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Words and MusicCynthia's Column May 2005
Like a beast with his horn I have torn everyone that reached out to me. -- Leonard Cohen
Everyone can see that you're blown apart. -- Paul Simon
She's an artist. She don't look back." --Bob Dylan In "Goodnight, Saigon" Billy Joel wrote not just the best song about the American war in Vietnam, but some of the best writing in any form about that war.
And prayed Christ with all of our might. We had no cameras to shoot the landscape We passed the hash pipe and played our Doors tapes And it was dark, so dark at night And we held onto each other Like brother to brother We promised our mothers we'd write. And we would all go down together We said we'd all go down together Remember Charlie, remember Baker They left their childhood on every acre And who was wrong and who was right It didn't matter in the thick of the fight We held the day in the palm of our hand They ruled the night and the night seemed to last as long as Six weeks on Paris Island We held the coastline They held the high land 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 And we would all go down together We said we'd all go down together Yes, we would all go down together --Billy Joel Cynthia Whitcomb is president of Willamette Writers, and has had 29 of her screenplays produced. She is author of The Writers' Guide to Writing Your Screenplay and The Writers' Guide to Selling Your Screenplay. She teaches screenwriting classes at Portland State University.and through Willamette Writers. |