Goodnight Saigon
Jim Ridgeway
In a recent conversation, some friends and I had a little disagreement
about whether or not BJ was in Vietnam or not. Supposedly, Goodnight
Saigon was about his war experiences and the couple of times I've seen
BJ in concert, he had what appeared to be his war buddies singing back
up. So what's the truth? I couldn't find anything on his (many) web
pages and am posting here just to be complete.
Please send me an e-mail if you know the truth.
Dave Wexler
Actually, if someone out there does know the answer to the question, can you
please post it here? I'm very curious myself, and have recently been
wondering the same thing. Thanks!
Dave
Dave Wexler
dwe...@emerald.tufts.edu
DangerRJS
Billy never went to Vietnam. he created the song based on the stories of many
people he knew who did go to Vietnam. and those people singing in the
background when he does it in concert are usually, i believe, roadies and
stagehands.
Rick
DR0865
He did not go to viet nam he was never int he military at all.
Donna
Fee Orr
OK... there were no responses to this question appearing when I typed this
one...
No, Billy was not in Vietnam. The song is more of a story then anything.
Billy states that part of being an artist is the ability to empathize with
people. That is why Billy writes so affectively about steel workers,
fishermen, and war vets. In the song "Leningrad," which is autobiographical,
Billy states "as I watched my friends go off to war..." this is referring to
Vietnam.
--Brian
###########################################
Brian R. Fiore
Fee...@aol.com
"Even though it's more difficult to buck current trends, there will never be
a substitute for true originality."
--Billy Joel
############################################
Andrew Goodman
fee...@aol.com (Fee Orr) wrote:
> In the song "Leningrad," which is autobiographical,
>Billy states "as I watched my friends go off to war..." this is referring to
>Vietnam.
Actually, the song Leningrad was written about a man named Victor that
Billy met when he did his tour in the U.S.S.R. (the same one the live
concert CD is from). It had nothing to do with Vietnam.
This is straight from VH-1's Behind the Music special on Billy Joel.
hymie!
In our last episode, the evil Dr. Lacto had captured our hero,
Jim Ridgeway <rid...@ix.netcom.com>, who said:
>Supposedly, Goodnight
>Saigon was about his war experiences and the couple of times I've seen
>BJ in concert, he had what appeared to be his war buddies singing back
>up.
From what I recall, he was never in the war, and the "buddies" are
band members.
..hymie! http://www.smart.net/~hymowitz hy...@lactose.smart.net
DangerRJS
ae...@mindspring.com (Andrew Goodman) wrote that Leningrad is about Victor.
this is true, but what Billy is also doing in this song is drawing parallels
between Victor's life growing up and his own. they are both about the same age,
and they both grew up during the cold war. Billy refers to the Cuban Missle
Crisis in the song, which was an important factor in the cold war between the
Russians and the United States. and when he says "as i watched my friends go
off to war," he most likely IS referring to Vietnam.
rick
Andrew Roche
DangerRJS wrote:
and those people singing in the
> background when he does it in concert are usually, i believe, roadies and
> stagehands.
>
> Rick
That's disappointing to know. When I saw him on is ROD tour
in Albany, he blasted a review which, among other things, claimed
that the guys singing in the background had not been in Vietnam. He
asked, "How the hell does this guy know whether these guys were in
the war or not?" I just assumed that he was straighforwardly claim-
ing that they *were*, not that he was just questioning the reviewer's
ability to know. It gave the song an element of sincerity to have
real vets sing along, especially as Billy was not in Vietnam. Why
have non-band members sing harmony if not to give this kind of im-
pression?
I am, of course, assuming that when you wrote "roadies and
stagehands," you were *distinguishing* them from Vietnam vets, as
opposed to talking about roadies and stagehands who *were* Vietnam
vets. Perhaps I misunderstood.... Happy to be corrected....
--Andrew
ShaunNavis
>when he says "as i watched my friends go
>off to war," he most likely IS referring to Vietnam.
Since that was *the* war in the 1960's, and since he's spoken about frineds who
went off to Vietnam in the past, that's practically a certainty.
Out here in No Man's Land--
Shaun
DangerRJS
Andrew,
i never thought about that... it is quite possible that those roadies were ALSO
in Vietnam. he never said they if were or they weren't. so it is possible.
rick
Raymond Chandler
billy did have close friends who did go to the war
and i think the song is dedicated to them
but not sure
Jim Ridgeway wrote:
> In a recent conversation, some friends and I had a little disagreement
> about whether or not BJ was in Vietnam or not. Supposedly, Goodnight
> Saigon was about his war experiences and the couple of times I've seen
> BJ in concert, he had what appeared to be his war buddies singing back
> up. So what's the truth? I couldn't find anything on his (many) web
> pages and am posting here just to be complete.
>
> Please send me an e-mail if you know the truth.
>
> rid...@ix.netcom.com
--
" It's a 106 miles to Chicago, we've got a full tank of gas,
half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing
sunglasses. Hit it. "
Harry Rosensteel
Billy had a high draft number. That is why he wasn't in th war.
Harry
Robert 'Stumpy' Marsh
In message <353EF7A1...@vanderbilt.edu>, Raymond Chandler
<raymond.r...@vanderbilt.edu> wrote:
>billy did have close friends who did go to the war
>and i think the song is dedicated to them
>but not sure
According to one of the interviews I have, he was asked by friends to
write a Vietnam song. He said he didn't think he could do it, he had
no right because he wasn't there and didn't know what it was like.
They said we'll tell you what it was like, you write the song. So they
spent a weekend at a cabin somewhere with Billy's friends telling him
what it was like - a very emotional experience for all concerned - and
Goodnight Saigon was the result.
This is paraphrased from memory of Billy's own words.
Stumpy.
Tom Ravlic
Now that I think about it, Goodnight Saigon is probably among my favorite
Billy Joel songs. It just tells the story superbly and, like much of his
material, does so with great power.
It's kind of chilling every time I listen to it.
Cheers
Tom
NancyS25
As far as I know, he was not in Vietnam, he wrote it for his friends that went
over. The people he has singing on stage with him are his stagehands.
Robert 'Stumpy' Marsh
In message <6honvi$i9f$1...@newsd-122.bryant.webtv.net>,
har...@webtv.net (Harry Rosensteel) wrote:
>Billy had a high draft number. That is why he wasn't in th war.
Again from memory from the interview: He said he went to Canada.
If anyone's that interested I can post a transcript of the relevent
section of the interview tape.
Stumpy.
Fee Orr
As far as I know, Billy never went to Canada. Well, I'm sure he's been there,
but not in order to avoid going to Vietnam. I think I remember reading an
interview somewhere with him stating that he was lucky and had a high draft
number. He addresses this in a "Playboy" interview, which Todd has on
Turnstiles.
Radar14847
>He addresses this in a "Playboy" interview, which Todd has on
>Turnstiles.
If you do not want to read the whole interview, here's the clip from that
Playboy article:
---
PLAYBOY: Those were also the days of the Vietnam war and the draft. What were
your feelings?
JOEL: I wasn't very political, because Hicksville was pretty much blue-collar.
A lot of guys from Hicksville volunteered because they wanted to fight for
America. But something about it bothered me. I didn't understand the reasons
for going to Vietnam and killing those people. A lot of my friends went and got
killed. I didn't have anything against Vietnamese people. I didn't know why I
should go over and shoot them because the Government said so. It was another
system to rebel against.
PLAYBOY: So you opposed the war?
JOEL: Yeah, but also, it was a very important time in my life as a musician. If
a baseball player gets drafted from 18 to 24, it's his prime. That's how I
viewed what was going to happen to me.
PLAYBOY: How did you avoid the draft?
JOEL: I lied to get out. The richer kids could get psychologists to write
letters and attorneys that had pull and all that stuff. Kids who didn't have
any money went. I didn't have any money, but I said, "To hell with this, I'm
not going." I would have gone to Canada. But I told them, "I'm my mother's sole
support. My X amount of dollars a year as a musician is supporting the family."
They went, "Oh, OK." I got a temporary deferment. Then, when I was 20, they
instituted the lottery. My number was 197 and the draft went to 195. I swear.
And that's how I got out of the draft. I'm no less guilty than the guys who
went off to Sweden and Canada and went underground as draft dodgers. When
amnesty was declared, I felt a pang of relief myself. I'm not particularly
proud of it, because I didn't dodge the draft for these political reasons. I
just had nothing against the Vietnamese.
-------------------------------------
Todd M. Bullivant UIN: 1710206
E-mail: bull...@polaris.clarkson.edu
E-mail: Radar...@aol.com
Turnstiles: http://www.turnstiles.org
Andrew Roche
Fee Orr wrote:
>
> As far as I know, Billy never went to Canada. Well, I'm sure he's been there,
> but not in order to avoid going to Vietnam. I think I remember reading an
> interview somewhere with him stating that he was lucky and had a high draft
> Turnstiles.
>
> --Brian
I know nothing about his going or not going to Canada. But I
distinctly recall him saying during his lecture tour that he was a
draft dodger.
Whether in the interview you cite or the lecture, he may well
have been exaggerating. But having seen that article briefly, I have
to imagine that he would be more honest about Vietnam later down the
road than relatively soon after it took place (that article was writ-
ten, I believe, around 1981).
But I can only suppose....
--Andrew
BethaniePA
>I know nothing about his going or not going to Canada. But I<BR>
>distinctly recall him saying during his lecture tour that he was a<BR>
>draft dodger.
Billy opposed the war, like many people at the time. He said he would have
gone to Canada, but instead, claimed he was his mother's sole support. That
worked at first. Then the lottery came up and his number was 197. The lottery
went up to #195. That is how Billy says he got out of the draft.
Beth
David Kimmelman
not return and he dedicated Goodnight Saigon to all of them.
David
Dave Wexler wrote:
> In article <353D8BF5...@ix.netcom.com>, Jim Ridgeway <rid...@ix.netcom.com> wrote:
> >In a recent conversation, some friends and I had a little disagreement
> >about whether or not BJ was in Vietnam or not. Supposedly, Goodnight
> >Saigon was about his war experiences and the couple of times I've seen
> >BJ in concert, he had what appeared to be his war buddies singing back
> >up. So what's the truth? I couldn't find anything on his (many) web
> >pages and am posting here just to be complete.
> >
> >Please send me an e-mail if you know the truth.
> >
> >rid...@ix.netcom.com
>
RB
I'm assuming you mistyped or something. Billy did NOT serve in Vietnam.
Russ
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