Gadfly
1999
Yugoslavia
About This Album
Let's clear up a possible confusion right up front. From its cover, you might think Tonio K.'s Yugoslavia was a collection of traditional ethnic music. After all, the photograph ("courtesy of the Yugoslav tourist office, circa 1958," the singer notes) depicts two Eastern European men in traditional garb, including colorful blouses and skirts, brandishing sabers at each other (or perhaps doing a saber dance), while the copy reads, "Tonio K. and N.Y.M. Co. Present: Yugoslavia -- Love Songs & War Dances from Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Dalmatia, Bosnia, Slovenia (of the heart)." This is all a joke. Yugoslavia is an album of Tonio K.'s typically acerbic pop/rock songs with no relation to the fragmented, war-torn European country. Though it is not billed as a compilation, the album seems to be a gathering of stray tracks dating back several years, probably assembled after Gadfly issued Tonio K.'s long-deferred Olé album in 1997 and was interested in a follow-up. The songwriter hasn't really been active as a recording artist since issuing four albums and an EP between 1978 and 1988, but he has been working as a songwriter, and he notes that several of these songs were written for submission to established stars -- "I Know a Place" and "Murder My Heart" for Tina Turner (whom he helpfully identifies as "former wife of R&B great Ike Turner") and "Sure as Gravity" for Emmylou Harris -- not that these people ever recorded them or, apparently, even heard them.
Track List (try tracks 3,6,8,11 and 14)

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