He never served, but several of his buddies went to Vietnam. Years after they got back, they were all sitting around and told Billy he needed to write a song about their experiences. He declined, at first. He said there’s no way he can write a song without being there. He felt it would be disingenuous and a slap in the face of those who served. They kept on him, telling him they need to share their experiences, but they don’t have the platform like he does. They have the experiences but he has the way of turning their words into music. Most of these lyrics came from the stories they told him. Cheers.
I'm not a Vietnam vet and no matter how many times I hear this song I tear up. Thank you for your service! What you did... If you guys aren't heroes then I don't know what heroes are.
I've seen Billy 11 times and Goodnight Saigon sounds so powerful when he does it live. He also wrote a song from a bi-polar perspective called Summer Highland Falls which is a beautiful song and well worth a reaction.
My great-uncle was drafted. He came back but had a hard life. I knew him my whole life. He passed from pancreatic cancer some years ago and then my grandma, his sister, passed away almost 2 yrs ago. I inherited all her photos and family type stuff. I found the letters they wrote each other. He did a lot of recon missions. My grandma would send him and his guys cookies and stuff but later on his letters got further apart. He sometimes wrote about hiding behind a tombstone and grabbing his buddy quicky, as they were fired upon. I found pics of him. It really helped me understand him more. He was there about 2 or so years.
You should check out this song performed in the Billy Joel tribute during The Kennedy Center honors. They had a bunch of military members like a choir singing along with this.
Garth Brooks performed it with backing from the veterans and he also did Allentown from the same album, about the loss of heavy industry jobs like steelworks during the Reagan era.
He lived through that time. Vietman affected so many of us who may not have served. The year I graduated from high school there was a universal draft. Many of my classmates didn't make it back. This was against the backdrop of extreme political unrest, even violence during anti war demonstrations. The soldiers got none of the support or recognition that had existed during past wars. They were cursed by people in airports upon their return or randomly on the street. As if they had had a choice to serve. No "thank you for your service" as there is now. Many young men fled to Canada or European countries, or managed to contrive medical conditions to avoid service in what they considered an unjust military action. It was a sad, uneasy time. There was a lot of social upheaval then, too, over other issues such as racial and gender discrimination. The poor soldiers got lost in the mix. This song gives that generation of people who fought there some recognition. They need it. I agree with the earlier recommendation that you watch the performance of this song at Joel's Kennedy Center Honors. It included Vietnam veterans. It's powerful.
kathleenshaw838 Your thoughtful post was so much better than mine. I was in college. Saw this up front and personal...you're response brought it all back.
Such an incredible tune. The music arrangement hits hard and when added to the lyrics the emotion is undeniable. Billy did not serve but was connected to it because he had so many friends who did. The song came about from what he listened to listening to the stories by actual veterans of the war. He took those stories and create a song that told a truth to what it was like to be in a war like Vietnam.
My Dad R.I.P loved this song and would get so drunk and sing it all the time. He was in the Air Force in nalm. He never talked about it but i know it messed him up real bad. I enjoy your videos quite a lot give thx to Black Pegasus for having you on his channel lol Love what both of you guy do do not stop..
My mother is 80 years old. Billy paints such a visceral picture in your head, she literally cannot CANNOT listen to this song. The man packs a punch and I love him so damn much.
This is a sad song by Billy Joel's! He is awesome with all his music. He is just great. But this song will make you cry.. He did this song just talking and dealing with people he knew was in Vietnam. But he was never in the military
Wonderful reaction to a great song that I haven't listened to in a long time. Billy Joel is the GOAT. You need to get Black Pegasus over and do a reaction with him of this song.
Hell I don't think I ever heard this song, very touching. I like Vietnam songs and stories even though they are very sad. I always listen on patriotic holiday's to Country Joe and Fish Protest Song and Agent Orange, both great songs.
Speaking of bi-polar, listen to Billy joel- summer highland falls- he wrote it as like being with someone with bi-polar and exemplifies it through the different patterns and speed in the song, it's my favorite billy joel song
Remember that those who fought in the Viet Nam war were mostly teenagers drafted right out of highschool. Babies who hadn't reached adulthood; not even able to vote yet or legal for drinking. They were scared to death. I lost 7 to that war, from my highschool, on the battlefield and a few to PTSD later on and thousands more to agent orange throughout the years We were fighting using the conventional rules of warfare and the Viet Cong were using guerrilla warfare and underground tunnels as a means of transport. It was a war we couldn't win unless we used nuclear bombs, which we couldn't use with all our grounds troops in the jungles.
YES! 👍What a powerful song. Makes me cry. My father was fortunate; he pretty much knew he would be drafted so he was pro-active and enlisted in the Air Force at 18 (had me at 19); ended up serving in Thailand as an air traffic controller. KRIZZ! I've got another "Vietnam" song; "19 (Destruction Mix)" by PAUL HARDCASTLE; it became a NYC CLUB and Radio HIT in 1985; hard music, hard message; please react to it; it was bizarre dancing to it when it was about all of these young men's lives lost or destroyed. 😥
My late father in law was a decorated Vietnam vet. He had a strong bond with all those he served with. He was in fierce fighting and got wounded in battle, but he managed to save several of his unit after they had been ambushed! He stayed in contact with his captain and others in his unit after they got home. His captain always made sure to tell everyone my father in law was the reason he was alive! They had a close bond all through out their life! His captain died several years ago and then my father in law recently passed away 2 years ago with Parkinson's from exposure to agent orange! All they had was each other and they stuck together whether they lived or whether they died they were going to do it together! He struggle in his life with everything he and his brothers went through in Vietnam! The line Billy Joel sings when he says they prayed to Jesus Christ over and over again, that's exactly what he did! He told us over and over again he prayed enough in Vietnam to last a life time! God rest his soul! He was a great man!
Billy’s friends who went to Viet Nam asked him to write this song. He didn’t feel qualified to write it, but they said we’ll tell you what it was like and you write it. It was written for his buddies and all the people who served that weren’t welcomed home or never made it home.
The headphones say it all, "dang, i need to really hear this song". One of the rawest and most powerful anti-war songs ever written. Somehow this song keeps getting stronger and deeper, every year since it's release.
He starts out meeting on Paris Island that was Marine Corp recruit Depot he is talking about my ERA I was in the Corp 71 to 75 THEY WHERE MY BROTHERS SEMPER FI ! THE NAM !
I graduated high school in 1974 so I didn’t have to serve. when I was in 10th grade I thought for sure I would end up in Vietnam. It astonishes me that today’s young people don’t remember Vietnam.
At the Kennedy Center Honors Billy Joel the performance of this by Garth Brooks with a group of Nam vets singing is well worth your time to watch. th-cam.com/video/HqfQdIefAgE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=joFSgSGqjbOeQI3_
You should check out Evanescence's song "Lithium", it's about how lithium (the drug used to treat bipolar) makes you feel (or rather, how it dampens your sense of self). It's such a great song!
Something on a similar theme that will get people welling up, "1916" by Motorhead, about a teenager at the Somme. It isn't by any stretch of the imagination what people would expect from Lemmy and it hits you in the feels.
Great honest reaction, but I think you missed the subtlety at the end. "And they were sharp-- as sharp as knives. They heard the hum of the motors, they counted the rotors, and waited for us to arrive." The "they" is the Vietnamese, and this is describing how they heard the American troops coming and laid in wait to ambush them. The last "and we will all go down together" is when our men actually do go down together. You can hear the sounds of the battle very faintly as that's being sung.
You need to hear Billy talk about this song. How he arranged the song is incredible. For a guy that was not there, he really captured the emotions. Thank you to all the Vietnam Vets!! The nation shit on you when you came back from a place you didn’t want to be, doing things they didn’t want to do. I was born in 1970 but the treatment of our returning boys made me detest the hippies to this day.
It is not the hippies who sent them out there, so you seem to be detesting the wrote group. It always amuses me how the people who do not want to see their fellow Americans go to war and become cannon fodder are supposedly the bad guys, but the often wealthy ones who send them to die in wars when they would not dream of sending their own, are somehow seen as the good guys. Someone, please make it make sense! I was at the concert in London in the early 2000s when Natalie Maines of Dixie Chicks (as they were called back then) was critical of little rich boy, draft dodger with daddy's help, George W. Bush sending working class Americans to die and be maimed in an illegal war in Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11 and look at the shit she got for that. Yet she was right though, wasn't she?
Billy Joel is just incredible. Check out You may be right from him for a different vibe. Please check out April Wine..Roller extended version 🙏 Great reaction and Peace out Krizz 🙏 ☮️ ✌️
Not to take away from this tremendous song but, if you want a glimpse into Billy's skill as a pianist, check out his Root Beer Rag. Probably something to check out on your own, since it's entirely instrumental
You and tech are the greatest rappers to ever do it. I don't care what anyone says, you changed rap music for the better. The lennon McCartney of hip hop.
This is one of his BEST SONGS it is for the VIETNAM VETERANS in that war that got no RESPECT when they came home!!! Krizz if everyone was like you this would for sure THE GREATIST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!! I have Hope with Trump thing will be BETTER, I Pray!!!
He never served, but several of his buddies went to Vietnam. Years after they got back, they were all sitting around and told Billy he needed to write a song about their experiences.
He declined, at first. He said there’s no way he can write a song without being there. He felt it would be disingenuous and a slap in the face of those who served.
They kept on him, telling him they need to share their experiences, but they don’t have the platform like he does. They have the experiences but he has the way of turning their words into music. Most of these lyrics came from the stories they told him.
Cheers.
I haven’t heard this song in so many years. But it makes me cry every time. Some of the most raw brutal and honest lyrics you’re ever gonna hear.
Each concert Billy's people go into the audience before the concert and find veterans to sing the chorus
Those were actual veterans on stage singing the chorus
I'm a Vietnam vet and no matter how many times I hear this song it makes me tear up, the emotions it stirs are raw and visceral!
thank you , sir , for your service................
Randy, welcome home brother. I to am a Vietnam veteran and I to choke up at this song.
Thank you for your service Sir. And I'm very sorry for what our G did to all you guys over in that Hell Hole!
Thanks for your years of service.
I'm not a Vietnam vet and no matter how many times I hear this song I tear up. Thank you for your service! What you did... If you guys aren't heroes then I don't know what heroes are.
Billy Joel spoke to vets he said didn’t write this, he just wrote down the words others said. A class act.
My husband is a Vietnam vet. It has been so hard for him. Thank you for all of your serviceL
I've seen Billy 11 times and Goodnight Saigon sounds so powerful when he does it live. He also wrote a song from a bi-polar perspective called Summer Highland Falls which is a beautiful song and well worth a reaction.
My great-uncle was drafted. He came back but had a hard life. I knew him my whole life. He passed from pancreatic cancer some years ago and then my grandma, his sister, passed away almost 2 yrs ago. I inherited all her photos and family type stuff. I found the letters they wrote each other. He did a lot of recon missions. My grandma would send him and his guys cookies and stuff but later on his letters got further apart. He sometimes wrote about hiding behind a tombstone and grabbing his buddy quicky, as they were fired upon. I found pics of him. It really helped me understand him more. He was there about 2 or so years.
Such raw lyrics and makes me cry everytime I hear this! Billy was a lyrical genius! Everytime he sang this, he had veterans singing the chorus. ❤
You should check out this song performed in the Billy Joel tribute during The Kennedy Center honors. They had a bunch of military members like a choir singing along with this.
Garth Brooks performed it with backing from the veterans and he also did Allentown from the same album, about the loss of heavy industry jobs like steelworks during the Reagan era.
This is one of his genius songs. He wrote this for his many friends who served in Vietnam, you can see them in the video; they sang the chorus.
He lived through that time. Vietman affected so many of us who may not have served. The year I graduated from high school there was a universal draft. Many of my classmates didn't make it back. This was against the backdrop of extreme political unrest, even violence during anti war demonstrations. The soldiers got none of the support or recognition that had existed during past wars. They were cursed by people in airports upon their return or randomly on the street. As if they had had a choice to serve. No "thank you for your service" as there is now. Many young men fled to Canada or European countries, or managed to contrive medical conditions to avoid service in what they
considered an unjust military action. It was a sad, uneasy time. There was a lot of social upheaval then, too, over other issues such as racial and gender discrimination. The poor soldiers got lost in the mix. This song gives that generation of people who fought there some recognition. They need it. I agree with the earlier recommendation that you watch the performance of this song at Joel's Kennedy Center Honors. It included Vietnam veterans. It's powerful.
kathleenshaw838
Your thoughtful post was so much better than mine. I was in college. Saw this up front and personal...you're response brought it all back.
This one always makes me cry. The chorus singers were Vietnam Vets
Such an incredible tune. The music arrangement hits hard and when added to the lyrics the emotion is undeniable. Billy did not serve but was connected to it because he had so many friends who did. The song came about from what he listened to listening to the stories by actual veterans of the war. He took those stories and create a song that told a truth to what it was like to be in a war like Vietnam.
Another one that talks about some of the same things is Allentown🎉😂❤
☮️❤️🙏🌏🌍🌎🇺🇸❤️☮️
We have to remember that most of these men were drafted they were there because they were told to go! God bless each and every one!
One of the most beautiful and emotional songs ever
You got this one right we all need each other. Also talent and persistence will overcome anything.
He talked to a bunch of his friends that DID go to Nam and got their perspectives, and that's how he wrote this amazing song!
My Dad R.I.P loved this song and would get so drunk and sing it all the time. He was in the Air Force in nalm. He never talked about it but i know it messed him up real bad. I enjoy your videos quite a lot give thx to Black Pegasus for having you on his channel lol Love what both of you guy do do not stop..
The chorius was sung by actual veterans.❤
One of his best songs!
“WE DIDNT START THE FIRE”
Love this song it is so beautiful and it makes me cry every time I hear it .
My mother is 80 years old. Billy paints such a visceral picture in your head, she literally cannot CANNOT listen to this song. The man packs a punch and I love him so damn much.
He's a classy classic. Peace out man ✌️
Haven’t heard this for so long!! Such a respectful song to those who served!❤❤
I wish you well, my husband is bipolar! Great reaction Krizz!!❤❤
Classic always! Hugs and love Krizz!❤😊❤
Same to you!
Billy himself did not serve in the armed forces, his friends and crew members did and urged him to write the song.
My daddy died on Sunday..three days ago. He was 73. He was a Vietnam vet who lost both of his legs in Vietnam. He was 19. My heart is broken
I’m so sorry. May his memory be a blessing.
This is a sad song by Billy Joel's! He is awesome with all his music. He is just great. But this song will make you cry.. He did this song just talking and dealing with people he knew was in Vietnam. But he was never in the military
Wonderful reaction to a great song that I haven't listened to in a long time. Billy Joel is the GOAT. You need to get Black Pegasus over and do a reaction with him of this song.
Scenes from an Italian Restaurant from this same show is absolutely killer. Definitely should watch.
Hell I don't think I ever heard this song, very touching. I like Vietnam songs and stories even though they are very sad. I always listen on patriotic holiday's to Country Joe and Fish Protest Song and Agent Orange, both great songs.
I believe he wrote it from the perspective of his friends who were in Vietnam, I've seen Billy 8 time live and seeing him again in March
Speaking of bi-polar, listen to Billy joel- summer highland falls- he wrote it as like being with someone with bi-polar and exemplifies it through the different patterns and speed in the song, it's my favorite billy joel song
Thank you for doing this. For my father.😪
Remember that those who fought in the Viet Nam war were mostly teenagers drafted right out of highschool. Babies who hadn't reached adulthood; not even able to vote yet or legal for drinking. They were scared to death. I lost 7 to that war, from my highschool, on the battlefield and a few to PTSD later on and thousands more to agent orange throughout the years We were fighting using the conventional rules of warfare and the Viet Cong were using guerrilla warfare and underground tunnels as a means of transport. It was a war we couldn't win unless we used nuclear bombs, which we couldn't use with all our grounds troops in the jungles.
it was a war that those in charge knew could never be won.
First time hearing this. Thanks Krizz.😭
Thank you, One of my favorites…and Go Chiefs
YES! 👍What a powerful song. Makes me cry. My father was fortunate; he pretty much knew he would be drafted so he was pro-active and enlisted in the Air Force at 18 (had me at 19); ended up serving in Thailand as an air traffic controller. KRIZZ! I've got another "Vietnam" song; "19 (Destruction Mix)" by PAUL HARDCASTLE; it became a NYC CLUB and Radio HIT in 1985; hard music, hard message; please react to it; it was bizarre dancing to it when it was about all of these young men's lives lost or destroyed. 😥
Look for Kennedy center honors.....Garth Brooks did this song for Billy...always cry my ass off
My late father in law was a decorated Vietnam vet. He had a strong bond with all those he served with. He was in fierce fighting and got wounded in battle, but he managed to save several of his unit after they had been ambushed! He stayed in contact with his captain and others in his unit after they got home. His captain always made sure to tell everyone my father in law was the reason he was alive! They had a close bond all through out their life! His captain died several years ago and then my father in law recently passed away 2 years ago with Parkinson's from exposure to agent orange! All they had was each other and they stuck together whether they lived or whether they died they were going to do it together! He struggle in his life with everything he and his brothers went through in Vietnam! The line Billy Joel sings when he says they prayed to Jesus Christ over and over again, that's exactly what he did! He told us over and over again he prayed enough in Vietnam to last a life time! God rest his soul! He was a great man!
Billy’s friends who went to Viet Nam asked him to write this song. He didn’t feel qualified to write it, but they said we’ll tell you what it was like and you write it. It was written for his buddies and all the people who served that weren’t welcomed home or never made it home.
The headphones say it all, "dang, i need to really hear this song".
One of the rawest and most powerful anti-war songs ever written.
Somehow this song keeps getting stronger and deeper, every year since it's release.
"Keep shooting for great things"; Great message, Krizz 😊
🌸 buckle up is very appropriate.....it's very difficult for me to watch this video but I believe it's important for me each time I watch it.....
Krizz....great video
He starts out meeting on Paris Island that was Marine Corp recruit Depot he is talking about my ERA I was in the Corp 71 to 75 THEY WHERE MY BROTHERS SEMPER FI ! THE NAM !
I graduated high school in 1974 so I didn’t have to serve. when I was in 10th grade I thought for sure I would end up in Vietnam. It astonishes me that today’s young people don’t remember Vietnam.
I have a cassette tape from Vietnam Radio first termer awesome 😎👍
At the Kennedy Center Honors Billy Joel the performance of this by Garth Brooks with a group of Nam vets singing is well worth your time to watch. th-cam.com/video/HqfQdIefAgE/w-d-xo.htmlsi=joFSgSGqjbOeQI3_
Yes, we all need each other!!
Wow 😭❤
Amen brother
Would like you to react to Billy Joel's "Big Shot" for a complete change of pace regarding musical style and sound. Absolute BANGER of a song.
He wrote a very fitting song about Bi Polar disorder call " I go to extremes" a must listen that very few react to!
This is a fantastic song. I’ve heard it hundreds, if not thousands of times, and every time I hear it, I take away something new from it.
You should check out Evanescence's song "Lithium", it's about how lithium (the drug used to treat bipolar) makes you feel (or rather, how it dampens your sense of self). It's such a great song!
After 9/11 he started having 1st responders join the military veterans onstage to sing the chorus.
***IT'S STILL ROCK N ROLL TO ME***
I would also recommend "I was only 19" by Redgum. About Australians in Vietnam.
There is a Reggae song called "Pass me the laser beam" by Don Carlos. Very deep Reggae.
Something on a similar theme that will get people welling up, "1916" by Motorhead, about a teenager at the Somme.
It isn't by any stretch of the imagination what people would expect from Lemmy and it hits you in the feels.
Another song that will make you cry is "Don't take the girl" by Tim McGraw. I cry every time.
Parris Island is a Marine Corps boot camp.
Rise Against has a song called "Help is on the way" it's about Katrina and how our government failing the people of New Orleans. Worth checking out.
“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts."
-Mark Twain
What can we do?
We don’t just understand the story..we feel it
We gotta stop it
Thanks Krizz
Great honest reaction, but I think you missed the subtlety at the end. "And they were sharp-- as sharp as knives. They heard the hum of the motors, they counted the rotors, and waited for us to arrive." The "they" is the Vietnamese, and this is describing how they heard the American troops coming and laid in wait to ambush them. The last "and we will all go down together" is when our men actually do go down together. You can hear the sounds of the battle very faintly as that's being sung.
***ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG***
You need to hear Billy talk about this song. How he arranged the song is incredible.
For a guy that was not there, he really captured the emotions.
Thank you to all the Vietnam Vets!!
The nation shit on you when you came back from a place you didn’t want to be, doing things they didn’t want to do.
I was born in 1970 but the treatment of our returning boys made me detest the hippies to this day.
It is not the hippies who sent them out there, so you seem to be detesting the wrote group.
It always amuses me how the people who do not want to see their fellow Americans go to war and become cannon fodder are supposedly the bad guys, but the often wealthy ones who send them to die in wars when they would not dream of sending their own, are somehow seen as the good guys. Someone, please make it make sense!
I was at the concert in London in the early 2000s when Natalie Maines of Dixie Chicks (as they were called back then) was critical of little rich boy, draft dodger with daddy's help, George W. Bush sending working class Americans to die and be maimed in an illegal war in Iraq that had nothing to do with 9/11 and look at the shit she got for that. Yet she was right though, wasn't she?
Thanks to all our armed forces personnel (present and past) for the sacrifices they and their families do.
Billy has a song -I go to extremes -that sounds like dealing with bipolar.
Billy Joel is just incredible. Check out You may be right from him for a different vibe. Please check out April Wine..Roller extended version 🙏 Great reaction and Peace out Krizz 🙏 ☮️ ✌️
You should watch 5he Kennedy Center honor of Billy Joel.
You should do a song called "I was only 19 by a band called Red gum" it's from the Australian perspective of the Vietnam war
I was in college during the Vietnam War. Those boys were drafted... and when
B home were tainted and spit on. I was 20 years old and was horrified.
Not to take away from this tremendous song but, if you want a glimpse into Billy's skill as a pianist, check out his Root Beer Rag. Probably something to check out on your own, since it's entirely instrumental
You and tech are the greatest rappers to ever do it. I don't care what anyone says, you changed rap music for the better. The lennon McCartney of hip hop.
I prefer the studio version
***MY LIFE***
Not my favorite Billy Joel song but I would love for you to do more billy joel. Scenes From an Italian Restaurant would be my recommendation
Krizz imma need you to react to the homeless singer red. He beats on his chest, listen to here today gone tomorrow you may get emotional
Downeast Alexa is another great song
The guys who sing the chorus were Vietnam vets.😊
Go listen to his song Downeaster Alexa. that one will get you too.
***HONESTY***
***BIG SHOT***
SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN,MARINES. and COAST GUARD.
Average age of an American soldier is given as 19-22! It seemed this war would never end now we holiday there
👍
🫡
Some people don't realize that the photographs were the men singing the chorus with Billy.
This is one of his BEST SONGS it is for the VIETNAM VETERANS in that war that got no RESPECT when they came home!!! Krizz if everyone was like you this would for sure THE GREATIST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!! I have Hope with Trump thing will be BETTER, I Pray!!!
Billy Joel spoke to vets he said didn’t write this, he just wrote down the words others said. A class act.