Billy Joel, an American musician, first decided to pursue a full-time musical career, after seeing The Beatles on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. At the age of 16, Joel began recording with the Echoes in 1965. He later went solo, and after a few album releases, he released The Nylon Curtain which went to #7 on the charts due to the heavy airplay of singles, “Allentown” and “Pressure.” Nylon Curtain also consists of the song “Goodnight Saigon” which is about United States Marines training on Parris Island. In “Goodnight Saigon”, Billy Joel uses first person narrative, in order to express the brotherly bond between the soldiers that inevitably “would all go down together.”
Billy Joel uses many a poetry devices to convey his first person narrative story. Joel says, “And we held on to each other/ Like brother to brother” telling the audience that no matter what, the soldiers had each others back like true brothers would. He also states, “We met as soul mates on Parris Island” as if the solders were meant to be together. Throughout the song, Joel makes the group of soldiers one by stating “we” repeatedly. Joel uses objectification when he says, “They left their childhood on every acre” when he talks about Charlie and Baker and the fact they “Were so gung ho to lay down [their] lives.” Joel makes their childhood a concrete thing by stating that they left it on every acre, when in actuality, they left behind their entire past, to give themselves to the war and each other, likes brothers would.