| | Leningrad Lyrics Artist(Band):Billy Joel
And never saw his father anymore A child of sacrifice, a child of war Another son who never had a father after Leningrad Went off to school and learned to serve the state Followed the rules and drank his vodka straight The only way to live was drown the hate A Russian life was very sad And such was life in Leningrad I was born in '49 A cold war kid in McCarthy time Stop 'em at the 38th Parallel Blast those yellow reds to hell And cold war kids were hard to kill Under their desk in an air raid drill Haven't they heard we won the war What do they keep on fighting for? Viktor was sent to some Red Army town Served out his time, became a circus clown The greatest happiness he'd ever found Was making Russian children glad And children lived in Leningrad But children lived in Levittown And hid in the shelters underground Until the Soviets turned their ships around And tore the Cuban missiles down And in that bright October sun We knew our childhood days were done And I watched my friends go off to war What do they keep on fighting for? And so my child, when I came to this place To meet him eye to eye and face to face He made my daughter laugh, then we embraced We never knew what friends we had Until we came to Leningrad If you find some error in Leningrad Lyrics, would you please submit your corrections to me? Thank You. Review about Leningrad Nice for the history | Reviewer: BW | 9/12/09 Billy Joel brought out a nice bit of history with this work; many Americans had only briefly or never heard of the Siege of Leningrad and what it cost and meant to the USSR. The battles fought at Leningrad, Stalingrad, and Moscow can only be partially understood from the American experience when we try to comprehend what Gettysburg and Vicksburg meant to the U.S. population in our own civil war -- in other words, the three pivotal battles in the USSR were "make or break" events that defined that generation's pride in their way of life, notwithstanding whether specific aspects were good, bad, or indifferent. Billy Joel points out the human cost of such events for both the generation that endured them and subsequent generations. Bravo! Wonderful | Reviewer: Narumi | 6/1/09 First, to Olga: While that may be true, Billy could quite possibly be talking about the American view of the Soviet Union. You see, when we hear that, we were pretty much taught to think "Evil Commies! Those poor people need resuuuuued!" So even if we don't mean to, I'm sure a lot of us do sometimes... especially if you were from Cold War times. =/ Now, I'm NOT from Cold War times, but I'm really touched by this song. Not only because of the general message, but because Billy Joel was one of the first big American stars to go over to Russia for music and stuff.... I say that's pretty darn awesome. a true perspective on how media represents a group of people | Reviewer: JK | 4/2/09 I migh not be from this era, or from the era of Billy Joel's youth and height of his popularity, but I listened to this song on dad's Storm Front CD the other day, I almost cried at this song, it is real touching. and I can't help but think that this song could also be linked to the wars we have today, such as Iraq and Afghanistan, and how the media portrays them as evil ruthless sadystic killers when if you think about it, there are lots of people there who are just like you or I. Great song........great song.... Some random reviewer | Reviewer: Anonymous | 3/12/09 This song is just so... touching. I don't really know why, but it does. Maybe it's the music itself. I don't know. It's kind of like the Top Gun Anthem, in that the music is capable, by itself, evoking strong emotions. It's as strong as the feeling of love that one gets by listening to the chorus of Livin' On A Prayer, but accomplished not by the words so much as the tune. This is truly one of the greatest songs ever, in my opinion. I really can't give a good reason why, but it just is. Beautiful | Reviewer: Greg | 1/22/09 This song really speaks so much. Really. Tolerance, brotherhood, the sad truth of war. It covers it all in a sweet and sad, yet triumphant tone. And Olga- I think when he says "A Russian life was very sad" he isn't referring to all Russians, just Viktor. But he does stretch it out a little with the next line. I can relate to this song allot | Reviewer: TBoneTony | 12/25/08 Even though I am not a child of the Cold War times, I am more of a child of the Videogame and Anime generation. All I see on the news is people who attack videogamers and Anime all because they fear that violent videogames and Anime would turn kids into violent people. But I am a child who loves Videogames and Anime, and I am not really violent at all. Sorry if it may be hard to understand but this song speaks allot of feelings and emotions to me, and even though I try to reach out and help people understand the Videogame and Anime generation, I always come across people who won't listen to me even though I am trying to tell them the good things about videogames and Anime. Much like how there was the fear of Comic books of the 50's and 60's, at that same time there was the fear of Communism and the Cold War that were allot more real than the fear of Comic Books. And today this decade when there was the fear of Terrorism and at the same time the fear of violent videogames... It speaks allot about how society's fear of people who are different than us has allot to do with political propaganda than it does for the real people on the other side of the political fence or wall. Billy Joel and others who were the first ones to reach out to the Solviet people were treated harshly by those who never understood them. Much is the same with the people who reach out to what we as society fear the most are treated harshly by the people of mainstream society. Also I would love to make videogames one day and some of the themes of the song Leningrad is what I would love to develop in my videogames that I one day make. American Reviewer | Reviewer: Joe | 8/28/08 I enjoy this song a lot and I agree that it is an outsiders limited take on life in Leningrad. I would encourage Europeans to listen to the song "Allentown" by Billy Joel. He paints a very bleak picture from an insiders perspective as well. Americans struggle with the idea that personal liberty and freedom are not as highly prized in other areas of the world. This idea is almost a religion to us. While we would see Leningrad as a sad place in time, many Eastern Europeans might not. Nor would Iraqis and many more. We must learn that what is best for us is not best for the rest. Perspective is incredibly different all the way on the other side of the world, and that works both ways. Past Life Memories? | Reviewer: Irene | 8/19/08 When I heard the song the first time, the tune evoked unbelievably sad, desperate feelings in me, and I'm not referring to the lyrics. It is a beautiful piece of music and I would love to know if Billy composed this himself, or if it is an old piece of music. No contemporary song has ever moved me this much. to Olga | Reviewer: rhea | 2/27/08 I understand what you mean, Olga. Having grown up in the GDR and living in the United Germany now I know how it feels to hide under desks in air raid drills as well as laugh with Red Army officers. My dad worked for the GDR army, and we spent Christmas at the army base with some Red Army people sometimes. I have never before and never after encountered so many adults so absolutely attentive to us children, so patient and so glad to play with us for hours and hours. Maybe they missed their own families back home, but I have always believed it to be a Russian thing, to value children this much. Two things though that I would want to add to your statement, though. First, I know Russian life was different, and I believe for many positively different in Soviet times. I very much believe that it felt like that - it did for many of us East Germans too, and we had it much easier than you after the fall of socialism due to West Germany. Seeing my father, a communist believer, losing all his hope in the goodness of people and the meaning of comradeship and trust - seeing him give up on happiness in life - was a hard lesson for me to learn as a teenager. What prevents me from having any hard feelings is though, that it could unfortunately not have been any other way. True, they could have gone differently - more slowly - about it, but the truth is that the communist experiment failed because people are people and power corrupts the most idealist foundations to violence and deceit. Second, propaganda or no, Billy Joel did something few artists did at the time. He was willing to understand. Now, it is a very human thing to do to argue from your own perspective. Just look at current Irak movies. The are openly opposed to the war, but the way they argue is not "poor Irakis, look how they suffer", but "poor American, look what the war does to our boys and to our American self understanding". I would argue it is not much different with argument from the Russian or any other perspective in the world. The point is that people have to be willing to accept that they have a limited perspective, and to be willing to change. But of course, where else would they start but at their own point of view and evolve from there. This is Billy Joel's great achievement: to reach out. So he certainly painted an well meant but untrue image of Russian life, as he painted a very limited image of cold war American, I am sure. The point is that he was willing to paint at all. discovering lenningrad | Reviewer: Anonymous | 1/25/08 i always weep a little, maybe because it was the end of the cold war in during reagan´s time. for 20 years or so everyone around the world lived the threat of possible nuclear holocaust, and that was a REAL threat. Maybe its not just the story itself that portrays how normal people were in both American and Soviet sides. There was a propaganda view that Soviets and communism were the evil of the world and then this stopped, fortunately for all. Even before Reagan, Biily attended at a concert at Lennigrad, opposing the restrictions and prohibitions on the US for Americans or others to travel to USSR, those who did were put on a black list and listed as COMMIES, this concert was recorded in the best of Billys performance ever, called KOHUEP (live at lennigrad).These actions like other artists promoted the general feeling that the world was tired of waking up and not knowing if there was going to be nuclear winter outside the house. Thats why we cry... Review By Pages: 1 2 Review the song Leningrad The area is only for review, if you want to submit the lyrics or the corrections of the lyrics, please click the link at the end of the lyrics.  Download "Billy Joel" Music | |
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