Jutro (Sarajevo Band)

Jutro (trans. "Morning") was a Sarajevo-based rock band most notable as the immediate predecessor to Bijelo Dugme. It existed from late 1971 until the very end of 1973 when it transformed into one of the most successful rock bands ever to come out of SFR Yugoslavia — Bijelo Dugme.

Career

Jutro was formed as the brainchild of twenty-eight-year-old rhythm guitarist (formerly of Indexi) who in fall 1971 decided to approach guitarist Goran Bregović with an offer of putting together a new band. Twenty-one-year-old Bregović—who had recently returned to Sarajevo after gigging across Southern Italy for a year as part of an act called Kodeksi that transformed into Mića, Goran i Zoran before folding—gladly accepted. Both self-taught Sarajevo-based musicians trying to earn a living on the fledgling Yugoslav pop-rock scene, Arnautalić and Bregović were now ready and eager to give being in a band another try following recent professional setbacks with their respective prior bands.

Having been a founding member of Indexi—spending most of the 1960s with the band, a period during which they released a number of singles, competed at countless schlager festivals around Yugoslavia, and went on a lucrative tour of the Soviet Union—Arnautalić never reclaimed his spot in the band after going away to serve his mandatory year-long Yugoslav People's Army (JNA) stint in 1969. He instead got married, had a child, secured a steady source of income by getting hired at Radio Sarajevo's Dance Orchestra (one of the state-owned broadcaster's official musical ensembles), and was now looking to get back on the commercial scene via starting another band. On the other hand, though significantly younger than Arnautalić, Bregović was no less ambitious and driven when it came to organizing and running a band, seeing Jutro as a fresh opportunity to implement the ideas he wasn't able to at Kodeksi. In the months following his return from Italy, he had rededicated himself to his neglected philosophy and sociology studies at the University of Sarajevo's Faculty of Philosophy, and also got accepted into the Yugoslav Communist League (SKJ), the only political organization in the country's one-party system.

1972: Schlagers

By January 1972, Bregović came up with a few original songs along with a vision for a band that was still missing a singer. He soon approached his old Kodeksi bandmate Željko Bebek—whom he hadn't spoken to in more than a year ever since their acrimonious split in Italy—by sending a brief unsigned telegram only stating a meeting time in front of the Radio Sarajevo building at Danijela Ozme Street. Facing his old musical collaborator, Bregović presented the idea of a new band by saying: "let bygones be bygones and let's do something new". Twenty-six-year-old Bebek—who had been preparing to leave town for his mandatory army stint—still decided to take the vague and unexpected offer and record a couple of early versions of "Patim, evo, deset dana" before going away to serve in Pirot on 23 February 1972 thus effectively leaving Bregović and Arnautalić without a singer again.

Around the same time, only four months into their collaboration, the duo started butting heads over Jutro's future musical direction: Arnautalić wanted them to go the route of competitive pop schlager festivals in order to get noticed, whereas Bregović thought live club shows were the way to go about building an audience. After much wrangling, they agreed on Travnik-born twenty-one-year-old Zlatko Hodnik (1950-2016) as the new temporary singer. Hodnik—the winner of the Zlatni aplauz festival for singing hopefuls—was a typical schlager festival singer, all of which Bregović detested, but Arnautalić prevailed in this instance. In turn, Bregović got to pick the rhythm section, bringing in his old buddy from Kodeksi and Italian days Zoran Redžić on bass as well as drummer Gordan Matrak (a fellow student at Sarajevo University's Faculty of Philosophy, which Bregović attended at the time).

Jutro's first live performance took place in Skenderija Hall on 15 April 1972 as part of the festival, a schlager competition established and run by Nuno Arnautalić's older brother . They performed the song "Ostajem tebi" that would later be included on their Radio Kruševac-released single "Ostajem tebi" / "Sad te vidim". The main prize that day was won by performing a Đorđe Novković-written song "Nemoj draga plakati".

In November 1972, Bebek got an army leave allowing him to temporarily return home to Sarajevo, a period during which he recorded tracks "Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme", "Na vrh brda vrba mrda", "Hop cup", and "U subotu, mala" before going back to serve.

In the meantime, drummer Gordan Matrak left the band. Perica Stojanović became the new drummer for a short period, but after he left too, Vladimir "Šento" Borovčanin came over from Pro arte, bringing desired stability.

1973: Bregović takes over

By February 1973, the band was eagerly awaiting Bebek's return from the army. However, nothing could repair the deteriorating Arnautalić-Bregović relationship as their disagreements and silent feuding came to a head. Bregović began pushing harder for a musical shift within the band—wanting them to start playing tight hard rock with a particularly strong Balkan folk component, none of which sat well with Arnautalić who wanted to keep the status quo and continue playing schlagers. Bregović won this standoff, mostly because the rest of the band (Zoran and Šento) supported his vision. Even Bebek chimed in from the army in support of Bregović's direction as Arnautalić was increasingly being overruled and even pushed towards leaving.

In March 1973, Radio Kruševac released Jutro's second 7-inch single "U subotu, mala" / "Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme" (two of the songs Bebek recorded during one of his army leaves). The order of the songs on the single served to drive yet another wedge between Bregović and Arnautalić because Arnautalić, who kept contact with the label on band's behalf, unilaterally submitted his song "U subotu, mala" as the A-side thus relegating Bregović's "Kad bi' bio bijelo dugme" to the B-side. Arnautalić left the band right after the single release. Around the same time Bebek returned from the army for good, however, not being quite convinced about the band's commercial potential, he also got a regular job—finding employment as a clerk at the municipal social services.

Soon after Arnautalić's departure from the band, Bregović, who by now became the group's undisputed leader and driving force, set about molding it to his own preferences, which almost felt like starting over from scratch. One of his first decisions was adding a keyboard player—a spot eventually filled by the locally established musician Vlado Pravdić who had already been contributing to Jutro since the group's early days and was on friendly terms with its memb