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Jožin z Bažin (Novelty Song)

ChasFink

Justified & Ancient
Joined
Jan 22, 2016
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The inspiration for this post comes from posts to the Humour & Jokes thread by @uair01, who has graciously allowed me to make the first post to this (somewhat) more serious thread.

The subject of "Jožin z bažin", a 1977 Czech novelty song by Ivan Mládek and his group, Banjo Band, is already fortean: it's about a swamp monster, and the story is a 20th century take on medieval legends of traveling knights who subdue the local monster to win fame and fortune.

But the song has a fortean quality itself. Some 30 years after its debut, for reasons I don't quite get, it became so popular in Poland that the original artists recorded a Polish version. Since then it has become quite well known in Eastern Europe, generating far more cover versions and parodies than one would think likely for a silly song from several decades ago. It has truly taken on a life of its own.

Below I'm (re)posting some of the basic versions, plus a couple of unusual ones. I hope others will continue the thread with not only other versions, but also some insights into the song's history and longevity.

First, the video clip by which many were introduced to this song. Although this version has English subtitles, I encourage you to ignore them on first viewing so you can appreciate the experience of what's happening on camera.



And here's a performance of a Polish version - although I think this is a parody:



And here is one of the best known parodies, from Serbia. It apparently has something to do with a bear, a honey cake, and Santa Claus.


(I swear I used to work with a fellow who looked and sounded like that singer!)

Believe it or not, Metallica performed the song on tour - although it was a fairly stripped down version. If you're interested, I posted one of the better performances here. But here's a proper metal version:



8-bit, anyone?



And coming full circle, here's the music video for the original:


I look forward to your replies!
 
Here is the wiki page,

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jožin_z_bažin

There is also a board game,

Screenshot_20210828-215744_Chrome.jpg
 
This cover by Selo i Ludy
made me laugh.


And here is a Russian metal version, by Боянов Гимн,


Here is a Russian language version with an animated video.


This one by 'Insomatix' says it a metal cover but sounds more punk, a bit like 'Greenday'


And for some culture, Jozin z Bazin, orchestra version with Waldemar Malicki

 
Some research online has produced this story on Quora about the origin of the song, written or translated by someone who is not entirely fluent in English:

The song Jožin z bažin was composed to order for the demijohn of slivovice (plum brandy). Once Ivan Mládek sat in a Zlín restaurant with a certain Kňučík Navrátil, who had a poem about an exhibitionist who creeps out from the swamp unexpectedly and exposes himself to passing female workers of shoe factories. And his name was Jožin z bažin. Navrátil wanted his poem to be set to music and sung on the radio and promised a demijohn of plum brandy to Ivan Mládek for it.

Ivan Mládek objected that the song about the exhibitionist would not have allowed on the radio, but the offer of the demijohn of slivovice was too tempting, so he proposed a story about a bugaboo named Jožin z bažin. It was enough for Navrátil if the song will be about anybody whose name is Jožin z bažin, so they agreed.

On the bus from Zlín to Prague, Ivan Mládek composed the text, put together a melody the next day, and obtained a demijohn of slivovice. :)

The Czech traveler Tomáš Polášek told out that once he was sitting on a Chukotka with a local Inuit in a yurt and they drank vodka together. The Inuit didn't even speak Russian, only by morning he said: “какая страна?” Tomáš Polášek answered: “Чешская республика”. And Inuit got up and sang Jožin z bažin in good Czech.
(The Russian question and answer translate as "What country?" "Czech Republic.")

Quora post:
https://www.quora.com/Does-Jožin-z-bažin-a-hero-of-popular-Czech-song-really-exist-in-the-Czech-folklore-or-the-author-of-this-song-just-make-him-up

Apparently translated or paraphrased from a section of
https://www.lidovky.cz/domov/jozin-...xtar-ivan-mladek.A190221_154208_ln_noviny_ceh
 
What a great song! It's obvious those fellows enjoyed doing it. I used to "rickroll" my friends with it every few months, just about the time they had forgotten the last one. I see there are all sorts of goofy mashups. Here's a funny one.

 
What a great song! It's obvious those fellows enjoyed doing it. I used to "rickroll" my friends with it every few months, just about the time they had forgotten the last one. I see there are all sorts of goofy mashups. Here's a funny one.

I saw this one the other day and it made me chuckle, nothing like belittling 'gangsta' rappers.
50 cent vs Jožin z bažin

 
Okay. Here is a video (unfortunately a bit out of sync) of a supergroup performance. The original performers, the Polish parodists, and ... uh, some other people. I wish my Polish language skills were stronger. Coincidence: I just found out that one of the founders of the group that did the Polish parody has the same last name as me, with the same less common spelling - although I think my family changed it at my Father's generation, so he's probably not related.

 
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