Bombed-out Blues
What is it?
Bombed-out Blues is a darkly humorous but musically straightforward song for low female voice and a simple backing quartet that includes a Balkan Pan Flute for a bit of regional colour. The lyrics are based on real events and experiences while I was based in Sarajevo between March and September of 1999.
Some of those experiences, particularly the car-bombing of Jozo Leutar (Chief of Police), were so bizarre and unsettling that the only way I can process them is to make them the subject of such a song as this. This is for four very special people from Sarajevo and Banja Luka: Tarik, Borislav, Sanda and Boro (they know their own family names), also as a gesture of respect to Jozo Leutar.
Listen
A wonderfully slouchy performance, with archive images from around 1999 of Sarajevo.
Lyrics
1) A touch of trepidation
But maybe this'll do me some good
The income generation
From crazy money certainly should
A jigsaw of a nation
A place that's barely out of the wood
2) We're staying in a four-star
A pricey place that sure ain't The Ritz
Those Howitzers and mortars
Have left it short on glamour and glitz
But Sarajevo burgers are good
And they don't give you the squits
3) I've got a thermal crisis
My fixer says it used to be worse
And anyhow advises
That certain guests have left in a hearse
My colleague realises
The pipe that drains her toilet has ... burst
4) Our first day in the office
And BANG! a politician is dead
On bodyguards reliant
They hit him with a car-bomb instead
It's best to act compliant
When someone points a gun at your head
5) Olympians found it charming
Its coffee bars and restaurants were nice
Now snipers need disarming
And tensions can erupt in a trice
It's really quite alarming
Survival's just a roll of the dice
PA BAM BOOM
Learn
There were just the two of us. Cécile and I had been tasked with designing an environmental programme for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Our hotel in Sarajevo was reasonable though something of an assault to the senses. On our first working day, our office windows were shaken by a thunderous explosion: the local police chief had been car-bombed outside the US Embassy and died of his injuries. Such was our introduction to Sarajevo.
I won't go into the complexities of working in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1999. We did enjoy our time, though NATO starting its offensive against Serbia during our first mission presented us with various logistical difficulties. Good restaurants were hard to find, initially at least, but the food in those that we did eventually visit was excellent.
I've been back to Bosnia several times since then and I have to say that I love the place. The drive from Jajce up to Banja Luka via the gorge of the Vrbas river is stunningly beautiful. For a uniquely atmospheric experience, the town of Travnik (birthplace of the novelist Ivo Andrić) in winter, when mist and woodsmoke hang low in the valley, is hard to beat. Sarajevo airport tends to be fogbound fairly often, particularly during November, so bear that in mind when making any travel plans.
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