Album Name : The Essential Billy Joel
Release Date : 2001-10-02
Song Duration : 4:02
Billy Joel Leningrad
VICTOR WAS BORN IN THE SPRING OF '44
AND NEVER SAW HIS FATHER ANYMORE
A CHILD OF SACRAFICE 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
AND RUSSIAN LIFE WAS VERY SAD
AND SUCH WAS LIFE IN LENINGRAD
I WAS BORN IN FORTY NINE
A COLD WAR KID IN MCCARTHY TIME
STOP'EM AT THE THIRTY-EIGHTH PARALLEL
BLAST THOSE YELLOW REDS TO HELL
COLD WAR KIDS WERE HARD TO KILL
UNDER THERE 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
CHILDREN LIVED IN LEVITTOWN
AND HID IN THE SHELTERS UNDERGROUND
TILL THE SOVIETS TURNED THEIR SHIPS AROUND
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 AND 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
