Goodnight Saigon
1991 · Gold Castle D2-71363 · USA
- Artist
- Joan Baez
- Title
- Goodnight Saigon
- Release
- Brothers in Arms
- Year
- 1991
- Label
- Gold Castle # D2-71363
- Format
- CD · Compilation
- Language
- English
- Country
- USA
- Songwriter
- Billy Joel
- Genre
- Folk · Contemporary Folk
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation — Mexican-American / Hispanic Songs
The pop rock song "Goodnight Saigon" (Gold Castle Records # D2-71363) is one of the most popular and well-known post-war Vietnam War songs released in the 1980s by Billy Joel, covered here by Joan Baez. The song often portrayed as capturing the spirit of the conflict, ten years after its conclusion. It covers many aspects of the war in the space of seven minutes. It starts out with US marines beginning their military training in the US, eager to fight the enemy: “we met as soul mates on Parris Island…we were so gun ho to lay down our lives”. Joel moved on to the soldiers new conditions in Vietnam: “"we had no home front, we had no soft soap...we dug in deep and shot on sight". But the narrator pointed out that the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese had strategic advantages over the US search and destroy tactics: "we held the coastline, they held the highlands...they heard the hum of our motors, they counted the rotors, and waited for us to arrive". The song also sought to present the cultural atmosphere of US soldier life on Vietnam bases, such as music and drugs: "They sent us Playboy, they gave us Bob Hope...we passed the hash pipe and played our Doors tapes".
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Notes
Gold Castle D2-71363, track 2, 5:56; Discogs: "not previously released". Billy Joel's song from "The Nylon Curtain" (1982; VWSP0976).
About the artist
Born 9 January 1941, Staten Island, New York, USA. Currently Woodside, California, USA