Courtesy of Evil Pundit, I was recently vectored onto some uber-cool music videos made by troops on the front lines and had to share:
- The British Royal Dragoon Guards spoofed Tony Christie and Peter Kay with "Is This the Way to Armadillo". The resulting traffic brings down several Ministry of Defense servers... and the UK MoD congratulates the soldiers on their "brilliant" video! Those Brits have class. We have a BBC report, and links to the full 52MB video.
- The Norwegian Army's Telemark battalion keeps their ancestors' ancient skald traditions alive with the exceptionally well done and funny "Kosovo" (to the tune of The Beach Boy's "Kokomo"). We have video links and lyrics!
On to the links and lyrics...
I'll start with the British lads of the Royal Dragoon Guards in Iraq, whose 52MB spoof video of the Tony Christie song "Is This The Way To Amarillo" [original lyrics] was so popular it crashed Ministry of Defence computers. Showing intelligence and pure class, the British Ministry of Defense said "Is This The Way To Armadillo" was "brilliant," praised the troops who made it, and has the servers up and running again. The BBC has an article, and some excerpts from the video.
Thanks to our readers, full videos can be found over here (thanks, A. Verbree) and over here (thanks, Yeff).
Then we have Norwegian soldiers in Kosovo (or see alternate site, or get the MP3 version) doing a fantastic take-off on "Kokomo" [original lyrics], the Beach Boys' Cocktail movie soundtrack hit. After all these centuries, their warrior-skalds are still some of the best anywhere. As a special bonus, we've transcribed the lyrics below.
Kosovo
to the tune of The Beach Boys' "Kokomo"
by the Norwegian Army Telemark battalionCroatia, Albania, somewhere near Romania
It's Euro, and NATO, why the hell do we go
Pristinia, blew up, huh? Head for MacedoniaI'll race ya...
Somewhere far overseas
There's a place called Kosovo
That's where you don't want to go
If you're Albanian at allProtecting human rights
Air strikes and firefights
And we'll be dropping our bombs
Wherever Serbian bad guys hideJust up from Kosovo
Somalia, Grenada,
Or rescuing Kuwait-a
We screwed ya Rwanda
Wish we coulda helped ya
Iraqi embargo
That's where we got hustledOoo so now we're helping out in Kosovo
We'll kick (kiss?) some ass and then we'll see how it goes
And then we really don't know
Good luck to KosovoMi-lo-se-vic
You sorry son of a bitch[musical interlude]
Every time we go
To little places like Kosovo
We never really know
What happens after we goTough luck for Kosovo
Croatia, Albania, somewhere near Romania
It's Euro, and NATO, why the hell do we go
Pristinia, blew up, huh? Head for MacedoniaOooo from Macedonia down to Kosovo
We'll kick their ass and then we'll see how it goes
And then we really don't know
That sucks for KosovoSomalia, Grenada,
Or rescuing Kuwait-a
We screwed ya Rwanda
Wish we coulda helped ya
Iraqi embargo
How it ends we don't know...[hit by army truck]
A link to the full British video is here
A bunch of torrents can be found in this /. thread: http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/05/17/2236253&tid=133&tid=218
The soldiers are Danes, not Norwegians.
Kev, I'm willing to make a correcton - but all my link-to sources say "Norwegian". I need some verification that they're all wrong.
Joe: Perhaps I was mistaken. I believed the shoulder flags were Danish I and could not see the telltale lime green and yellow-green Norwegian camou pattern. But I went back through the video using the pause to capture each frame. I now realize the resolution is too poor to say definitively the flag is Danish and not Norwegian -- and summer dust in Kosovo can cover any camou pattern.
Hello
"(Norwegian words???) down in Kosovo"
It's not norwegian words..
American has made this text and has singed this song so its not norwegian word..
The soldiers are definitely Norwegians.
The lyrics however, to my knowledge, are origianally made up by some US troopers...
JE (Norway)
Ya... I come frome Norway to...
Re the lyrics, I believe "(Alatia???)" is actually "I'll race ya." (refering to "head for Macedonia").
Yes, Ed, that makes sense. Added!
Help with the remaining areas of confusion would be most welcome, as we seem to be the only place on the web with the lyrics.
Also, perhaps our Norwegian readers can tell us exactly what unit this is...
Serbs have no humour... just a bunch of nationalistic warmongers.
It's just a funny video. And it's not like they sing about utnrue things. Serbia was bombed after all, and Millosevic is a son of a bitch...
take care
I think the first (Norwegian words) go something like "through?? Somalia [something] [something] Kosovo". I think the word Somalia is definitely in there.
I got the Scandinavian wife to listen.. apparently just muddled English.. not Norwegian.
Joe,
I believe the last line "How it is we don't know..." is actually "How it ends we don't know...".
Thanks for putting this together.
does anybody know where I can get the song Kosovo in mp3?
I listened again and you're correct, Ed. Change made.
Seems the full lyrics can be found here:
http://www.geocities.com/guabancex_blog/kosovo_lyrics.html
And according to Aftonposten, one of the biggest newspapers in Norway, it's soldiers from the Norwegian Telemark battalion:
http://www.aftenposten.no/nyheter/uriks/article1040097.ece
MP3 availale at http://blog.arthurk.com/2005/05/kosovo-music-video.htl
Anyone know a site where this can be downloaded on to DVD ?
All you have to do is download the videos to your computer, then burn them to DVD. Right-click is usually all it takes, though you may need to extract the URL using "View Source" in your browser if you can't find direct file links.
I think JE is right when he writes the song was written by American troops. The lyrics refer to Kosovo as being "far overseas", and how it's "Europe...why the hell do we go?", plus the reference to a "rescue in Kuwait" all suggest the song is being song from the perspective of an American soldier. But those Norwegian troops made one very funny video of the song!
I was led to believe that the Kocomo/Kosovo song was done by the British lads over there???
Not true??
Too bad.
We all think it is great.
Sarah
Great video - Kokomo.
The soldiers are not from Denmark. The camouflage and the flag on the arm are clearly not Danish.
Yours
P.K.
The song was actually done by a DJ on KZOK in Seattle named Bob Rivers, in 1999. The Norweigians only put it to video. Hence the American viewpoint and English lyrics.
They are Norwegian. There is One Dane. The video was filmed on the Norwegian Task force base. I know this because I did several missions on that base and work very closely with the task force.
They are Norwegians from KFOR 5B (or at the same time as the U.S. rotation 5B) at or near Camp Bondsteel, Kosovo. I know because I was in the same rotation with these guys and they started showing us what they had done. The song was heavily circulated around there since 1999 but they put it to video last year. American spoof song plus a bunch of bored Norwegians and poof... a video was born.
Here's another onlie site that carries the British version of Amarillo.
Very funny.
After the British, our boys and girls from The Netherlands made their version of Amarillo in Afghanistan.
Pretty funny too!
The Norwegian clip is the best though.
There are Brazilian videos with their troops in Haiti, at the United Nations mission (MINUSTAH) with an exotic Brazilian Rock.
Links:
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=Brazilian_troops_in_haiti_
UN_mission_Min21
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=Brazilian_troops_in_haiti_
MINUSTAH
http://www.putfile.com/media.php?n=brazilian_troops_in_haiti_
UN_mission_Min
There are other links to the Brazilian videos:
Download-Link
(1,67MB):http://rapidshare.de/files/3266015/Brazilian_troops_
in_haiti_MINUSTAH.wmv.html
Download-Link (14,9MB):
http://rapidshare.de/files/3266786/brazilian_troops_in_haiti_
UN_mission__Minustah_.mpg.html
Download-Link (8,31MB):
http://rapidshare.de/files/3266623/Brazilian_troops_in_haiti_
UN_mission.wmv.html
Song was a satire written by radio personality Bob Rivers.
Link gives his side of the story
Wow. I've been a fan of Bob Rivers' Twisted Tunes for years (on those rare occasions when I was home in the Seattle area). The man is a genius; I should've spotted this as his lyrics.
I got the file aut a month ago and I absolutely love it! Got a dispute going on between my male partner and myself a female: Does anyone know if they are gay or straight? Thanks!
They're European. To a North American, that may come off as a little pouffy. Can't speak to their individual sexualities, but no reason to expect any figure over the usual (very small) share of population.
serbs that supported milosevic, are idot bastards and should be punished
Oh my God! That is friggin hilarious! If any of you know how to get ahold of those guys so I could give them props... lol!
Gretta
I think the lyric is
"We'll KICK some ass and then we'll see how it goes"
and not "KISS" as you have it.
Thanks for the lyrics, You caught a lot I missed.
Can anyone tell me their names and ages. Please
Can't wait for some one to write a song about September 11, Spain railway bombing, London Bombing!!! Fu*k all of u asshole's!! Ur 2 pathetic to live! Jebem vam mater!!! "Diellza" Your tough on words, ever experienced being in a war? Doubt it.. So shut the fu**k up. I loved shooting down your fu*ki*g so called "Stealth fighter" hahaha!!!
I love the Kosovo Video. What a great bunch of guys. Does anyone have any information as to how I could write to them? I just lost my fiance of 6 years to suicide and have been very isolated. I would love to write and have some pen pals to help my healing. Thank you!
Loree
yeah the song is great :)
regarding lyrics, i think it's:
"hell man we really don't know"
intstead of:
"and then we really don't know"
hard to tell, english is not my mother tongue
also I think that:
"if you're albanian and all"
makes more sense than:
"if you're albanian at all"
rgds
I am glad to learn who the guys are who did the Kosovo video. I could tell they were not US troops due to arm patch on uniform and accents (one sounded rather British!).
I think they did a great job, very professional!
Merry Christmas or whatever special event you celebrate this time of year. And HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL!
Kathy
The soldiers in this video is from the norwegian army batallion telemark bataljon (TmBN).
And norwegians dont have stealth fighters so "we loved to shoot your uber jet down" really doesnt matter.