In Search of Tito's Punks

by Barry Phillips

NO LONGER AVAILABLE AS A KINDLE: UPDATED VERSION NOW AVAILABLE AS A HARD BACK FROM INTELLECT (UK) AND UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO (US)

How did a song recorded in 1981 by a young multi-racial punk rock band from a ‘stagnating provincial English city’ and released on a tiny independent record label become famous in a Yugoslavia formed in the image of Marshall Tito? Why did it take 30 years before the members of the band found out? How was it that this ‘communist’ country had one of the most vibrant punk-rock scenes in the world? Who were ’Tito’s punks’ and who are they now?

More than three decades later, the author sets out from his home in the Netherlands to follow the journey of the song, through a time and a country that no longer exists. On the way he encounters borders and Brutalism, discovers the world’s first fascist micro-state, sees the legacy of the NATO bombings, the impact of ‘turbo-capitalism’ and the ever-present ghosts of genocides and the Holocaust. But unexpectedly also, the Yugoslavs’ love of British TV sitcoms and Northern Ireland punk, tales of Nirvana and REM, Van Gogh and Vermeer, pirates and Black Wave movies, the Yugoslav story behind the Sound of Music, and the embracing warmth of Balkan hospitality.

What emerges is a lesser told, unvarnished but also affectionate portrait of Yugoslavia in the years before its demise through to the present, seen through the unlikely lens of punk and punk rockers. Part travelogue, part history the book is both, and neither, of those things. Rather, it is a mural of that journey.

“We went to sleep in Disneyland, and we woke up in the apocalypse.”

“The socialism was not the problem, the parents were the problem.”

Genres: Nonfiction, Music

363 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2023

Reviews

[Paula · Rating 5 out of 5]

The reference to Tito in the title of this book is used solely as a means of identifying the era. The punk and post-punk music scene of the region is front and centre. The music and the scene surrounding it was reactionary to society and the political climate at the time. Glimpses of Balkan politics emerge solely through the recollections of interviewees. This book was enlightening for me. My parents immigrated from Croatia to New Zealand and partially raised me and my sister on a soundtrack of Yugo/Croatian pop music (which I have soft spot for). Until reading this book, I had no knowledge of Yugo punk or post-punk music from the late 1970s onward. This book paired history of the nation my ancestors hail from with the history of local music scenes of genres I'm a fan of. I loved it!

[Srđan Strajnić · Rating 5 out of 5]

You can find the whole review in serbian language here:
http://stereoart.me/2014-11-05-03-46-...

[David Heredero]

"It's important to underline that punk rock and new wave in Yugoslavia was a predominately middle-class thing: you have to be absolutely certain about that. Working-class people didn't have the money to waste on imported records and those kind of things. The thing about Tito's Yugoslavia was that the Communists succeeded in creating a relatively viable, vital, middle-class. I don't think that I knew more than two or three real punks who were working-class"

"Having travelled by bus across three of the ex-Yugoslavian nations, I totally understood why this film is so much part of the national psyche(s). Regimes and ideologies may come and go, nations may collapse and be reborn, and neighbour turn against neighbour, but in former Yugoslavia, the irascibility of bus company staff is immutable"

[trevor wall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Having read a hell of a lot of books regarding punk music this has to rate amongst the best. Taking in the history of a scene and a time in history. It is written with real attention to detail but more importantly a real connection to the scene and the people who were a part of it. A fascinating book on both the music and the social history of the old Yugoslavia written by someone who feels a real affinity to what went on. I’ve given this book five stars only because that was the maximum I could give. Just read the book.

[Petra Janeš · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting concept, too much political talk in my opinion.

[Bara · Rating 5 out of 5]

4/5*

Protocno, atmosfericno, nostalgicno glazbeno/kulturno/politicko/putopisno stivo, podsjetnik na neka druga vremena...