The Songs They Sang:  Oh, You Saigon Girls!

By Ron Wanttaja


Now listen pilots, unto me, and I'll tell you of my song,
When I left the shores of old Nha Trang and landed at Saigon.
As I walked down Flower Street, a fair maid I did meet,
She asked me please to see her home, she lived on Tu Do Street.

And it's hello, Chu Yen, my dear Chu Yen
Oh, you Saigon girls, can't you dance the polka?


Many songs of the pilots of the 20th century became known outside the aviator's ranks through the public media.  The British government released bowdlerized versions of songs like "Bless 'Em All" for radio play, "Stand to Your Glasses" was featured in aviation movies of the '30s, and similar songs were used in the glut of aviation movies in the post-war era.


Such publicity is lacking for the songs the pilots sang during the Vietnam War.   Moviemakers trying to evoke this era invariably choose pop and rock songs—especially the protest songs—of the 1960s.  This war seems to have what one author terms "A rock-and-roll soundtrack," with the songs sung by those who actually served (with the notable exception of "The Ballad of the Green Berets") being missing in action.


Pilot songs aren't solo pieces; they're intended to be sung in company with the aviators one flies with.   But technology progression in the later half of the 20th century was marked by advent of low-cost personal music devices.  Those "in country" during the Vietnam War could buy small transistor radios for a couple of dollars, or a small cassette player/recorder for a dollar or so more.  With the click of an earplug jack, anyone could have their own private soundtrack.  Did this bring about the demise of the aviator song?


Not hardly!  Young men doing dangerous jobs still met in their pilot lounges after the day's flying was done.  They still entertained themselves with songs about inept pilots, dangerous missions, those who had gone before them, and the idiots assumed to be running rampant in higher headquarters.  In addition to the Air Force, there were thousands of Army helicopter pilots, keeping the old traditions alive and building their own.  Even better, many of the songmakers have taken to the Internet to discuss their songs and market CDs.  Vietnam-era music is one of the most-available types.


The types of songs they sang were like the ones of earlier wars.  Some were directly from those other conflicts, often with new lyrics reflecting their own situations. 


Beside a Laotian waterfall, one bright and sunny day
Beside his shattered Thunderchief, the poor young pilot lay
His parachute hung from a tree, but he was not quite dead
As they gathered 'round him, these were the words he said:

"I'm going to that better land, where the motors always roar
Where the eggnogs grown on eggplants, in the quartermaster's store
There'll be apple pie and rock and rye, and the pilots go there when they die
In the U.S. Air Force heaven...


Others put new lyrics to pop and rock songs of the day.  "Going Downtown" was the euphemism for bombing heavily-defended Hanoi, and of course a modified version of the Petula Clark song wasn't far behind:


When you get up at two o'clock in the morning, you can bet you'll go...Downtown!
Shaking in your boots, you're sweating heavy all over, 'cause you've got to go...Downtown!
Smoke a pack of cigarettes before the briefing's over
Wishing you weren't bombing, wishing you were flying cover
It's safer that way....


The flak is much thicker there, you know you're biting your nails and you’re pulling your hair, you're going...
Downtown!  Where all the lights are bright!
Downtown!  You'd rather switch than fight!
Downtown! Hope you come home tonight—downtown, downtown....


The last category—well, let's just call it, "Old Standards."  Take our leadoff song, "Chu Yen," for example.  It follows the story of a pilot on R&R in Saigon who gets involved with a young woman and ends up hung-over and robbed.


The tale—and for that matter, the song—isn't unique to the Vietnam era.  A hundred years earlier, the woebegone pilot's great-great-grandfather was sailing in clipper ships, singing the chorus as...


And it's away you Santee, my dear Annie
Oh, you New York girls, can't you dance the polka?


"Saigon Girls" is only a slight reworking of the traditional sea chantey, "New York Girls"...same music, same story. 


In a sense, that's rather comforting.  Nineteenth-century sailors and airmen in Vietnam faced death every day, under poor living conditions and in isolation with their loved ones.  It's not surprising that the same sorts of themes pop up in the music they sang together.  Despite what the war protesters said about them, the pilots of Vietnam were no different from earlier generations of young men at sea or sent to war.


The clipper sailor learned his lesson, with "New York Girls" ending, "Don't ever fool around with gals—you're safer off Cape Horn!"  "Chu Yen" ends similarly, but with a fond thought of home


Well, I've come to this conclusion, all pilots need a rest,
But if you go to Saigon, your morals it will test.
Well, the moral of this story, don't be a sinner,
Stop going down to Saigon, try the Red Cross Recreation Center.

Goodbye, Chu Yen, farewell nuoc mam
I'm trading in my aching head, I'll try a doughnut dolly.
Please pass the cookies, I want a glass of Kool-Aid,
Oh, you Red Cross girls,  I want to dance the polka.
Oh, you U. S. girls, can't you dance the polka?


For More Information


Part 4:   Give me Operations

 


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