Ten Favorite Soldier Songs: Goodnight Saigon (#7)

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@TRBRocks420 started doing a series of "patriotic songs" in honor of Independence Day. It inspired me to look at my ten favorite songs dealing with American soldiers. I realized, looking at the list, that eight of these deal with the Vietnam War. And this is one of the most chilling on the list. #7: Goodnight Saigon - Billy Joel Billy Joel finally broke out of "cult" status with The Stranger in 1977. Unfortunately, as many acts did during that era, his follow-up albums were more like The Stranger Part II than something fresh. His Glass Houses almost made me give up on him. Then he rebounded with the tough, brilliant The Nylon Curtain. And this song about a youngster going from boot camp to Vietnam stands as one of his least "pop" and "Billy Joel-like" songs (along with "Captain Jack" from Piano Man). The youngster quickly learns how to be a member of the Marine Corps, always referring to events happening to "us" instead of "me." "We met as soul mates on Paris Island," the song begins. The song doesn't dig into the politics of the war, just the reality of war ("who was wrong and who was right? It didn't matter in the thick of the fight"). And Joel details the horror: "we came in spastic like tameless horses, we left in plastic as numbered corpses." This isn't an easy song to listen to, especially the live videos where Joel would always have Vietnam veterans onstage with him to sing the chorus of, "We would all go down together, we said we'd all go down together." God bless the Vietnam veteran. Goodnight Saigon Written by Billy Joel Recorded by Billy Joel From The Nylon Curtain, 1982 They left their childhood on every acre: