Budka Suflera 1974 – 1984 (SX 2180)

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I personally believe that Polish legendary rock band Budka Suflera had two truly successful periods in their career. The first one being the time when they released two the albums „Cień Wielkiego Góra” and „Przechodniem było między wam” (I Was a Passerby Between You), and the second one with Felicjan Andrzejczak as a main vocalist. And it was with Andrzejczak when they recorded only three songs, and each of which became an instant hit in Poland: „Jolka, Jolka pamiętasz,” „Czas ołowiu”, and „Noc komety”. And no matter how much the band iconic vocalist Krzysztof Cugowski rocked with his magnetic voice, Jolka is and will always be a cult Polish hit of all time and it was Andrzejczak who sung it.

I might be exaggerating, but the fact that Budka never released a full-length album with Andrzejczak is, in my opinion, one of the biggest mistakes in the history of Polish popular music. Somewhere in the archives, there are probably demo tapes or even finished tracks recorded for such an album, but they will probably never see the light of day. All of this stemmed from the compilation „Budka Suflera ‎ 1974 – 1984,” which the band decided to release to celebrate their 10th anniversary.

It was then, due to the poor quality of the material from their first albums, that the musicians invited their former vocalist Krzysztof Cugowski to record new versions of selected songs. When Cugowski began to reconnect with his Budka colleagues, the collaboration with Felicjan Andrzejczak ended. The songs prepared for the new album were rearranged for Cugowski’s vocals and released under the title „Czas Czekania, Czas Olśnienia”. Interestingly, Andrzejczak reportedly had already recorded the vocals for the title track, with lyrics by Marek Dutkiewicz, the same man who also wrote „Jolka, Jolka Pamiesz.” The new version, featuring Cugowski’s vocals, featured completely new lyrics by Tomasz Zeliszewski.

Fortunately, the previously prepared compilation „Budka Suflera 1974 – 1984” already included the songs „Jolka, Jolka Pamiętasz” and „Czas Ołowiu,” and this is the only vinyl on which they can be found. That’s why I decided to add this album to my collection. Incidentally, the song „Noc komety” was only released on the „Greatest Hits II” CD (1999)—another bummer, because for people who grew up on music from the 1970s and early 1980s, it’s a cult classic.

I used to have „Helikopter,” as the album was called because of its cover, but I lost it somewhere over the years, and I recently found a near mint copy on OLX. These albums can fetch high prices on Allegro (up to 200-300 PLN (approx. 83 USD)), but I managed to negotiate a relatively low price.