Winds of Change.NET: Music Videos from the Troops: Kosovo, Armadillo

May 18, 2005

Music Videos from the Troops: Kosovo, Armadillo

by Joe Katzman at May 18, 2005 10:41 PM

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 battalion

Croatia, Albania, somewhere near Romania
It's Euro, and NATO, why the hell do we go
Pristinia, blew up, huh? Head for Macedonia

I'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 all

Protecting human rights
Air strikes and firefights
And we'll be dropping our bombs
Wherever Serbian bad guys hide

Just 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 hustled

Ooo 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 Kosovo

Mi-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 go

Tough 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 Macedonia

Oooo 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 Kosovo

Somalia, 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]

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Tracked: May 18, 2005 3:37 PM

Military videos from Evil pundit of doom!

Excerpt: Doing the rounds on the Internet are the first examples of a possible new trend in music -- video covers by soldiers in far-away places. Instapundit links to a version of 'Kokomo' by Norwegian peacekeepers in Kosovo, with some good...

Tracked: May 26, 2005 12:52 PM

Military Pop Videos? from The Colossus

Excerpt: More from Winds of Change. Two videos from our NATO allies (NATO still exists, doesn't it?), in the time-honored military tradition of killing time and having fun while helping to fix the problems of the world. First, from the Brits in Iraq, we have "T...

Tracked: May 10, 2006 1:08 PM

Kosovo from we-Blog

Excerpt: Wieder ein Musikvideo gemacht von einigen sich langweilenden Soldaten...+g+ -> Geschichte und Text zum mitsingen ^^ -> Abspielen! Danke an Thomas!

Comments

#1 from Yeff at 6:54 pm on May 18, 2005

A link to the full British video is here

#2 from A Steve at 1:33 pm on May 19, 2005

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

#3 from Kev at 12:51 am on May 22, 2005

The soldiers are Danes, not Norwegians.

#4 from Joe Katzman at 1:12 am on May 22, 2005

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.

#5 from Kev at 2:01 am on May 22, 2005

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.

#6 from Snake at 7:22 pm on May 22, 2005

Hello

"(Norwegian words???) down in Kosovo"
It's not norwegian words..

#7 from Snake at 7:26 pm on May 22, 2005

American has made this text and has singed this song so its not norwegian word..

#8 from J E at 8:03 am on May 23, 2005

The soldiers are definitely Norwegians.
The lyrics however, to my knowledge, are origianally made up by some US troopers...

JE (Norway)

#9 from Snake at 3:22 pm on May 23, 2005

Ya... I come frome Norway to...

#10 from Ed at 12:02 am on May 24, 2005

Re the lyrics, I believe "(Alatia???)" is actually "I'll race ya." (refering to "head for Macedonia").

#11 from Joe Katzman at 1:11 am on May 24, 2005

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...

#12 from Tosi at 1:29 am on May 25, 2005

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

#13 from Olorin at 5:48 am on May 25, 2005

I think the first (Norwegian words) go something like "through?? Somalia [something] [something] Kosovo". I think the word Somalia is definitely in there.

#14 from SAO at 6:31 am on May 25, 2005

I got the Scandinavian wife to listen.. apparently just muddled English.. not Norwegian.

#15 from Ed at 8:14 am on May 25, 2005

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.

#16 from Kata at 12:57 pm on May 25, 2005

does anybody know where I can get the song Kosovo in mp3?

#17 from Joe Katzman at 4:17 am on May 26, 2005

I listened again and you're correct, Ed. Change made.

#18 from Erik at 2:00 pm on May 26, 2005

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

#19 from Kev at 6:12 am on May 27, 2005

MP3 availale at http://blog.arthurk.com/2005/05/kosovo-music-video.htl

#20 from andy williams at 11:35 pm on May 30, 2005

Anyone know a site where this can be downloaded on to DVD ?

#21 from Joe Katzman at 12:02 am on May 31, 2005

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.

#22 from john mackay at 11:10 am on Jun 04, 2005

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!

#23 from sarah at 8:04 pm on Jun 13, 2005

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

#24 from The norwegian dude at 11:52 am on Jun 18, 2005

The mp3 link did not work, anyone got the mp3 verson?

#25 from P.K. at 6:54 pm on Jun 25, 2005

Great video - Kokomo.

The soldiers are not from Denmark. The camouflage and the flag on the arm are clearly not Danish.

Yours
P.K.

#26 from sabrae at 9:52 am on Jun 28, 2005

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.

#27 from Tony at 7:42 pm on Jun 30, 2005

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.

#28 from John at 10:11 pm on Jul 10, 2005

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.

#29 from Marco at 2:48 pm on Jul 21, 2005

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.

#30 from Ulisses S. Grant at 6:07 pm on Jul 22, 2005

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

#31 from Ulisses S. Grant at 7:21 pm on Jul 22, 2005

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

#32 from Anna Matetic at 6:39 am on Aug 23, 2005

Song was a satire written by radio personality Bob Rivers.

Link gives his side of the story

#33 from Kev at 4:41 am on Sep 25, 2005

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.

#34 from Jackie at 4:08 am on Sep 28, 2005

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!

#35 from Joe Katzman at 6:29 am on Sep 28, 2005

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.

#36 from Frost at 4:02 am on Oct 02, 2005

"We'll kiss some ass and then we'll see how it goes"

I believe "kiss" is really supposed to be "kick".

#37 from diellza at 2:20 pm on Dec 05, 2005

serbs that supported milosevic, are idot bastards and should be punished

#38 from Gretta at 8:12 am on Jan 18, 2006

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

#39 from mkonikoff at 8:33 pm on Jan 23, 2006

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.

#40 from Renee Walker at 5:20 pm on Jan 25, 2006

Can anyone tell me their names and ages. Please

#41 from Nesha at 1:19 am on Apr 03, 2006

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!!!

#42 from Loree at 9:08 pm on Sep 13, 2006

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

#43 from Luke at 10:28 pm on Nov 28, 2006

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

#44 from Luke at 10:34 pm on Nov 28, 2006

also I think that:

"if you're albanian and all"

makes more sense than:

"if you're albanian at all"

rgds

#45 from Kathy at 3:10 am on Dec 23, 2006

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

#46 from Lollers at 8:27 pm on Feb 20, 2007

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.