Leningrad

Viktor was born

In the spring of ’44

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

Cold War kids were hard to kill

Under their desks in an air-raid drill

Haven’t they heard that 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

Hid in the shelters underground

And 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

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