Dashoguz 10-nji Mekdep

The absolute best thing to have come out of Turkmenistan in recent memory is this: 25 cover songs sung by the Turkmen children of Dashoguz School #10.

I found it last week on one of the computers in the PC office and, with the help of fellow PCTs, I’ve identified 2/3 of the songs on there.

This is the tracklist:
1. Saves the Day – (unknown song)
2. The Cure – “Boys Don’t Cry”
3. Unknown
4. Weezer – “Buddy Holly”
5. Unknown song from the “O, Brother Where Art Thou?” soundtrack
6. The Decemberists – “Eli, The Barrow Boy”
7. Unknown
8. Neil Young – “Heart of Gold”
9. Unknown
10. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers – “I Won’t Back Down”
11. Unknown
12. Unknown
13. Belle & Sebastian – “Judy and the Dream of Horses”
14. Radiohead – “Karma Police”
15. Guns and Roses – “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”
16. Damien Jurado – “Letters and Drawings”
17. Unknown
18. Bob Dylan – “Everybody Must Get Stoned”
19. Unknown
20. Iron and Wine – “Sodom, South Georgia”
21. Unknown
22. Shawn Colvin – “Sunny Came Home”
23. Unknown
24. The Flaming Lips – “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Part I”
25. Unknown

The volunteer who worked at Dashoguz School #10 has yet to be identified, though I’m sure if I ask around people might be able to divulge his identity. It shouldn’t be hard. He plays the guitar and dates himself by including the Decemberists and Iron and Wine tracks, which came out in 2005. So he was here in 2005 at least, meaning he was probably a T-12. The T-12 volunteers are no longer here (I am a T-16) so I might have to find his name and then his email. I could, obviously, just google the lyrics to the unknown songs, but if it were me, I would want to know that someone else that came after me appreciated such a project. And I do appreciate these – I have other such cover songs by young children choruses, including “Sexy Boy” by Air and “Desperado” by The Eagles.