POGRESAN BROJ

By November 1974, singer Davorin Popovic and guitarist Slobodan A. Kovacevic completed their military service. Back in Sarajevo, they quickly teamed up with bassist Fadil Redzic and INDEXI were together again, after a year of hiatus. However, they had to recruit two new members for the positions of drummer and keyboardist. Miroslav Saranovic was long gone, having joined pop group AMBASADORI, Vlado Pravdic was by now a firm member of the upcoming rock stars BIJELO DUGME, while Djordje Novkovic was out of reach in Zagreb pursuing his pop songwriting career. But, INDEXI's old pal Milic Vukasinovic (ex-CICAK, MICA GORAN, AND ZORAN) had just returned from England looking for a job and he immediately agreed to jump on the drummer's stool bringing with him a new Pearl drum kit. Miroslav Maraus was a music teacher and member of the RTV Sarajevo orchestra so he was available to join Indexi as a keyboardist. In late November they secured dates at the RTV Sarajevo studio and recorded two new songs for the next single release. There were great expectations from INDEXI's return to the scene. Fellow musicians, music press journalists, and the general public anticipated the band would restore their old glories. Apparently, they were right since the concert "Comeback of Indexi" at Skenderija Great Hall in Sarajevo held on 22 February 1975 attracted almost 15 000 spectators, an unprecedented number in Yugoslavia at the time, which was followed by rave reviews in the press. And this was, in no small part, due to the quality of the new 7" record released sometime just before New Year's Eve of 1975.

The A-side brings an energetic, hard-rocking number "Pogresan broj" (The Wrong Number) composed by Kovacevic. It is immediately clear that new members brought fresh blood and instrumental novelties into the sound. Maraus prefers electric pianos and synthesizers (to my knowledge he was the first INDEXI keyboardist to use synths) to Hammond organ, and his keyboards dominate the music palette of the song, while Vukasinovic adds his heavy and unrestrained drumming enriched with frequent conga-type percussions and tom-tom fills. There is something about this song that recalls a wide-open spaciness of guitar riffs and keyboards, wild drumming, and rough and almost growling vocals (totally untypical for Popovic's singing) of the WHO, especially from their "Who's Next" period. The lyrics, penned by outside collaborator Ranko Boban, deal with the topic of gambling and its irresistible attraction as a metaphor for a failed romantic relationship that still urges the protagonist to go on with his addictions. This excellent rock song showed that the earlier criticisms of INDEXI's selling out for light pop-schlager style were premature. "Pogresan broj" even hit the top-15 chart of Dzuboks magazine during February and March of 1975, where it peaked at the 4. position, but for some reason was later dropped from the live set and was to be rarely included in future compilations, so by now it remains largely and unjustifiably forgotten.

Yet, this was not the case about the flipside track, quite the contrary. In contrast to the above-described upbeat number, the B-side contains a sprawling slow-tempo "symphonic" ballad "Bacila je sve niz rijeku" (She Threw It All Away Down the River). The basic tune was conceived by Redzic a few months earlier when he briefly joined AMBASADORI for their Soviet tour. While in Baku (Azerbaijan) he was sad about being away from his wife so he wrote a low-key melancholic melody. Back in Sarajevo, on the night just before the scheduled recording session, the band asked their friend, popular singer/songwriter Kemal Monteno, to write the lyrics. He used real-life experiences of unrequited love, both of himself and of singer Popovic to write a poignant heart-wrenching story about a girl who just before a wedding decided to abort a baby and leave the country and her partner for good. Kovacevic's gentle fingerpicking of acoustic guitar sets a mood, while the central place is occupied by Maraus' keyboards. He uses a synthesizer and the famous Hohner D6 Clavinet to paint a sound image of painful emotions. Popovic singing is marvelous, especially in hitting high notes where necessary, with the occasional backing by what sounds like a female chorus. This amazing song was not initially considered to be anything special, hence the band decided to put it on the B-side. Many years later both Redzic and Vukasinovic confirmed in interviews that this song had not been popular for many years until the 1990s when it was used in several popular movies and covered by some top artists. Only then did it become a true hit in all countries of the former Yugoslavia and remains one of the most loved songs of the entire INDEXI career.  

Here are some fun facts about the cover photo. The cover design by Dragan S. Stefanovic was this time very good, depicting the full band in a studio working environment, among the instruments: Orange amps, Pearl drum kit, and Fender bass guitar. Being fresh from the army, Kovacevic and Popovic wear short haircuts. This is also one of the first appearances of Popovic with his now famous moustache and he also wears a "Heavy Metal Kids" t-shirt under a jacket. There is a story recently told by Brano Likic, leader of the former band REZONANSA from Sarajevo, according to which he and Milic Vukasinovic's brother Vukas went to London a few weeks earlier to try to persuade Milic to finally come back home after several years of being away. While in London, they all went to the Marquee Club to see the gig of the glam rock band HEAVY METAL KIDS. This may explain the origin of the mysterious t-shirt. Apparently, the same shirt, or a copy of the same, was worn by Redzic on the cover of the repressed version of the earlier single record "Samo su ruze znale", the photo of which probably stems from the same photo session as this one.

To conclude, this is one of the best 7" releases of INDEXI and only because the music on it cannot be truly categorized as prog rock I would give it 4 stars; otherwise, it would be full five!