This magical little clip from liveleak.com shows some soldiers hanging out in Iraq while one of them plays his own original cover of Jimi Hendrix‘s “All Along The Watchtower.” This real scene is highly remisniscent of staged scenes from famous war movies of the last decade or two (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill etc.), which makes it kind of weird and incredible to watch. There’s also something sort of wondrous when a soldier’s song videotaped in the depths of Iraq gets some widespread popularity on the internet. It’s like a seed blowing in from a faraway and dangerous land and planting itself. Some might call this cliché, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree. But maybe its power comes in part from the fact that the cliché is so perfect.