"1941" by Korni Grupa (1971)

Soundtrack for TV show that was of such high quality and so unusual that recording company eventually decided to preserve it on LP album released  several years later. It is far removed from what we usually expect from TV show - this is not a glitzy family entertainment or even one of those clumsy early rock attempts by local stars but a full-blown Prog-Rock extravaganza (long on guitar solos and instrumentals) with members of spectacular band Korni Grupa (fronted by talented composer Kornelije Kovač) rocking for all their worth at the first bloom of their youth and enthusiasm. The most unusual is the subject, lyrical poem by poet Branko Čopić that seriously digs into such heavy themes as WW2 and 1941 (hence the title of the album) and lifts the whole project into sphere of almost Rock opera (oratorio?) with its ideas of heroic deaths and such.

The subject is not really so unusual if you understand a social contest - for a country that was completely rebuilt from ruins, Yugoslavia continued with obsessive cult of WW2 for decades, with movies, media and even music festivals focused on this chapter of history. It was a combination of what government encouraged and audience of millions accepted as politically correct. I am definitely not the only one who grew up on diet of WW2 movies with partisans fighting against bad guys and was proudly reciting war poems in the school along with all the other kids. It all sounds vaguely North Korean now, but for us who were there it was a way of life and God help you if you dared to criticise this tunnel vision. (I once blurted out loudly in my school class that it bores me and was immediately marked down as rebellious and subversive 7 year old. This was not even funny, my parents were immediately called in the school and dark cloud followed my documentation for years just to raise again when I arrived to serve mandatory army service more than a decade later). Whole generations lived in this frame of mind and even today there are people still repeating doctrine placed in their minds back than.

That such young Rock lions as Korni Grupa accepted this gig symbolises how seriously  the establishment still treated the subject: in order to be accepted, even this long-haired rebels had to play the game. To be honest, guys did their job first-rate: they played with virtuosity, music is fascinating and two sides of LP consist of two long jam sessions that flow in seamless continuation. Excellent young, fierce Dado Topić handled the main vocals and as a special guest guys invited Josipa Lisac to sing the female part of the poem, so we have two of than best rock vocals in one album. It is still fascinating and strangely enough although this was supposed to be just one-off (band had far bigger projects and hit singles) this is the only piece of their music that I occasionally return, for sheer pleasure of listening all-star line up.