OT: Saudi Arabia - Exit Visa recording anyone?

[Mike Harding]

Sorry for the off topic post guys but I know a few of you have
chequered histories

Does anyone remember anything about a group of
ex-pats in Riyadh in the late 70s who made a musical
parody of a number of famous songs replacing the
lyrics with new ones which gave a rather uncomplimentary
view of the Saudis et al. I have a copy but it's rather old
and noisy. I believe the tape was called Exit Visa (for
obvious reasons to those of us who were there but
it may have had other names too. Any info. appreciated.

Mike Harding

PS. The e-mail address is valid but has a spam block.

 

[mickbear88]

Exit Vias

I was one of the members of the Exit Visas. A cleaned up version is available on the "Pirate Bay"
Brings back memories!

 

[mickbear88]

Did you find the songs?

 

[realjohn]

Saudi song parodies

mickbear88,

Any links or title for the Pirate Bay listing? I tried searching Exit Visas but no joy.

I had a tape once with some of these songs but it went missing during one of the many moves I made since. The one that I had included such politically incorrect classics as "Hi,Ho,Hi,Hee, I'm a Yemeni" - "Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, the police are crazy" and "Ahmed and Abdullah in the market place" sung to the tune of Obladi,Obladah.

I'd love to get hold of another copy.

John

 

[realjohn]

Saudi song parodies

I found the Pirate Bay listing but there's only one seeder so it could take a while.

Two of the songs I remember are there but there are 3 or 4 others that aren't. I seem to recall the band being the New Exit Visas and based in Aramco so perhaps there was a later version of the tape. One of the songs I remember was to the tune of Ralph McTell's "Streets of London" - the chorus was

So how can you tell me they're not lonely
cause no women they can find
sitting bleakly in the sand
with nothing left but their right hand
isn't it small wonder that half of them go blind?

Another one was "Sneaky Siddiqi" to the tune of Abrekadabra. Ah, happy days!

 

[ikeates]

Ian Keates salbuk 1979

Sorry for the off topic post guys but I know a few of you have
chequered histories

Does anyone remember anything about a group of
ex-pats in Riyadh in the late 70s who made a musical
parody of a number of famous songs replacing the
lyrics with new ones which gave a rather uncomplimentary
view of the Saudis et al. I have a copy but it's rather old
and noisy. I believe the tape was called Exit Visa (for
obvious reasons to those of us who were there but
it may have had other names too. Any info. appreciated.

Mike Harding

PS. The e-mail address is valid but has a spam block.

could you tell me if you have a copy of the tape and does it contain all the songs, including the 12 days of ramadam and the last one somebody crashing his toyota with the jet plane leaving at the end

My first tour of saudi was based at Salbuk where the tape was made I was in villa 30 on the lockheed compound would like to get a copy of the tape as was original on decca tape ended up ruined

Cheers

Ian Keates

 

[dunkie55]

Exit Visa

I have a very, very bad copy of the tape--I got it in 1979 when I first arrived in Saudi. I spent lots and lots of time listening to it and transcribing it and was able to get most of the words on paper. However, from all the posts listed here, it seems there are more songs than what I have. I have 12 songs on the tape. Please contact me if interested in the words.

 

[mickbear88]

The cleaned up version of the original(1976 Lockheed) tape is available from www.pccomputerease.com or www.kickasstorrents.com. MP3 file is about 60 meg, so don't bother on dial-up!
We did a follow up in the UK in '77 "The Exit Visas Strike Back"
These are originals, not parodies. Includes :Rockin' Abdullah, Headchopper Square,Moonshine Sidiki, Persona Non Grata and a few more. If anyone is interested I can re-make the songs(original reel-to-reel is stuffed.
Living in Darwin, would love to talk to anyone from those mad 70's in Riyadh!

 

[dunkie55]

Exit visa torrent

Hi, Mickbear88--Was in Saudi working with Corps of Engineers 79 to 84. Was able to download your torrent with all the Exit Visa songs--thank you very much for sharing--much better quality than my cassette copy. Would love to hear the "new" ones. The parodies were so clever--new songs ought to be good, too. Let's talk Riyadh via yahoo email.

 

[pjvr99]

The cleaned up version of the original(1976 Lockheed) tape is available from www.pccomputerease.com or www.kickasstorrents.com. MP3 file is about 60 meg, so don't bother on dial-up!
We did a follow up in the UK in '77 "The Exit Visas Strike Back"
These are originals, not parodies. Includes :Rockin' Abdullah, Headchopper Square,Moonshine Sidiki, Persona Non Grata and a few more. If anyone is interested I can re-make the songs(original reel-to-reel is stuffed.
Living in Darwin, would love to talk to anyone from those mad 70's in Riyadh!

Hi mickbear88

I've been in ClubJed (Jeddah) for several years, and constantly hear about these songs. I
would very much like to hear these songs, but the torrent site doesn't want to let me in,
and I'm being blocked by the local ISP regulations. Is there another way we can make this
problem go away?

Thanx in advance

PJ

 

[Lulu]

I was in Jeddah in 76'-77. Raytheon/Whittaker compound. Although I was at school at the time I have very fond memories of my time there, and I loved these songs.

They were the inspiration to many adaptations of cultures from postings in other countries.
I've got a beat up copy on cassette somewhere. I'd love to download them but didn't have any luck with the two suggestions above.

if anyone has other ideas, please share.

 

[Mike Harding]

Hi Guys

Mike Harding back again - I originated this thread 7.5 years ago! I have a cleaned up copy of Exit Visa and think I'm seeding it too (I may need to re-make the torrent?). However if you can't find it and would like a copy drop me an e-mail to "[email protected]" and I'll give you a direct link.

Ah... the 1970s in Saudi Arabia... as the Chinese say; they were interesting times

MH

 

[Mike Harding]

Let's try with that Mike Harding e-mail again -- mike(underscore)harding at fastmail dot fm - if that gets zapped use my name with an underscore between the two words and the domain is fastmail with a country code of simply fm no dot com etc

 

[Driller]

Exit Visa Recording

I know this is an old post, but I have the complete collection of the 'EXIT-VISA's home made album.

 

[harryt8]

I was in Jeddah 1979 - 1983 working for Saudi Airlines.
Heard the tape and songs during my regular visits to Riyadh.
We used to sing the songs ourselves in the Prince Michel Compound to great mirth and laughter..!!
The musicians and composers of those songs deserve a medal for their observations and ability to set the total Saudi "fiasco" we all knew so well, to music.
How do the Saudi's cope now in 2011 censoring this stuff on YouTube or Facebook?
They're still the same hypocritical jerks.