Ivan Glišić (; born 1942) is šićan intellectual, writer, artist, journalist and songwriter who achieved prominence both in Serbia and across the former Yugoslavia. He was involved in the Yugoslav pop and rock and even folk music scene, and beside his mainstream success, being one of the pioneers of the Yugoslav punk rock, he also gained a status of an underground culture celebrity.
Biography
Beginnings
Ivan Glišić was born in 1942 during World War II in Yugoslavia in Pirot, Serbia, but 10 years later he moved with his family to Šabac, his new hometown in what was then the Socialist Republic of Serbia. He became interested in rocknroll in the late 1950s as a teenager, after hearing artists such as Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and The Drifters on Radio Luxembourg, which was a usual source for music information of the Yugoslav youths of the time. In the following years, throughout the early 1960s he became a fan of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, and an avid record collector, although, bizarrely, he didn't have a record player yet. He purchased his first one in 1964 together with a group of friends, who were also rock music fans and with whom he participated in his hometown's rock subculture. Although they faced occasional problems with the authorities, they were permitted to use the publicly owned youth cultural centre, such as all major towns in Yugoslavia had, for their musical and artistic activities. There emerged art collectives, youth magazines and a writing workshops led by Glišić, and several local bands were formed, such as Čivije, Slatki Limunovi and Baš Čelik, while concert was held by the prominent group Siluete from Belgrade. Ivan Glišić's favourite artists at the time included: The Who, Pretty Things, The Kinks, The Animals, The Troggs and Them. He was impressed by the 1960s social revolution, but gradually became disillusioned with it. His heroes, The Beatles, received MBE by the Queen, and during a certain period, went into what he perceived as escapism under Maharishi's influence, instead of supporting the then vibrant student movement, especially active during the global protests of 1968, which also took place in Yugoslavia, leaving strong impressions on Glišić.
Songwriter
In the early 1970s, Ivan Glišić became involved in the pop and rock music scene of Zagreb, then Socialist Republic of Croatia, where he cooperated with the notable group Roboti, whose bassist was Rajmond Ruić. As a tandem consisting of Glišić as a songwriter, and Ruić as a composer and arranger, they were active in writing songs for the prominent Croatian pop and rock artists: Josipa Lisac, Time, Darko Domjan and Dalibor Brun, achieving great prominence not only in Croatia, but also in the wider Yugoslav pop and rock scene.
Glišić became so successful that the biggest former Yugoslav major label, the Zagreb-based Jugoton employed him, paying him weekly round trip-airline tickets from Belgrade to Zagreb, providing him accommodation in the most prestige hotels and best recording schedules. Glišić went to Zagreb every Sunday and returned to Šabac every weekend.
Some of his successful hits included "Ulica jorgovana" and "Laku noć, Katarina" performed by Darko Domjan. Glišić also participated in many domestic and international music festivals and was awarded on several occasions.
He joined Nikola Karaklajić, one of the first Yugoslav rock DJ's, who ran a famous radio show on Radio Belgrade called Veče uz radio (An Evening by the Radio). Glišić wrote the lyrics for the show's "anthem" which was recorded jointly by the groups S.O.S. and Zajedno. The former included Miša Aleksić, also a co-author of the song, while the latter, Bora Đorđević. They both later formed the prominent Serbian rock act Riblja Čorba. The second co-author was Laza Ristovski, the keyboardist of the Bosnian and Yugoslav cult band Bijelo dugme.
During the 1970s, Glišić wrote lyrics for various rock bands, such as: the aforementioned S.O.S., Rondo, Tetrapak, and others. After finishing his university studies, he became a school teacher, and also wrote lyrics for the rock band Mudra sova consisting of his pupils, early teenagers. Initially, the band was successful, it released its first single promoted with a well attended live gig and recorded the material for its first LP. However some media criticised Glišić, claiming that he abused his position for manipulating children, therefore he abandoned the whole thing. Unusually, although he was into pop and rock music, Glišić also began writing songs for pop folk acts as well, including Lepa Brena and her backing band Slatki greh who became very popular across Yugoslavia in the 1980s.