It turns out that this song, so deeply loved by so many Albanians, is, like so much else in Kosovo, an adaptation of something Turkish. “Her Akşam Sarhoş” was first recorded in 1966 by Dario Moreno.
Moreno was born Dario Arugete in a Jewish slum of Izmir, Turkey and was raised in an orphanage until the age of 4. By the time he reached his thirties, he was starring opposite Briggite Bardot in films, his songs having found fame in France and Turkey. At the age of 47, he was dead from a heart attack.
Lately, Bardot is mostly in the papers for her opposition to the “Islamicization of France,” and in particular for taking a hard line against the traditional slaughter of sheep during the Muslim holiday of Bajram. Her comments have led to her conviction on charges of inciting racial hatred. Five times. In Kosovo, Bardot is known as the woman who opposes the shooting of dogs.
There are thousands of stray dogs in Kosovo. Every fall, police and hunting groups are authorized to kill the dogs in group hunts organized in and around Mitrovica, Pristina, and elsewhere—an attempt to cull their numbers before winter sets in and hunger increases their desperation. The sheer number of dogs and lack of resources makes the annual dog hunts the only reasonable course of action. Every year they cull the dogs, and every year Ms. Bardot writes a press release condemning it. The last time she did so, the KFOR commander responded with a public letter requesting that Bardot consider the general poverty that exists in Kosovo and encouraging her to raise funds for a better solution.
In 1910 some tens of thousands of stray dogs were rounded up in Istanbul and ferried out to the tiny island of Küçük Tavşan Adası. For weeks people could hear their cries from the mainland. For awhile the island was called, “the island of the dogs,” before reverting once more to its former name, “the island of the rabbits.”
Mr. Moreno's recording credits Fecri Ebcioğlu for the Turkish lyrics to “Her Akşam Sarhoş.” But the song itself seems to have been adapted from a French tune, “Y'a du Travail,” the music of which is credited to Guy Bertret and Janko Nilović. Janko Nilović is a Montenegrin born at the French Embassy in Istanbul. He’s lived in France since the 60's and might still be alive today, but I haven't been able to contact him.
In one interview, he is quoted as saying that, long ago, his father played the gusla.
- t
p.s. I love you, Kosovo music. Ever wonder what other people think about Texas? (Hell, no: we're from Texas, so we don't give a damn what they think.) But rest assured that we've got a fan in rapper Real 1, who claims (at the 2 minute mark in this video) that he and his gang are all old skool... “like in Texas.”
DJ Blunt, one of the biggest names in Kosovo hip hop, is also one of the kindest and most generous impresarios I ever met, and he granted us permission to use an adaptation of an older track of his in our performance.
p.p.s. I love you too, Houston.
DJ Blunt, one of the biggest names in Kosovo hip hop, is also one of the kindest and most generous impresarios I ever met, and he granted us permission to use an adaptation of an older track of his in our performance.
p.p.s. I love you too, Houston.
