Leningrad

Victor was born The spring of '44 And never saw His father anymore The child of sacrifice Child of war Another son who never had A father after Leningrad Went off to school And learned to serve his state Follow the rules And drank his vodka straight The only way to live Was drown the hate The Russian life was very sad And such was life in Leningrad I was born in '49 A cold war kid in the McCarthy times Stop 'em at the 38th parallel Blast those yellow reds to hell Cold war kids were hard to kill Under their desks in an air raid drill Haven't they heard we won the war What do they keep on fighting for? Victor was sent To some red army town Served out his time Become a circus clown The greatest happiness He'd ever found Was making Russian children glad When children lived in Leningrad. The children lived in Levittown Hid in the shelters underground Til the soviets turned their ships around Torn the Cuban missiles down And in that bright October sun We knew our childhood days were done I watched my friends go off to war What do they keep on fighting for? 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. --- Leningrad - Billy Joel