I ran into an initiative on Facebook today to name a street in Belgrade after Milan Mladenovic, one of the greatest musician from ex-Yu, and I remembered that I wanted to mention a little something about Milan and EKV in a post since long time ago so I’ll use this as a reminder.
I remember a night out in “Prostor”, a rock club in Sarajevska Street back in 1994. It was a classic, no-brainer set of songs, when music suddenly stopped and there was a voice of a local dj who said: “A lot of people came to me tonight saying that they heard a rumor that Milan Mladenovic died, and wanted to know if it’s true. No, it’s not true – Milan Mladenovic will never die.” After that he put on an EKV song, and that moment we all knew that the rumor was in fact true.
“Prostor” is long time gone, and after all these years, there still doesn’t exist a street named after Milan Mladenovic in Belgrade. There is a street named after him in Zemun Polje, a suburb, but it’s not Belgrade, and I believe that even residents of Zemun Polje would agree with me.
Why isn’t there a street in Belgrade? I don’t know, I guess it still isn’t so normal in Serbia to name a street after a musician, let alone a rock musician, no matter how influential. Because “they do drugs”, I guess. I remember there were even complaints from residents of John Lennon Street in Novi Sad who wanted their street name changed because they didn’t wanted to live in a street named after “some junkie”.
Indeed, I suspect most great musicians in Serbia did or do drugs, like most great musicians in the world do – it’s a simple fact, and there is nothing you can do about it. Drugs are still a major taboo in Serbia, so there’s clearly a problem if you want to name a street after a musician.
I never listened to EKV that much, it was much too intellectual for me, that night when I was 15 and stupid, and even today when I’m a bit smarter I feel that Milan’s music is way beyond my intellectual capacities. If you don’t speak Serbo-Croatian, I guess it would be even more difficult for you to grasp the complexity of EKV’s music.
But I still do get goose bumps when I hear certain songs, certain lyrics and certain melodies. To recognize a genius, that much I can.
And to recognize a snowball rolling down the hill when I see one, that much I can too, so I’ll join this one in an attempt to force the people who name the streets in Belgrade to see this message – this city deserves Milan Mladenovic street, do something about it.
I would leave you with an EKV song, but it’s difficult for me to choose, so instead here’s a link to their videos on Youtube, start from the top.
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Please DON”T! He would be first to ridicule such an idea!
You are probably right, but how to be sure?
Maybe half of those people who have some street named after them would complain about it if they could, now that I think about it.
I wanted to give support for this initiative, but couldn’t get through without registering on FaceBook. I hate leaving my data everywhere I go (including here). Can it be done anonymously? Why is anyone eager to know anything about anyone? And I don’t want to lie, either…
Good luck!
You can sign the initiative every day in front of Ruski Car from 14-16h, I believe.