Lyrics for Goodnight Saigon as interpreted by kevin

Goodnight Saigon Lyrics
We met as soul mates
On Parris Island
We left as inmates
From an asylum
And we were sharp
As sharp as knives
And we were so gung-ho to lay down our lives

We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses
And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy, but our bellies were tight

We had no home front
We had no soft soap
They sent us Playboy
They gave us Bob Hope
We dug in deep
And shot on sight
And prayed to Jesus Christ with all of our might

We had no cameras
To shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe
And played our Doors tapes
And it was dark
So dark at night
And we held on to each other, like brother to brother,
We promised our mothers we'd write

And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood
On every acre
And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight

We held the day
In the palm
Of our hand
They ruled the night
And the night
Seemed to last as long as

Six weeks
On Parris Island
We held the coastline
They held the highlands
And they were sharp
As sharp as knives
They heard the hum of our motors, they counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive

And we would all go down together
We said we'd all go down together
Yes we would all go down together

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Tiff15
05-13-2002

Rated 0 
about vietnam


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coolspirit
06-02-2002

Rated 0 
its great

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leaneys
08-19-2002

Rated 0 
Anyone who has ever seen Billy Joel play this song in Madison Square would agree that it sends a chill up your spine. The crowd just goes crazy.

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TSLlovesPHIL
09-17-2002

Rated 0 
I remember when I was a little kid, about 2 or 3 maybe, listening to this song on my parents record player...it was back in 1987 or 8, and i can remember the sound of the helicopter in the beginning...its just burned into my memory....great song...great song

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sweetpoet
10-14-2002

Rated 0 
this song means so much to my father. He told me everytime he hears it he is reminded about when he was watching a 442 old's for his cousin who went off to 'nam but never returned, very sad story and song.

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wpot
10-15-2002

Rated 0 
I think Billy had some friends who were in Vietnam and the vets weren't welcomed back, and they wanted him to write a song about it but he wouldn't because he wasn't there, so he said the lyrics are not verbatim but pretty close to the narrative they told him about what it was like.
It's pretty similar to All Quiet on the Western Front.

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Surfpico
03-07-2003

Rated 0 
This song just makes me so bitter towards the American society. It makes me think of Born on the Fourth of July (W/Tom Cruise)...It depresses me because I feel so much for all the men who went to fight thinking it was the right thing to do, but then came home to absolutely no welcoming. That's f*cked up if you ask me.

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MelissaOK
03-20-2003

Rated 0 
The songs title makes you think of being at vietnam, but the talk about Parris Island is bootcamp.... still a powerful song...

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Sukai
04-21-2003

Rated 0 
Yeah, but he talks about meeting at Parris Island, meaning they meant at boot camp, so that means the song could still be about Vietnam

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Sukai
04-21-2003

Rated 0 
Yeah, but he talks about meeting at Parris Island, meaning they meant at boot camp, so that means the song could still be about Vietnam

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krisstie
06-27-2003

Rated 0 
Another thing about this song is how they were so eager to join the military at first (as a lot of soldiers are) but they quickly learned the realities of war. Billy is such a great storyteller- you can picture it even if you haven't lived through it.

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metallica5699
07-01-2003

Rated 0 
The men who went to vietnam and faced death for 365 days kno what this song means and anyone who had the balls to spit on them when they got home should be shot. That was bullshit, if you dont agree with the governments actions, dont spit on the ones who actually went there, they had enough to worry about. Even when they got back the nightmares and flashbacks are more than any of those fucking hippies could handle.

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metallica5699
07-01-2003

Rated 0 
The men who went to vietnam and faced death for 365 days kno what this song means and anyone who had the balls to spit on them when they got home should be shot. That was bullshit, if you dont agree with the governments actions, dont spit on the ones who actually went there, they had enough to worry about. Even when they got back the nightmares and flashbacks are more than any of those fucking hippies could handle.

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beatles4ever
05-14-2004

Rated 0 
you could not be any more right metallica5699....preach on

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freddysgirl
10-17-2004

Rated 0 
My cousin went to Vietnam and had a similar experience when he came home, the backlash here in australia was that we were joining another country's war, that still doesn't excuse what happened to the vets. This song is so emotive, you do feel as if you were there. Billy Joel is a genius!

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dj_tiled_flooring
11-14-2004

Rated 0 
The song is very obviously about Vietnam, hence its title containing the name of a major Vietnamese city. The fact that he refers to Marine recruit training on Parris Island is there simply because boot camp was the first step toward the soldiers' experience of Vietnam.

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SoundandFury1031
01-27-2005

Rated 0 
Billy Joels Greatest hits 1&2 is a tape that's been around my entire life... one of my earliest memories... I never really got into this song till I was about 11 or 12, and I really don't know why I did... I always new about 'Nam, but for some reason I heard this song one time and felt so hurt... like I had gone over there, and come back myself, leaving so many friends behind...

The way the vets were treated upon their return was indeed horrible, but I don't see any of that in this song... The song is simply about the horror of the war itself...

But this song does have a deeper meaning to me now... I can't listen to it right now... Just reading it brings tears to my eyes... I'm worried about my friends over in Iraq... Here's hoping that they'll all come home together..

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echoshizzle
02-20-2005

Rated -1 
We play this song at our fraternity, it's one excellent song and gets all of us going. Live life while you can, that's all i can think of while listening to it.

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steel07
02-26-2006

Rated 0 
i absolutely love this song

its very depressing since its about the horrors of the Vietnam War...
I love the beat of the song and his voice...especially the echos with some of the words...its very effective to the song

I like it a lot becuase it shows how close the soldiers got to each other...eventhough the song is very depressing...I think its offers just a little bit of hope...eventhough the nights are dark...noises are loud...people are getting injured...there is still a positive diction in the song...the fact they prayed and the going down together...this song is real emotional by still motivational in a way...
Billy Joel is just amazing!

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jeffro1080
05-17-2006

Rated 0 
I'm pretty sure the fight he is talking about is the Tet offensive...

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miss mary mac
02-18-2007

Rated 0 
This is such a powerful song to me. I cry sometimes when I listen to it, and not too many songs have that effect on me.

Billy Joel is brilliant.

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Doberman Pharoah
04-22-2007

Rated 0 
As a 19 year old private infantry soldier I just can't find the words to express what this song means to me. I mean, the average soldier there was 19. Like, more than half of them were younger than me, just teenagers..

"Remember Charlie
Remember Baker
They left their childhood
On every acre"

That really sums it up like, the soldiers were still only kids, they were just kids and a lot of them were drafted. So what ya have is an army of drafted kids who're half scared to death in a foreign country and those that don't make it spill their blood all over the country (spill their childhood). Those that do make it are then treated like shit when they get home. Nobody deserves that! I don't agree with what happened in vietnam, I don't agree with what's happening in iraqistan either but I'd be the last person to blame the troops. Ya know why? Because it's not their fault. When you enlist you take an oath to obey all lawful orders. It's not the troops fault if the orders are f*cked up. They're just doing their job and trying to stay alive. Which brings me on to

"And who was wrong?
And who was right?
It didn't matter in the thick of the fight "

Vietnam was a slaughter house on both sides... I don't blame the soldiers for what they did and I don't understand how anyone else can. How can people sit on their high horse and preach when they've never been there? When they've never known the terror of sitting in enemy territory at night, knowing deep down that you're not going to win this war and just waiting for the day when a bullet sends you home?!? If you're living like that day in, day out it REALLY doesn't matter if your side are right or wrong, all that matters is getting out alive.

It's very, very easy to take the easy option and be all anti-vietnam vets. What's not easy is to go into a situation like that and keep fighting and doing your best, even if you really don't want to.

"They heard the hum of our motors
They counted the rotors
And waited for us to arrive"

I'd like to see any of the crusties go into a situation like the one he describes above (which a lot of vietnam was) and remain anti-vets.

This song just means so much to me. It's so right because it's not talking about the politics of the war, it's just talking about the war and the kids that were fighting it.

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linhtien
05-21-2007

Rated 0 
Great great great great great song. It's the f*kin greedy bastards that caused the bloodsheds. It's all because of money, oil, power... that they threw those little kids into the horror flame of war, while always lying about their kindness, careness and heroism. Whoever believes in war as a solution to a conflict, and as a way of showing one country's careness to the other is so naive and blindfolded. I can't believe in a time such as today, while there are so many things to do to make this earth a better and liveable place, some country is still bringing soldiers to a foreign country to start a war, and bring thousands of lives to painful ends, and thousands of others into terrible misery???

This song aslo reminds me of the Korean movie "Brotherhood of war", a complicated and moving-to-tear movie which definitely dwarfs "Saving private Ryan", because it was able to prove the lie of war, the horror of the battles, the killings and everything about war, in which we as the soldiers are no more than demons, just have to kill to be alive. But above all, what makes the movie so great is that it was always for the younger brother that the older brother had to fight, and he went crazy when hearing of his brother's death, and at the same time seeing all the lies that had been hidden from him, so he turned himself into the enermy's side just to revenge. I can't recommend enough.

Billy Joel is just amazing, just beyond any words. His songs really speak and go into people's hearts. I've never given any comment before, but I just can't help it any more right here. I just wish that everybody were conscious about the lies you are told when it comes to war. I wish everyone could hear this song, so that if they ever supported war, they would shut up, they've never been there, never felt it, how could they support it.

Billy Joel is a once in a life time talent, why could there be a great person like that on Earth...

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ProfessorKnowItAll
10-30-2007

Rated 0 
I never liked the fake echo ("and it was dark, so dark at NIGHTnightnightnight."), but I've liked the message in the song--it's so evocative of the tension and fear that must've pervaded a soldier's life that I used to assume he had been to 'nam.

While it's specifially about the Vietnam War, it's true of every war: when you send troops somewhere, you're sending real live people off to kill other real live people--many of them younger kids--and they're gonna be going through hell.

I've always felt that Veterans get the short end of the stick. They put their ass on the line for their country, only to have some misguided fools blame them for the war, and then have the government that they dutifully served for years cut their benefits.

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EveryMn
01-11-2008

Rated 0 
Great song, not the most historically accurate. About the only Marines (Parris Island) in Saigon were the embassy guards. Drug use in the Marines was extremely low in comparison to the other branches, also.

I do agree that it's bullshit how vets were treated when they got home. Regardless of what your opinion on politics is, it takes BALLS to get and fight like that. If my opinion matters... I may paraphrase George Orwell, "people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

/rant
PS: the average age of a serviceman in Vietnam was 22-23, not 19 as is commonly quoted

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