Girls In Saigon City
1969 · Mercury SR-61277 · USA
- Artist
- Tom T. Hall
- Title
- Girls In Saigon City
- Release
- I Witness Life
- Year
- 1969
- Label
- Mercury # SR-61277
- Format
- LP · Album
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Tom T. Hall
- Genre
- Country · Country
- Primary theme
- Home Front Perspective / Soldier's Perspective
Annotation
Tom T. Hall, born 25 May 1936 in Olive Hill, Kentucky, son of a preacher, is primarily known as a storyteller and songwriter in the country music genre. Between 1957 and 1961 Hall served in the US army, stationed in Germany. He performed songs at local officer clubs and on the Armed Forces Network. (1) (2) In 1965 he scored a massive songwriting hit with Johnnie Wright - Hello Vietnam. From 1967 he started to release his own material, including the Vietnam-related track "Girls in Saigon City" (Mercury Records # SR-61277). Narrated from a soldier's perspective, near a place called "Da Nang"...cross the ocean far away". The soldier "got a dear-John-letter". So the soldier goes off to Saigon to visit the Vietnamese girls - presumably a reference to prostitutes. At the end of the song, Hall switches the narrative, giving out advise to those on the domestic front: "stateside girls should take this warning, be faithful" - otherwise the soldier may go visit the girls in Saigon. Thus, this looks at both the soldier's experience and the us domestic perspective.A list of Tom T. Hall Vietnam War compositions: Johnnie Wright - "Hello Vietnam" - a soldier headed out to war. Kitty Hawkins…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — US Domestic Perspective Songs
Tom T. Hall, born 25 May 1936 in Olive Hill, Kentucky, son of a preacher, is primarily known as a storyteller and songwriter in the country music genre. Between 1957 and 1961 Hall served in the US army, stationed in Germany. He performed songs at local officer clubs and on the Armed Forces Network. (1) (2) In 1965 he scored a massive songwriting hit with Johnnie Wright - Hello Vietnam. From 1967 he started to release his own material, including the Vietnam-related track "Girls in Saigon City" (Mercury Records # SR-61277). Narrated from a soldier's perspective, near a place called "Da Nang"...cross the ocean far away". The soldier "got a dear-John-letter". So the soldier goes off to Saigon to visit the Vietnamese girls - presumably a reference to prostitutes. At the end of the song, Hall switches the narrative, giving out advise to those on the domestic front: "stateside girls should take this warning, be faithful" - otherwise the soldier may go visit the girls in Saigon. Thus, this looks at both the soldier's experience and the us domestic perspective.
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
About the artist
American country singer-songwriter, born 25 May 1936 in Olive Hill, Kentucky; wrote 'Hello Vietnam'; died 20 August 2021 in Franklin, Tennessee. [Source: Wikipedia]