https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w Rhetorical Song Analysis by Alex Hamlin en-us 2018-12-17 16:58:42 UTC 2025-11-27 14:29:59 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet-assets.s3.amazonaws.com/icons/Watchclock.png alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315499538 2018-12-18 13:21:36 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315499538 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315502933 Goodnight Saigon is sung from the perspective of a soldier from the Vietnam war after the war.  It is not any specific soldier, but more of a kind of representation of all soldiers from the war.  While the singer, Billy Joel, never went to the war, many of his friends did.  They asked him to write a song about the war.  The song is based off of the stories his friends had told him about the war and what they went through.]]> 2018-12-18 13:30:27 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315502933 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315510838 As stated earlier, the occasion for Goodnight Saigon is the Vietnam war. Its not really in response to it though, more in response to having friends ask him to song about the war to show other soldiers that there are people that care about what happened.]]> 2018-12-18 13:51:33 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315510838 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315522915 2018-12-18 14:17:46 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315522915 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315931310 The audience for the song is all other soldiers from the war, at times both living and dead.]]> 2018-12-19 16:46:35 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/315931310 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316223098 Goodnight Saigon was written for U.S. soldiers that fought in Vietnam.  Billy Joel wrote it when some of his friends (who at fought in the war) asked him to write a song about what happened in Vietnam, as a tribute to all the soldiers that went to war, whether they made it back or not.  While Billy Joel doesn't typically write political songs, he thought that he should write it so people could understand what happened over there and what it was like for them.
(Fun Fact: When Billy Joel performs this song on stage, he sings the chorus with U.S. soldiers and veterans.)]]> 2018-12-20 17:00:02 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316223098 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316226798 The song, as stated earlier, is from the perspective of a U.S. soldier from the Vietnam war. The subject is not the war itself, but what life was like during the war as a soldier. ]]> 2018-12-20 17:10:06 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316226798 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316228035 The overall feel of the song is sad. The author is not trying to outright make you sad, but more so try to tell you what soldiers went through during the war. This information though can be somewhat sad.]]> 2018-12-20 17:13:32 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316228035 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316436660 Joel uses the memories of his friends in "Goodnight Saigon" to tell a story of what life during the Vietnam war was like. Joel is effective in telling a story with his use of pathos and ethos.]]> 2018-12-21 16:55:31 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316436660 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316439451 Through out the song, Joel uses terms that are emotional for the audience that the songs was written for, and not so much for people that don't know what the song is about.  One of the first examples of this is when Joel sings "and we were so gung ho to lay down our lives" to explain how they thought the war would be a fun experience. He also sings "We held on to each other/ like brother to brother/ we promised our mothers we'd write." Joel uses that verse to explain how once they really got to the war, they only had each other to worry about, not so much writing letters to people hundreds of miles away. Joel's most noticeable use of pathos though, is in the lines "We would all go down together" and "Remember Charlie/ Remember Baker/ They left their childhood on every acre." The former is the chorus of the song, being used as a way of saying how the soldiers cared about each other. The latter is a line asking if other the audience (other soldiers) remember some of the people that they lost during the war.]]> 2018-12-21 17:10:19 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316439451 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316461858 Proving the credibility of this song is a bit more difficult since it is a story of others. Billy Joel uses the stories of his friends that went to war. He wrote the song based off of what they told him and they approved it once it was finished. This is shown in the lines "We met as soulmates on Parris Island/ we left as inmates from an asylum." Parris Island was one of the the bigger training bases for soldiers during the Vietnam war. It also has a reputation for being one of the most brutal training camps, causing people to not be able to handle the training that they had to go through. He also sings "and they were sharp/ as sharp as knives" and "we had no camera/ to shoot the landscape." America was severely unprepared for the war, and they enemy soldiers, in this case Viet Cong, were very smart, and had home field advantage.]]> 2018-12-21 19:18:57 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316461858 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316463660 The way that Billy Joel uses not only the lyrics, but also his use of pictures of soldiers in the background makes his use of pathos to explain what happened to soldiers during the war very effective.]]> 2018-12-21 19:33:02 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316463660 alexhamlin01 https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316477381 "Goodnight Saigon Lyrics."  Google search. Google, n.d. 20 Dec. 2018.
Jones, Morgan.  "Goodnight Saigon: Billy Joel’s Musical Epitaph to
the Vietnam War." Digital Commons. Touro Law, n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2018.]]> 2018-12-21 21:52:19 UTC https://padlet.com/alexhamlin01/w5vhgomz7k2w/wish/316477381