Review article
Don't break my locust trees: conceptions of history and politics in Đorđe Balašević's songs
Vinko Tadić
; Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Goran Đurđević
orcid.org/0000-0002-9002-8132
; Historical Society of Požega, Croatia
Abstract
Songwriter Đorđe Balašević from Novi Sad is one of the notable singers and poets of the Southeast Europe. Balašević is well known for his characteristic metaphors, comparisons and personifications as well as his social activism. In this context his songs about the past and the present (or rather the present that was actual at the time of the writing – then-present) are being reviewed. Authors distinguish four groups: songs about World War I (Warrior with Peasant Heart, Galicia, Aco My Bro, Oh So Many Sad Loves, The Night When I Swam across the Danube), songs about Josip Broz Tito (I Saw Tito Three Times, Requiem), songs about Socialist Yugoslavia (1987, Count on Us, Oh God, Virovitica, Let Me Be, Pretty Nasta, The Skyscraper), and songs about the breakup of Yugoslavia and Milošević's Serbia (A Legend of Geda the Stupid, Just Let There Be No War, If Only You Had a BMW, The Nineties, It's Our Fault, Fiddle, I'm Not a Loser, I Had to Move Out, The Unbeliever, Blue Ballad, Recruiters' Song, Sevdalinka, Live Free, How the Evil Idiots Demolished the Celebration). Đorđe Balašević wrote songs projecting into the past and then-present his anti-war ideas, internationalism against then dominant nationalism, preoccupation of a small man who isn't privy to the complicated and crucial times.
Keywords
Đorđe Balašević; history; politics; World War I; Josip Broz Tito; breakup of Yugoslavia; Vojvodina
Hrčak ID:
184271
URI
Publication date:
12.7.2017.
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