Posted on 06/13/2005 8:09:03 AM PDT by FatherBreadloaf
If you happen to scan the radio dial during a weekday morning and hear a familiar song with strikingly different lyrics, there's a reason.
That's because it's a new song called "Mortaritaville (Baghdad Blues)," set to the tune of a classic Jimmy Buffett tune, and is performed by musically-talented members of Louisiana National Guards' 256th Infantry Division stationed in Baghdad, Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Sgt. Jeremy Davis, 25, of Pineville is with the 256th. He was the soldier who recorded the song on a computer featuring other soldiers doing the song to the tune of "Margaritaville," Buffett's poppy-yet-mellow ode to beach bums and salt-shaker-searching.
This new version, takes a look at the sun and sand in a different way. While Buffett's character digs the beach-y life in "Margaritaville," the Acadiana-based singing soldiers, known only as "Junior" and "Brown," would prefer to be far away from the dingy dunes of sunny-yet-war-torn Iraq.
A sample lyric: "Wasted away again in Baghdad ... looking for my plane ticket home." And when it comes to "blame," the duo claims that it's Rumsfeld's fault, then Cheney's fault, then Bush's fault and then, well, they conclude it's their own (expletive) fault they're over there.
Regardless of who is actually to blame, the story of how that recording got from Saddam's lair to the Cenla airwaves is an interesting one.
According to Davis's father, Dan Davis, the soldiers decided to record the song as a way of having fun and letting folks back home know how they feel and how much they miss home.
So, after Davis recorded the song, he e-mailed a copy of it to his father, who is a salesman at Southern Chevrolet. Dan Davis, in turn, e-mailed a copy of "Mortaritaville (Baghdad Blues)" to Kahuna, the Opus Broadcasting program director, at the end of May.
"Normally I don't open things like that but for some reason it looked like something interesting," Kahuna said.
Taking a chance, he listened to the song and said he was struck by it's humor and honesty. He was also impressed with the guitar playing, saying that "it sounds better than Jimmy Buffett's."
That guitar player, Dan Davis said, is from Pineville, although he wasn't able to find out the guitar-slinging soldier's name.
But most importantly, he said, was the clear message coming from the Louisiana soldiers.
"You can really hear their desire to come home," Kahuna said. "That's what struck me."
So, during a morning show on Opus-owned station Oldies 104.3, Kahuna bleeped out a few scatalogical references and cuss words and put about 30 seconds of the song on the air. Little did he know what kind of reaction it would get.
"I got dozens of calls asking us to play the whole thing," he said. So, Kahuna began playing it between 6 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. and it became a local smash.
People began calling in, telling the disc jockey how they now have a better understanding of how their husband or son or brother feels, being over there.
Interestingly, Kahuna told Dan Davis that he knew his son when they lived in the same Pineville apartment complex.
Dan Davis is glad Kahuna took a chance in playing the song every morning.
"I think it's neat because these kids are from here, Lafayette ... kids from Louisiana," Dan Davis said. "I'm a Vietnam vet myself and it hits home."
Dan Davis said Kahuna is telling listeners to stop by Southern Chevrolet and ask him for burned copies of "Mortaritaville (Baghdad Blues)" which are being labeled and sleeved by his wife, Sgt. Jeremy Davis' mother, Penny.
Most of those stopping by have been veterans of the Vietnam War and 1991's Operation Desert Storm.
"One of the Vietnam vets told me that when he was over (in Vietnam), an ol' boy from here would strum some tunes on the guitar, so it was pretty common," Davis said.
Kahuna said that if he keeps getting requests for the song, he plans to send it to Opus-owned stations in Monroe and Tallahassee, Fla., in hopes of getting airplay of the song in those markets.
Davis said his son, unmarried and a plumber by trade, was active duty in the Army and stationed in Korea before getting out and coming back to Louisiana. Upon his return, he joined the Louisiana National Guard and was activated and sent to Baghdad last October. Davis said when his son returns, he intends to remain in the National Guard.
"They're committed to what they're doing," Davis said.
Davis said people have stopped by his office offering to pay money for the "Mortaritaville" disc, but he refuses to accept money.
"We're not charging anything," Davis said. "This isn't about money. It's about those soldiers over there in Iraq."
Hey,
Don't be hard on them. Songs like that are a pressure valve for the guys to blow of steam. It's like "Oh How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning" by Irving Berlin or "G.I. Jive" by Johnny Mercer. The songs make light of their hardships and help them keep on going. It's not like they're singing "Where Have All the Flowers Gone."
Wasting away in IEDVille,
Searching for my lost translator of sorts,
Some people claim there's a jihadi to blame,
But I know it's my own country's fault.
Unfortunately, songs like this will be taken out of context and will be used by the antiwar Left to hurt our war effort. I hope the soldier who recorded this song grows to realize that he may have provided an anthem to the Left.
this is good considering where it was recorded.
First of all, I want to say that I am shocked to see that this song has gotten around the way it has. My friend, Nick Brown, and I recorded our version of Margaritaville just to pass the time while not patrolling Baghdad. We never dreamed it would be heard by so many people. I just want to say that in no way was this song meant to be taken literally. We are both proud to have served in Iraq and would do it again if need be. The cracks about our country's leadership was just too easy and fit into the song so well, we had to do it. No offense Mr. Bush. You can listen to the rest of our Iraq inspired music and order a copy of the CD at www.iraq-songs.com . Thanks, JR Schultz
Welcome to Free Republic JR. Are you home yet?
SIDENET
yes, i arrived home in march. my contract was up before we left but i got caught by the stop-loss and extended for the deployment. another soldier from our unit did some recording with us in Iraq, his name is luke stricklin and a song he and I wrote together, american by god's amazing grace, is just now hitting the country stations nationwide. he was invited to nashville to record the song shortly after we arrived home. you can check out his site at www.lukestrickin.com. also see www.iraq-songs.com to see some more of our work.
thanks, i'll be visiting whenever i can
I'm glad the LA boys like it. there were a few misprints in this article, we are from the arkansas national guard's 39th BDE which just returned in march.
I'm glad you made it home, and I'll check out those other sites you mentioned.
Thanks for your service, my family appreciates it.
My husband sent me a copy of Mortaritaville from iraq. It made me sad, because of the situation, but it sure as hell was good to laugh. Thank you
Don't listen to anyone's complaints. We live in America so we can write just such things.
Bumping your thread.
I like your song. Welcome home JR, and thank you for your service. I'm saying of prayer of thanks to God that you were returned home safely
I'm be amazed if our troops didn't write such songs,- or poems, or journals - whatever, to get their feelings out. It's been going on as long as men, and now women, have gone to war.
bttt for later
Don't sweat it man.. parody is lost unfortunately on lots of zealots... they don't have to wear turbans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.