The Chicago Story

Annotation

"The Chicago Story" (Wayside Records # 009) performed by Jimmy Snyder, was another Vietnam song composed by Tom T. Hall. He also composed Johnnie Wright's Hello Vietnam, and Dave Dudley's What We're Fighting For. These two took a strong patriotic line on the war. In addition, he wrote Kitty Hawkins's Goodbye to Vietnam, about a soldier returning to the US, and Girls in Saigon City (released himself) - which sent out a warning to the girls in the US that their men may get involved with the Vietnamese girls while away. country. plight, soldier back to vietnam for tour of duty, says goodbye to wife at airport. wife then links up with another man she is having an affair with.1 Charted at # 30 in Billboard country chart2 I'll be over later lover-boy, he's gone"Sources1Time↩2Billboard↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: At the airport at Chicago, Sunday night / A soldier and his pretty wife came by / She had brought him there to send him off to war / I heard him say now don't cry anymore / Unashamed, they kissed each other / He rode his fingers through her pretty hair / Once or twice she tried, could not speak / I say the tear drops rolling down her cheeks / She said now, don't you worry I'll be true / I'll hope and pray that no harm will come to you / I thought to myself, good lord, what a shame / It made me stop and wonder, whose to blame / That airport looks so big and then so small / I couldn't hold the tear drops back at all / He turned and went to catch his waiting plane / She stood there crying, calling out his name / She watched his plane go up into the sky / She waiting until it was out of site... / She reached into her purse to get a dime / She was smiling as dropped the money in / She was smiling as she let the number ring / As I looked I heard her say into the phone / I'll be over later lover-boy, he's gone

Notes

Wayside WSDJ-1 (WS-45-009), "Distributed by Smash", manufactured by Mercury Record Productions, Inc.; promotional copy, not for sale, issued as mono (1-45017) and stereo (2-45017) versions; "The Chicago Story" (T. T. Hall), 3:35; Newkeys Music, Inc. (BMI); produced by Little Richie Johnson. [From the record sleeve and labels]

About the artist

James Bernard 'Jimmy' Snyder (born 17 September 1934 in New Brighton, Pennsylvania; died 11 December 2020, aged 86) was an American country singer, songwriter and guitarist who grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia and, after three years in the United States Army, sustained a recording and performing career of more than sixty years across Los Angeles and Nashville. He recorded for Toppa, K-Ark, Wayside, American Heritage and Blair, led the house band at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood, and after moving to Nashville in the 1980s played Printer's Alley and held the house residency at…

Themes

Soldier's Perspective