Saigon

Annotation — Australian & New Zealand Songs

Spare Change, obscure power pop group from Adelaide, Australia. They relocated to Melbourne, Victoria, Australia in 1975, and recorded this in 1977. But the band broke up. Lead vocalist, John Dowler, went on to join Australian power pop group Young Modern. This album was released after they broke up, on a Melbourne, Australian record label.12 It featured the song "Saigon" (Cleopatra Records # CLP 202) about a Vietnam veteran feeling nostalgic about the fun times in Saigon, possibly visiting prostitutes, although that's not explicitly stated: "girls with the slits... walk the bright streets at night in Saigon... everyone sinned in Saigon". But now the war is over "nobody has any fun". As time passed, the vet travelled the world from Paris, to Berlin, China, Egypt, and Afghanistan. He then tried to get back into Vietnam, noting that Saigon changed its name: "they say its called Ho Chi Minh City", but they wouldn't let him in. The narrator also criticised the justification for the war: "so much for the Domino Theory" - that the collapse of South Vietnam into the control of the communist north would trigger the collapse of democracy in other countries and threaten the US - the idea of which came from President Eisenhower, during a press conferences on 7 April 1954.1 Sources1wallabybeat.blogspot.com: Spare changeyoung modernparachute big↩2vk.com↩

Annotation by Justin A. Brummer

Lyrics

English: The killers gone from old Saigon / But it doesn't seem so long ago / When the girls with the slits and the dresses so sweetly walk the bright street at night in Saigon... / Soldiers... as girl in the bar spoke in French / Nobody thought they'd grow old over there / Nobody used any sense / But now you say its growing so dram and dreary / And nobody has any fun / I remember back then you called it low life and dirty, and just everyone sinned in Saigon / Oh not like it was in the 30s when everyone tried to get on / It was ruled by the winds and the tropic chins of the colonial guard in Saigon / I've been down and out in Paris, I've been boogieing in Berlin... / I fell in love with Shanghai too... / From the Cal to the Bay of Bengal / From the pyramids of Egypt to the Great China Wall / I was captured in Kabul with Timothy Leary / And the whole of Kolkata I can see it so clearly / They went too far... / I heard the thunder of guns from Hanoi / I just had to find out for myself now / Now they wouldn't let me in anymore / Now they say its called Ho Chi Minh City / They play dice with their friends in the North / So much for the Domino Theory / Oh how the fortunes changed hands in Saigon / Oh no it's not quite the same as the old days now the black market has gone underground / Those stocking are now black pajamas / I bet they all look the same in Saigon

Notes

Recorded 1977, released 1979.

About the artist

Spare Change - power pop group from Adelaide, South Australia, which moved to Melbourne in 1975 and recorded this album in 1977 before breaking up; singer John Dowler went on to Young Modern.

Themes

Vet · Saigon · Prostitution · Ho Chi Minh City · Domino Theory · Eisenhower

In collections

Australian & New Zealand Songs