Bitanga i princeza


Bitanga i princeza is the fourth studio album by Yugoslav rock band Bijelo Dugme, released in 1979.
Bitanga i princeza was Bijelo Dugme's first album to feature Điđi Jankelić on drums. It was the band's last hard rock-oriented album before their switch to new wave in the following year.
In 1998, Bitanga i princeza was polled as the 10th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav rock and pop albums in the book . In 2015, the album was pronounced the 15th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav albums published by Croatian edition of Rolling Stone.

Background

After the departures of drummer Ipe Ivandić and keyboardist Laza Ristovski, both of whom ended up leaving the band in 1978 following the release of their side project Stižemo, Bijelo Dugme got rejoined by keyboardist Vlado Pravdić, who left the band in 1976 to serve his mandatory army stint, while Ivandić was replaced with Điđi Jankelić, who previously played on the band's frontman Željko Bebek's solo album Skoro da smo isti. The band started preparing their new album during 1978 in Niška Banja‚ while Bijelo Dugme's leader Goran Bregović was still serving the army in Niš, but they definitely reunited in Sarajevo on 1 November.
Originally, the band's record label, Jugoton, scheduled the recording in London's AIR Studios for the end of November, in order for the record to be released before New Year holidays. However, after it became clear that the band would not be able to record in November, and new schedule in AIR Studios could not be made, the recording sessions were moved to Belgrade. The album was recorded during January 1979 in PGP-RTB Studio in Belgrade, and mastered in Abbey Road Studios in London. The album was, as the band's previous two studio albums, produced by Neil Harrison. It did not feature the band's trademark folk-influenced hard rock sound, as it featured almost no folk music elements, while the ballads "Kad zaboraviš juli" and "Sve će to mila moja prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" featured a symphonic orchestra.
The making of the album was followed by censorship. The original cover, designed by Bijelo Dugme's old collaborator Dragan Stefanović and featuring female leg kicking male's genital area, was refused by the band's label, Jugoton as "vulgar". Stefanović then designed an entirely white album cover, but it was refused by Jugoton editors with the explanation that it would demand the album to be cheaper. The album ended up featuring a cover designed by Jugoton's designer Ivan Ivezić. The verse "Koji mi je moj" was excluded from the song "Ala je glupo zaboravit njen broj", and the verse "A Hrist je bio kopile i jad" from the song "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" was replaced with "A on je bio kopile i jad".
The album was released on 16 March 1979.
In April 1979, in an interview for Džuboks magazine, Bregović, stated that he accepted to edit the lyrics, but that he objected the altering of Stefanović's cover:
Bregović commented the editing of "Ala je glupo zaboravit njen broj" and "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" lyrics:
In 2005, on the recording of the documentary series Rockovnik, Bregović stated: "Now I probably wouldn't write that verse."

Track listing

All songs written by Goran Bregović.

Personnel

Bitanga i princeza was upon its release praised by the critics as Bijelo Dugme's finest work until then. Almost every song on the album became a hit. The album broke all the records held by the band's previous releases. The final number of copies sold was about 320,000.
The tour following the album release was also successful. The band managed to sell out Belgrade's Pionir Hall for five times, dedicating all the money from these concerts to the victims of the 1979 Montenegro earthquake. On 22 September the band organized a concert under the name Rock spektakl '79. on JNA Stadium, with themselves as the headliners. The concert featured numerous opening acts: Crni Petak, Kilo i Po, Rok Apoteka, Kako, Mama Rock, Formula 4, Peta Rijeka, Čisti Zrak, Aerodrom, Opus, Senad od Bosne, Boomerang, Prva Ljubav, Revolver, Prljavo Kazalište, Tomaž Domicelj, Metak, Obećanje Proljeća, Suncokret, Parni Valjak, Generacija 5 and Siluete. More than 70,000 spectators attended the concert.

Legacy

The album was polled in 1998 as the 10th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav rock and pop albums in the book .
In 2015, the album was pronounced the 15th on the list of 100 greatest Yugoslav albums published by Croatian edition of Rolling Stone.
In 2000, the songs "Bitanga i princeza" and "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" were polled as 14th and 17th respectively on the Rock Express Top 100 Yugoslav Rock Songs of All Times list. In 2006, "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" was polled as 14th on the B92 Top 100 Domestic Songs list.

Covers