first "Rusija" is a romantic ballad about a college student who lives in an apartment with his girlfriend which is a very strong working-class girl. The main character in the novel did not study and did not like dancing which is the topic of "[[Igrale se delije]]", a rockabilly song which calls everyone to dance. The backing vocals lyrics include "[[Igrale se delije|Igrale se delije nasred zemlje Srbije]]" which was a popular poem written by Serbian poet [[Milorad Petrović Seljančica|Milorad M. Petrović Seljančica]] (1875-1921).<ref>{{cite news|last1=Nikolić|first1=Marija|title=Otkrivena bista pesniku iz Velike Ivanče, autoru pesme "Igrale se delije"|url=http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Beograd/393169/Otkrivena-bista-pesniku-iz-Velike-Ivance-autoru-pesme-Igrale-se-delije|accessdateaccess-date=29 January 2015|agency=Blic online|date=12 July 2013}}</ref>

Following the release of the album, the band went on tour, but the new album did not reach the audience as their previous releases. The only song which was well accepted by the audience was "[[Kenozoik]]" which was usually played first on live appearances.

One of the first live shows the band did was in [[Zagreb]] club [[Kulušić]] where Dragan Vulinović, who worked in [[Radio Belgrade]] as sound engineer, dressed in black and holding a [[thurible]] containing [[Religious use of incense|incenceincense]] was walking along the stage as a [[thurifer]]. In [[Belgrade]] instead of Vulinović this job was given to a girl. The reaction of the critics to using orthodox elements on concerts was described as "Rock with the smell of [[Religious use of incense|incenceincense]]". The shows lasted for more than two hours and had several encore calls.

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071014122604/http://forum.krstarica.com/archive/index.php/t-2272.html Vlada Divljan interview (Serbian source)]{{dead link|date=February 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

[[Category:Concept1980s concept albums]]