Papa's Got a Brand New Baghdad

Papa's Got A Brand New Baghdad, a very special Love Crazy two part series, asks What the heck is going on over there in Iraq? With guest Sergeant Clayton Paulding, who put together two sets of music of what his "band of brothers" listened to while over in Iraq, we begin to get an idea. The resultant mix is a collage of memory and conversation about the lives of the 1st Platoon, Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment, 3rd squad on the ground in the Sunni triangle in Iraq from August 2004-through August 2005.



Music was one of the main things that helped keep us sane over there. We listened to it mainly while on guard duty (guarding the perimeter of our camp) or while waiting around in our vehicles. Each Humvee had a small pair of speakers (the kind powered by AA batteries). The iPod was very popular with the soldiers, almost everyone had one. The music I picked was stuff that we all listened to and basically agreed on.



AC/DC's "Highway to Hell" was one of the theme songs of the year. Our unit's main mission was to secure and patrol Highway 10, which connects Ramadi, Fallujah and Baghdad. Almost all of the fighting we did took place on this highway. Hence, we really had our own "Highway to Hell". "Hate It or Love It" (the Game and 50 Cent) was basically our squad's (3rd squad) theme song for the year.



The Bouncing Souls were favorites of me and my roommate. Before every raid, we would blast the Bouncing Souls in our room as we cleaned our weapons and checked all of our equipment. This was usually at about 2 am, since almost all raids took place before the sun came up. I included System of A Down for our unit's mechanics. System Of A Down was their favorite, and was always playing loudly in the motor pool, where they were constantly busy repairing our broken down or destroyed vehicles.



Playlist



---- Part 1 ---------------------------------------



01 AC/DC - Highway to Hell

02 Bouncing Souls - The Freaks, Nerds and Romantics

03 Jay Z Nigga What?

04 Snuff track - Punch Line

05 Wu Tang Clan - Gravel Pit

06 Creedence Clearwater Revival - Fortunate Son

07 Rage Against the Machine - Vietnow

08 Thrice - Where Idols Once Stood

09 Marilyn Manson - Tainted Love

10 Naughty By Nature - Hip Hop Hooray



---- Part 2 ---------------------------------------



1. The Game feat. 50 Cent "Hate It or Love It"

2. Jay Z & Linkin Park "Dirt Off Your Shoulder / Lying From You"

3. Bob Seeger "Against the Wind"

4. Bouncing Souls "Low LIfe"

5. System of A Down "Toxicity"

6. TI featuring Lil' Jon "Stand Up"

7. Way Out West "Everyday"

8. Weezer "The World Has Turned"

9. Marilyn Manson "Sweet Dreams"

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