Duga Nota Web

The Book Was Born

With Pain I Was Born, is the title of a song by Croatian jazz vibraphonist Boško Petrović, that describes well how the text of the book was conceived during my rather serious illness. Writing it, however, was not painful at all, as the memories flowed and jelled, page after page, during the year that followed. I started writing, barely out of the hospital, immediately after I hung down the phone after talking to Vlatko Fras. Vlatko called me asking whether I would be ready to write a text for the book that Buca Popović was preparing about the late Belgrade pop Idol Vlada Divljan, whose great songs marked our youth. Vlatko didn’t have a clue that I was just out of the hospital and was surprised to find out I will have time to start writing immediately. Sure I would, I told him, and I knew right away why and how. My memories came to the surface as my life slowed down during the heart viral infection, whose first phase I have had just barely overcome. The recovery was still ahead of me.As soon as I have finished those first twenty pages of what will become one of the last chapters of the book, I knew how will the rest of the chapters look like. I have written the first chapter, called April 1st, in Croatian, and have then continued writing the text in English. After just a few paragraphs I switched back to Croatian as memories that were surging were personal and intimate and I felt I would be taking some of the intimacy away if I would have continued in English. So, it was to be an autobiographic book first and foremost, in spite of the fact that most of the text I wrote is at the same time essayistic, full of my observations on the erosion of the liberal values following the demise of the rock culture by the end of the last century. The first chapter I wrote did contain exactly some of the remorseful observations on when did rock started succumbing to nationalism and other old-fashioned social mores.Of course, for us growing up in the former Yugoslav Federation, the end was abrupt and clear and the deaths of our rock and roll buddies at the battlefields showed us that rock did not succeed in stopping what we have thought will never come back. For every lost life of an individual enamored in rock culture and its liberal values, from Vietnam to Vukovar, we have an obligation to keep the flame of the liberal values alive.The memories that stayed were of the time when rock and roll were saving our souls from the uniformity of communist politics and reductions of personal freedoms we had to live through while growing up. Those memories were surprisingly bright and cheerful, of somewhat exaggerated fun we had while growing up and were successfully trying to enlarge the space of freedom of expression and I was confident that they will make an interesting read to those who did not live through those times.

The Book Called Sustain

Duga Nota in Croatian translates as Long Note in English. I wish to explain here the story of its title. How did I get to it? While searching for the title of the book, sometimes while writing the text, I felt that one of the musical gestures that embodied the passion of the creative endeavors shared by millions of kids is to be found in music. Belonging to the nonverbal and abstract expression of music is the "sustained" note of the electric guitar that countless guitar players performed on stage and in the studio when they wished to transport a listener into a state of sentiment closer to their passion.That long howl or a screech hanging between the two punchees at the drum expresses the best the passion we were striving for as a means of building a different world. While toying with the term sustain, I understood that there is no Croatian translation of it, as local musicians would use in the Croatian language the English word, pronounced as "soosteyn," to describe what they are playing. While searching for a translation, I was advised that a proper Croatian musicological term would be a continuous tone (kontinuirani ton), which somehow lacked any poetic connotation and moved us in the realm of physics rather than poetry. I have therefore discarded the possibility to call the book Continued Tone and continued searching for a proper equivalent of my idea.

Black, Blue & White

I have briefly thought about the Blue Note, as this term describes a tone or a semi-tone that is sometimes played in sustain. I liked it but was immediately aware that the expression is overused and that its primary connotation is to jazz rather than to rock music I was primarily writing about. I liked its ties to black music and Afro-American musicians because their role is central to my story of the transformation of the Western civilization we have lived through and have sustained as the participants of the rock counterculture. However, after thinking about all this, I have discarded it too and continued searching.I have then stumbled upon the term long note which is sometimes used in Irish traditional or Celtic music. I was fascinated to discover that the long note is used to describe the semi-tone comparable to the blue note in jazz and found that this is probably its only equivalent in western music. This was perfect, as it established a concise link between European and African musical styles that were never before the twentieth century merged into a single body of music which now did change our civilizations forever. This is why Keith Richards’ symbolic role in bringing these two traditions together and merging them into the expression that defined the kids of the twentieth century uniquely will elevate him to the position Leonardo Da Vinci had during the renaissance. Both will be remembered as the giants that have changed the course of the history of human thought.Well, I now had the title in English. Long Note. Would it work in Croatian? It did. Duga nota is a catchy expression, somewhat poetic because this is not an idiomatic expression in the Croatian language. It held the connotations to the rebellious nature of the musicians playing semi-tones to build the world of passion for their listeners. Then it struck me that the title also describes well the memoiristic character of my book. After all, by now, our lives in rock and roll have gotten rather long. After fifty years of living for, with, and within rock music, our passion did not diminish; it plays out as a single fifty-years long sustained note, full of passion and conviction. Duga Nota it was, and I wrote it for you.

After the Rain

So, now we know what Duga Nota means, but what is the book about? That's simple: its autobiographic part is about the joy and fun of growing up with rock music and the liberal values as the centerpiece of my youth. Not only was it a fantastic experience, today, it appears to be superior to the other orders of social priorities whose onset we have witnessed in the meantime. Its essayistic part is loaded with the observation on the history and development of rock music and the culture that accompanied it. Some of my observations conform with the general wisdom of the importance of rock and its constituent parts, such as blues and country music. In many instances, however, I take those conclusions to another level, arguing that two or three things set the counterculture period apart from other historic highs of Western civilization.I reach those conclusions on a few premises: together with the Rennaissance, the '60ies Counterculture is the highest point of Western history measured by the level of individual freedoms ever achieved. Besides this, it was the first time that the culture of three continents fused seamlessly, i.e., the basis of the African sensibilities and rhythms combined with the new world melting pot of Western cultural values. Then it spread across the Atlantic ocean on the European continent, defenseless after the destruction of WWII, thus merging the African and the Trans-Atlantic worlds. Indian and Moroccan influences were added to the mix and have continued to propagate across the globe. The consequence was the most significant breakthrough in the racial interrelations, previously unimaginable. Thirdly, all this occurred within the realm of popular music, thus significantly enlarging the achievements of the European and American elite cultural developments such as the avant-garde movements in painting, sculpture, music, theater, architecture, and other elite artistic formats of the early XX century. The fact that music is a meta-language carrying its meanings was brought much further by the fact that this music was spread in the form of pop music and thus has reached millions upon millions of kids worldwide.We trace the achievements of the rock Counterculture and its transformation once the Counterculture extinguished itself at the onset of the digital musical instruments and production techniques, corporate sponsorships of the counterculture, and its commoditization via the multiplying TV channels in the '80ies.These, and other forces lead to the mutations of the rock culture beyond its salvation, and it was replaced by the hip-hop, dance and other electronic digital formats that did not contain anymore the blues elements that characterised rock. This is the story of Duga Nota and its growing up. Those of us who grew up within its confines whish to to share its beauty with those who came after and do not know its richness.

Duga Nota Yammat.fm Links

Duga Nota the book is closely tied to the Duga Nota radio show that runs every fourth Saturday in a month at 10 PM at the Yammat.fm radio station. Each episode of the radio show corresponds to a chapter in the book and usually contains two excerpts from the chapter it corresponds to.

• Emisija Duga Nota

• Najava Duga Nota

• Yammat.fm Player

• Stražarni Lopov

Hvala Goran Polak!

Mladen Vukmir @ Roxy Club Radio Nacional

The link below will take you to the MixCloud channel of Radio Nacional, where the recording of the Roxy Club radio show of December 22, 2023, is stored. Although not related directly to the Duga Nota radio show, it is done in similar spirit of evocation of the rock days. I thank its host, well-known rock singer and composer Renato Metessi, for inviting me. The program is in the Croatian language.

• Roxy Club

Hvala Renato Metessi!

Duga Nota Contacts

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Listen to the past episodes of Duga Nota @ Yammat.fm channel @ MixCloud platform by clicking the LP circle below (or any other LP circle except the bottom one, which will lead you to the Duga Nota FaceBook group and the top one, which will lead you to the Duga Nota FaceBook page):

Instructions for Use of Duga Nota Radio Episodes

Don't overdose with music! If you are allergic to rock avoid this product. Just a brief remark: When it is produced, each episode is intended to be listed in a single gulp. Sounds familiar? Yes, that is how we used to listen to LP records - from the beginning to the end, at once, without interruption. Yes, I know, each episode is more than twice the length of an LP record. This is why the recommended listening time is from the late afternoon to midnight in a way in which you would listen to your three chosen LPs in a row. That is the concept of how the episodes are made.

Authored by Mladen Vukmir. (C) Mladen Vukmir, 2018-2022. All rights reserved. Pictures, videos, text ad other content used on this page might be protected by copyright pertaining to other authors. All copyrights will be honored upon request.

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