In anticipation of the big concert of the SMAK group, which will be held on December 16 in the Belgrade Arena, organized by Music Star, an unusual musical treasury of memories opens before the audience. Guitar virtuoso Radomir Mihailović Točak opens the doors of his creative laboratory and exclusively reveals authentic stories, anecdotes and hidden details about the creation of five anthology tracks that defined local rock culture.
The upcoming concert in the Arena will be a kind of lesson in the history of rock and roll in this area, where the energy of the original founders of the band and the new strength of the younger generations will be combined. In anticipation of this historic musical meeting, we bring stories about how the legendary hits of the SMAK group were created.
"Ulazak u harem"
Talking about his boyhood beginnings and the first guitar he got at the age of 9, which was chosen for him by Čačany bohemian Dragoljub Jaraković Jarak, Točak recalls how the desire to master a composition that was a real local hit at the time was born.
"My father asked Jarak to choose a guitar for me that was sold in one of the city's bookstores at the time. It was Melodija Mengesh, a big yellow ArchTop guitar for the Jazz style of playing... Of course, it was understood that Jarak also gave me playing lessons. I remember him as a very nice and well-mannered man who wanted to carefully teach me from the basics. But I immediately wanted to learn the legendary 'Ulazak u Harem', which was a hit in Čačak at that time. he was asked to play. The version that Jarak composed and arranged was very difficult and tiring to perform because it involved an accompaniment and a solo at the same time."
Točak adds that he quickly mastered Jarak's difficult version since he had been playing on his father's bassprim with 5 strings since his early days, and a few months later he was playing that version at school performances. He also points out that Jarak mentioned a Russian soldier during the war from whom he learned some phrases and made a famous theme out of it. Later, Točak himself created the version known to everyone today, based on Khachaturian's track "Sabre Game". and with the inspiration of Dave Edmunds and the band Love sculpture, because they made a cover for "Sabre Dance".
"Daire"
The foundation for this famous song was created in 1969, when Točak composed the recognizable melody. His godfather, Ljubinko Milošević Meho, drummer of the legendary band Krvna grupa from Čačak, often sang it with the humorous words "Give me brandy, I want to get drunk...", and later Mirko Glišić Gliša wrote the official lyrics on the album "Crna dama". Točak explains the technical intervention that followed: "It's just that the 'light' for Boris to sing was too low, so we switched from 'Amol' tonality to 'Emol' and added a chorus."
"Plava pesma"
Indirect inspiration for this track was the legendary "Blues in the Park" from the previous album. Keyboardist Miki Petkovski made a special contribution to the song, about whom Točak still proudly admits: "Miki Petkovski helped me a lot by writing an arrangement for the strings we hired in England. I was proud of him because the professionals from the London quartet did not notice any mistakes since Miki studied cello with Andrea Navara, a world-famous cellist at the time."
"Profesor"
The inspiration for the song from the album "Rock circus" was found in Kragujevac, in the image and work of a great lover of music. Točak states that the bard of Šumadija jazz, Mile Jović, better known as Mile Žljoka, together with the drummer of Sedmorica mladih, Branislav Todorović Kiker, regularly attended their rehearsals.
"He and Branislav Todorović Kikere, then the drummer of Sedmorice mladih, would often visit us and encourage us in what we wanted and liked to play. At the same time, they did not impose what they liked, and we only respected that, considering that we were not yet mature for jazz. Later, when we recorded the album 'Rock Circus', we dedicated the song 'Professor' to our Mile Žljoka."
"Zajdi, zajdi"
The decision to include a traditional Macedonian song in a rock'n'roll arrangement initially met with resistance from the author himself, even though he fell in love with it as a boy listening to it with his mother in 1964, performed by Aleksandar Sarijevski. When he played it in rehearsals, the band was delighted.
"They started forcing me to record it, and I was against the same thing as for 'Ulazak u Harem' because it seemed to me that it wasn't rock. However, I couldn't go against everyone, the agreement fell through that it would be on my solo album, which we had just started recording for PGP. The editors at that house were delighted with the material, but they demanded that it still be an album by the group Smak. That's how it was, and the song ended up on the album 'Why I Don't Love Snow'."
Točak points out that he was later very satisfied that this beautiful song was covered by numerous artists after Smak.
Tickets for the Smak concert in the Belgrade Arena are on sale at all official Ticket Vision outlets, as well as online via tickets.rs
