Goodnight Saigon

Goodnight Saigon

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 our lives

We came in spastic
Like tameless horses
We left in plastic
As numbered corpses

And we learned fast
To travel light
Our arms were heavy
But our 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 our might

We had no cameras
To shoot the landscape
We passed the hash pipe
And played our 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
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 sharp
As sharp as knives

They heard the hum 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

Billy Joel