# In The Kubrick Film "Full Metal Jacket"... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 8, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829 "2017-09-08T18:20:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/1 "2017-09-08T18:20:28Z")
… there’s a section during the Basic Training section, where the tympani play a melody by themselves. _Dum-dum-da-dee-dee–dee–dee-dum-dum- -dum_ Anyone know what that’s from? Thanks Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/2 "2017-09-08T18:23:02Z")
Could be a drum-major malfunction. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/3 "2017-09-08T18:26:16Z")
Jesus! 55.5 K posts, and _that’s_ all you got? ---
**Author:** ![Lungfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d78d45/32.png) [@Lungfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lungfish)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/4 "2017-09-08T18:51:08Z")
Stanley Kubrick’s daughter Vivien wrote the original music for soundtrack under the name “Abigail Mead”. I don’t know what song you are referring to. The following linky has the full list of the music where you can listen to the whole soundtrack and buy the songs 🙂 > **[Full Metal Jacket Soundtrack (1987) & Complete List of Songs | WhatSong](https://www.what-song.com/Movies/Soundtrack/111/Full-Metal-Jacket)** > > Listen to all 17 songs from the Full Metal Jacket soundtrack, playlist, ost and score. BTW: Wots a “tympani”? ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/5 "2017-09-08T19:03:14Z")
> [@Lungfish](#): > > BTW: Wots a “tympani”? Alternate spelling of timpani - Kettle Drums. ---
**Author:** ![Kimballkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b5a626/32.png) [@Kimballkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimballkid)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/6 "2017-09-08T20:22:41Z")
[Here’s](https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/-/5-797013/?) an old message board (not this one) thread that may help. [Here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HZmC5UuJETM&list=PLUwqxIHHbfAK67v4D4da4JJvJ597lT80e) is the song on Youtube that is mentioned in that thread. ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/7 "2017-09-09T00:36:29Z")
Y’all are _awesome_ as always with your quick and accurate answers. Thanks to all of you! Also **TriP** , I never knew of the other spelling, so I learned something new, thanks. When I write the word, I always think of the “tympanic membrane” to derive the correct spelling and along with some other parts we now have _another_ sort of _drum_. 🙂 Thanks again for the assistance! Q ---
**Author:** ![Quasimodem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Quasimodem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quasimodem)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/8 "2017-09-09T01:10:01Z")
Okay, let me revisit this one more time. Gunny Ermey has a cadence he sings solo to a normal march tempo - there is NO response from the troops. Not good at writing out sung cadence, but Ermey used this one: “Bom-bom-be-lay-bom. Bom-bom-be-lay”. So if you can sing this cadence to yourself, you’ll get the idea of what I mean when I wrote that the tympani played that to resemble the cadence. I don’t know exactly where in the film that is, but I will watch it tonight and report back. Also, if you happen to see it before me, then maybe _you_ can further explain it. (_I hope I’m making sense. Not as good as I once was at that._ 😉 ) The original post was me asking if that particular cadence relates to a Marine Corps march, or if it always has been just a cadence call? Sorry if I confused y’all. Quasi ---
**Author:** ![Evan\_Drake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b487fb/32.png) [@Evan\_Drake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evan_Drake)\ **Post date:** [September 9, 2017, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-the-kubrick-film-full-metal-jacket/795829/9 "2017-09-09T01:42:16Z")
> [@Quasimodem](#): > > Not good at writing out sung cadence, but Ermey used this one: “Bom-bom-be-lay-bom. Bom-bom-be-lay”. In print sounds rather like the American song [**Ta-ra-ra Boom-de-ay**](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ta-ra-ra_Boom-de-ay) Lottie Collins delighted us with in music halls of the '90s. _However, Sayers later said that he had not written the song, but had heard it performed in the 1880s by a black singer, Mama Lou, in a well-known St. Louis brothel run by “Babe” Connors_.