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Music: Billy Joel's New Album "The Nylon Curtain"

By VVAW

BEST NAM SONG YET

Bill Joel's new album, "The Nylon Curtain" is an excellent album. Surprisingly, among hits like "Pressure" and "Allentown," is one of the best Vietnam songs out. "Goodnight Saigon" combines good music with lyrics that tell the story of a vet's tour in 'Nam.

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 out lives.
We came in spastic
Like harnessless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses,
And we learned fast
To Travel light
Our arms were heavy
But out 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 out 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 as sharp
As sharp as knives
They heard the him 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.