Concert by SMAK

Rock’n’roll required reading: Stories behind SMAK’s biggest hits, ahead of the Arena spectacle

Ahead of SMAK’s big concert on December 16 at Belgrade Arena, organized by Music Stara, a rare musical treasure trove of memories is opening up to the public. Guitar virtuoso Radomir Mihailović Točak opens the doors to his creative lab and exclusively shares authentic stories, anecdotes, and hidden details about the making of five seminal tracks that defined our rock culture.

The upcoming Arena show will be a kind of rock’n’roll history lesson in this part of the world, blending the energy of the band’s original founders with the fresh power of younger generations. In the lead-up to this historic musical gathering, here are the stories of how SMAK’s legendary hits came to be.

Ulazak u harem

Talking about his boyhood beginnings and the first guitar he got at age 9, chosen for him by Čačak bohemian Dragoljub Jaraković Jarak, Točak recalls how the desire was born to master a tune that was a true local hit at the time.

"Father asked Jarak to pick out a guitar for me that was being sold in one of the city’s bookstores back then. It was a Melodija Mengeš, a big yellow archtop made for jazz playing... Naturally, it went without saying that Jarak would also give me lessons. I remember him as a very kind, well-mannered man who wanted to teach me carefully from the basics. But I wanted to learn the legendary 'Ulazak u harem' right away, which back then was a hit in Čačak. Everyone asked him to play it. The version Jarak composed and arranged was very hard and demanding to perform because it required accompaniment and solo at the same time."

Točak adds that he quickly mastered Jarak’s tough version since he’d been playing on his father’s five‑string basprim from an early age, and just a few months later he was performing that very version at school shows. He also notes that Jarak mentioned a Russian soldier from wartime who taught him some phrases, which he turned into the famous theme. Later, inspired by Khachaturian’s “Sabre Dance” and by Dave Edmunds and Love Sculpture, who did a cover of “Sabre Dance,” Točak shaped the version everyone knows today.

YouTube: Ulazak u harem

“Daire”

The groundwork for this famed song dates back to 1969, when Točak came up with the now‑recognizable melody. His best man, Ljubinko Milošević Meho, drummer of the legendary Čačak band Krvna grupa, would often sing it with the joking lines “Pour me some rakija, I wanna get drunk...”, and later Mirko Glišić Gliša wrote the official lyrics for the album “Crna dama.” Točak explains the technical tweak that followed: “Only, the key was too low for Boris to sing comfortably, so we shifted from A minor to E minor and added a chorus.”

YouTube: Daire

“Plava pesma”

An indirect spark for this track was the legendary “Bluz u parku” from the previous album. Keyboardist Miki Petkovski made a special contribution — Točak still speaks of him with pride: “Miki Petkovski helped me a lot by writing the string arrangement for the players we hired in England. I was proud of him because the professionals in the London quartet didn’t spot a single mistake — Miki had studied cello with André Navarra, a world‑renowned cellist at the time.”

YouTube: Plava pesma

“Profesor”

The inspiration for this song from the “Rok cirkus” album was found in Kragujevac, in the figure and work of a great music lover. Točak says that the bard of Šumadija jazz, Mile Jović — better known as Mile Žljoka — together with Branislav Todorović Kikere, drummer of Sedmorica mladih, were regulars at their rehearsals.

“They would often drop by and cheer us on in what we wanted and loved to play. They never imposed what they liked, and we respected that, feeling we weren’t yet mature enough for jazz. Later, when we were recording the album ‘Rok cirkus’, we dedicated the song ‘Profesor’ to our Mile Žljoka.”

YouTube: Profesor

“Zajdi, zajdi”

The decision to place the traditional Macedonian song in a rock arrangement initially met with resistance from Točak himself, although he’d loved it since childhood, listening to it with his mother in 1964 in the rendition by Aleksandar Sarievski. When he played it at rehearsals, the band was thrilled.

“They started pushing me to record it, and I resisted, just like with ‘Ulazak u harem’, because it didn’t feel like rock to me. But I couldn’t go against everyone. We agreed it would go on my solo album, which we had just started recording for PGP. The editors at the label were thrilled with the material, but insisted it be a Smak album after all. So that’s how it was, and the song ended up on ‘Zašto ne volim sneg.’”

Točak says it was a great satisfaction later on that, after Smak, numerous artists covered this beautiful song.

YouTube: Zajdi, zajdi