The Dubbing Database

Bom Bom Bom Beem Bom (That's What Happens When You Don't Finish School) is a song featured in the 1993 film The Thief and the Cobbler. All of the film's songs were produced for the finished Fred Calvert cut of the film, titled "The Princess of the Cobbler" overseas in Australia. It was also used for the Miramax cut of the film, which was titled Arabian Knight in the United States theatrical release. The song was written by Norman Gimbel and composed/performed by Robert Folk.

The song is about Chief Roofless and the Brigades singing about being sent out into the desert to guard the Golden City's boarders, and that their lack of reading skills left them alone for years.

English[]

Original version[]

Singers: Bob Joyce, Jon Joyce, Kerry Katz, Kevin Dorsey, Michael Lanning, Nick Jameson, Randy Creenshaw, Raymond McLeod, Rick Charles Nelson, Roger Freeland, Scott Rummel and Ted King
[Chorus 1]
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
We're what happens when you don't finish school
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
We're what happens when you don't finish school

[Verse 1]
Sent here twenty years ago
By the king to guard his borders
We don't know when to return
Cause no one here can read his orders

[Chorus 1]

[Verse 2]
Lately, things have been so bad
There just are no words to tell it
And if we should find a word
I'm sure none of us could spell it

[Verse 3]
We miss our mothers and our fathers
It's a painful, sad condition
It's hard to tell ya just how much
'Cause we never learned addition

Bom bom bom beem bom
Bom bom bom beem bom
Bom bom bom beem bom

[Verse 4]
So we wait around
And scare any traveler passing through here
Since we never learned to trade
It's the only thing to do here

[Chorus 2]
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
That's what happens when you don't finish school
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
We're what happens when you don't finish school

[Ending]
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool

Album version[]

This version of the song was used in the Original Soundtrack album, and a semi-instrumental version was used in the credits of the Fred Calvert cut "The Princess and the Cobbler". This version contains an extended intro and an additional verse.

[Chorus 1]
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
We're what happens when you don't finish school
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
We're what happens when you don't finish school

[Verse 1]
Sent here twenty years ago
By the king to guard his borders
We don't know when to return
Cause no one here can read his orders

[Chorus 1]

[Verse 2]
Lately, things have been so bad
There just are no words to tell it
And if we should find a word
I'm sure none of us could spell it

[Verse 3]
We miss our mothers and our fathers
It's a painful, sad condition
It's hard to tell ya just how much
'Cause we never learned addition

Bom bom bom beem bom
Bom bom bom beem bom
Bom bom bom beem bom

[Verse 4]
So we wait around
And scare any traveler passing through here
Since we never learned to trade
It's the only thing to do here

[Chorus 2]
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
That's what happens when you don't finish school
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool
That's what happens when you don't finish school

That's what happens when you don't finish school

[Verse 5]
We miss our sisters and our brothers
We need some family affection
We get anywhere to meet you
But we've got no sense of direction

[Chorus 1]

[Ending]
Bom bom bom beem bom
Booly booly bibalee bool

French (Canada)[]

Singer: ?

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bolé-bolé, bébé le-bou
Si vous n'étudiez pas, vous ne viendrez comme nous
Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bolé-bolé, bébé le-bou
Si vous n'étudiez pas, vous ne viendrez comme nous

Le roi nous a envoyés ici pour garder la frontière
Nous aimerions bien rentrer, mais sans savoir lire, nous ne savons que faire

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bolé-bolé, bébé le-bou
Si vous n'étudiez pas, vous ne viendrez comme nous
Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bolé-bolé, bébé le-bou
Si vous n'étudiez pas, vous ne viendrez comme nous

Et s'il ne fait jamais beau, je sais pas comment vous expliquer
J'aimerais bien trouver les mots, mais je pourrais pas vous les appeler

On salue nos papas et nos mamans
On est triste et on voudrait pleurer
On ne peut pas vous dire combien
On n'a jamais appris à compter

Ba-ba-bing-boing
Ba-ba-bing-boing
Ba-ba-bing-boing

On se cache et on fait peur à tout ce qui arrive ici
On est devenu malfaiteur, il n'y a que ça à faire ici

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bolé-bolé, bébé le-bou
Si vous n'étudiez pas, vous ne viendrez comme nous
Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bolé-bolé, bébé le-bou
Si vous n'étudiez pas, vous ne viendrez comme nous

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bolé-bolé, bébé le-bou

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bole-bole, bebe le-bou
If you don't study, you will end up like us
Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bole-bole, bebe le-bou
If you don't study, you will end up like us

The king sent us here to guard the border
We would like to go home, but without knowing how to read, we don't know what to do

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bole-bole, bebe le-bou
If you don't study, you will end up like us
Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bole-bole, bebe le-bou
If you don't study, you will end up like us

And if the weather is never nice, I don't know how to explain it to you
I wish I could find the words, but I couldn't call them to you

We salute our dads and moms
We are sad and we want to cry
We can't tell you how much
We never learned to count

Ba-ba-bing-boing
Ba-ba-bing-boing
Ba-ba-bing-boing

We hide and scare everything that happens here
We have become criminals, that's all there is to do here

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bole-bole, bebe le-bou
If you don't study, you will end up like us
Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bole-bole, bebe le-bou
If you don't study, you will end up like us

Ba-ba-ba-bing-bong, bole-bole, bebe le-bou

Greek[]

Singers: Ilias Zervos / Ηλίας Ζερβός, Petros Damoulis / Πέτρος Δαμουλής, Stávros Mavrídis / Σταύρος Μαυρίδης[1]

Please provide Greek lyrics if you can

Polish[]

This version uses the extended instrumental track in the wrong placement.

Singer: ?

Please provide Polish lyrics if you can

Portuguese (Portugal)[]

Singer: ?

Please provide Portuguese lyrics if you can

Russian (voice-over)[]

Please provide Russian lyrics if you can

Spanish (Spain)[]

Singer: Jordi Vila[2]

Please provide Spanish lyrics if you can

Missing versions[]

  • The Latin American Spanish, Japanese and Korean dub leave all of the songs in the movie undubbed, including this one.
  • The European Spanish dub released on VHS did not cover any of the songs (which includes this one), as they were cut out in replacement of scenes deleted from the original Fred Calvert cut (such as every finished scene featuring the Mad and Holy Witch and several unseen Thief sequences).
  • The German dub is the only dub of the movie that doesn't have confirmation of the songs being dubbed. It cannot be added on this page until information, citations, clips or samples are found.

References[]