the people united will never be defeated. unfortunately people are noobs and insist on segregation and a hierarchical power structure. one day they will learn or die out and humanity will spread its wings and fly across the cosmos and take all the doomed life forms from space ship earth to new fresh worlds, bypassing entropy and short circuiting fate
My late mother, told me of my great Uncle Herman. He visited Alberta in the late 1930's. He returned to Germany. Later to die on the Russian front in 1943. This hits home! My grand father, on Hitlers Rise, forbade the speaking of German at the homestead. "We speak English! We are Canadian!" He took Canadian citizenship in 1936.
I'll never understand how this song wasn't a bigger deal. Some future generation is going to "discover" Al Stewart's songs and be in disbelief that he wasn't a superstar for the quality of songwriting and music he created.
I remember around the time this song came out I was reading Alexandr Solzhenitsyn’s trilogy, “Gulag Archipelago”. His vivid descriptions of survival an death in the labor camps of the Kolyma and elsewhere haunt me to this day. The last lines of this song allude to the prelude to this story,
I have seen Al Stewart live twice. It was my first concert many many years ago, I was warned that it would never be as good as the record I had played into the ground. It was so much better. 45 years later it is still still amazing music.
This is a classic folk song, performed by an artist with a great voice and a love of history. Have enjoyed Al's music for over 35 years, it is timeless!!!!
There's nobody like Al Stewart. His songs, albums and concerts have been a big part of my life since the late 1970's. If you haven't seen him "live," do!
That song is so beautiful, lyrically literate, and poetic. Any recorded version of it can't help be good. Bless you Al Stewart, kind and generous soul, and stirrer of many thoughts.... Your work is appreciated, and enjoyed by a next generation of wide-eyed honest enjoyers in this house.
The ability to put you in the shoes of the partisans and the whole mood of what was on it's own, the largest battle of all time, dwarfing the scale of the rest of WW2 combined is amazing. Use of lines like "growing like a promise" the "flames of the tigers are lighting the road" also historical references to Heinz Guderian and the vast emptiness of Russia and price that her people paid, against the Germans but almost even more so and ultimately against her own government when the war was over. Such a unique ability, even the tone of the music puts you in that place.
Means so much more to me now than when I first heard it as a student in the 1970s. Listened to an interview recently where Al described his lack of conventional academic success, and yet "somehow" managed to become an outstanding historian and lyricist. Beautiful, yet sad too.
Roads to Moscow has always torn at my heart but right now … Now … I'm working my way through Alexander Solzhenitsyn's "Gulag Archipelago." (Its depressing and 2100 pages) Last night I read about this very time in the gulags and the soldiers, heroes to Mother Russia who started pouring in to this frozen hell on Earth. The music is haunting because what happened was beyond cruel. There is no happy ending.
A wonderful description! I saw him at the Ambler Theater near Philadelphia in the 1990s and a few years ago at St. Ann Parish in Wilmington, Del. A total pro. "Two broken Tigers on fire in the night, flicker their souls to the wind..." Among the greatest lyrics ever written.
I was lucky enough to have been the accompanying still photographer during an interview of Al Stewart in 1997 (?) when he was touring Canada in support of "Year of the Cat". He shared a great anecdote about this song. Due to its length, it didn't necessarily receive a lot of airplay - except in certain areas, which tended to have a lot of FM radio listeners. There were a number of those in Canada. Al Stewart and his band hadn't expected to get calls for "Road to Moscow" on that tour. To their great surprise, the first Canadian audience - in Montreal I think - were very disappointed when it wasn't played, and they made their disappointment heard! So the band learned the song as quickly as they could, and it got added to the playlists from then on. This performance is a good one - but I prefer the live one in 1977! I was in the orchestra pit with my camera, and both Mr. Stewart and I were a lot younger!
I saw him in concert in the late 70s in Boston. This song was the highlight of the show as it had a gigantic slide show to go with it. Absolutely amazing.
I'm so glad there are more of Al Stewart's songs. It brings back a time when I was grounded and couldn't play with my friends, so I would turn the radio and watch my friends play all day long. Those good all days. lol Thanks for sharing one of the many beautiful songs of Mr Stewart. Can't help liking that Spanish guitarist.
Yes, THIS is a great song! Such a beautiful tune, and has such a great story and melody! Wow!! To be part of this chorus would be simply fabulous! They crossed over the border, the hour before dawn!! Simply precious! Steve. Ah, ahh, ahhhhhhh!!!
Always appreciated this song and somewhere along my aging process linked it to Cat Stevens. Glad I stumbled across this. Now, at 82, I could use the lyrics scrolling below.
This was a great version of what is basically a simple folk song of an epic battle that took the lives of millions of civilians & soldiers on both sides. And a song that to me also sounds nostalgically romantic. Always one of my 20 favorite songs. And I had several relatives lose their lives in the war fighting with Italian regiments alongside the Germans. They never made it back to Lucania in Southern Italy.
Al seems to have a soul connection with history? It's as if he were there a gnosis of moments in time. This particular song takes me there too and haunts me emotionally yet is sublime to the point of the shedding of tears. The Road to Moscow continues still as war never ends!
jiva1955 Well articulated about a soul connection with history. With this song, Nostradamus, and many others Stewart has written, I get the impression of a bard spinning out a full history in rhyme and rhythm so compelling as to be literally unforgettable.
jiva1955 You stated my feelings precisely -- which is amazing in itself. Is there a link among us similar souls? I heard this song exactly once while driving in L.A. in 1976 and was instantly and permanently changed. So many of the lyrics have never left my memory since that day. The intersection of historical tragedy and haunting music -- and as you say, the war never ends. (Patty Griffin: "Cold As It Gets")
Absolutely magnificent. I have just heard this song for the very first time today and I know it will stand among my favourites for the rest of my days. Lyrically and musically exceptional piece. The choir gives me chills. Truly well done.
Oh...you must seek out Al Stewart music. I had most of his studio albums now replaced with CDs. Seems a bit lost in digitization, but perhaps it is the nostalgic memory of a teenager.
The recording is from the Nov 2001 Grace Catherdral Al Festival in Novemeber 2001. It was a weekend of activities and two concerts. As a member of the that audience, many of which were members of the Al Stewart Mailing List from all over the place, I can say we were where just amazed! There were 250 of us that night. The sound of the audience may also have been muted because we were sitting in the nave of the cathedral with the pipe organ pipes around us.
My wife and daughter and I were there, too...on an evening when the cathedral organist joined in "Roads to Moscow"...the performance was mesmerizing...
The album version is one of my top shelf songs, but this acoustic version was great, as was the lead guitar. I also was amazed by the audience silence at the end of that powerful song, but I took it differently. I, like the rest of the audience I believe, was hanging on for the end of that final note. (He really needed a violin player!) I took it as a great compliment to Al Stewart for the audience not to prematurally 'step on' that haunting ending note.
Wow - this brings back some memories. Listening in Victoria to good old KZOK 102.5 Seattle coming across the water. Past, Present and Future was my introduction to FM album rock ... and I can still remember finding my way to Bellingham's Western Washington University gym to hear Maria Muldaur open for Al Stewart there. Intelligent insightful lyrics performed acoustically by a great balladeer - this really was from the best music era. I don't mind Year of the Cat and Time Passages, but neither comes close to PP&F for through and through brilliance. Thanks for sharing.
Hello I really do appreciate you for being a big fan thank you for your wonderful comments on my post it really means a lot to me.I sincerely hope you never stop listening to my music…..❤️❤️❤️
Surely the greatest historical song of all time. Al's work includes dozens of songs as good as this, yet all you ever hear of him on UK radio are the 'big three' - Year of the Cat, On the Border and Time Passages. BBC - you are pathetic.
***** I second your nomination. Roads to Moscow, and Al's work in general, is aging quite well. At least the BBC plays those 3. In California, classic rock radio plays only YOTC. (Although out here, listening to music via radio is utterly passe. Pandora, baby.) In December, we saw him perform in Berkeley. He's touring with Dave Nachmanoff, an incredible guitarist. For one number, Al brought out one of his daughters (!) to play along as well. After the concert, he schmoozed with admirers out in the lobby, posing for group photos, etc. Nice guy!
Please. Their interference in our last election is, by any rational definition, an act of war -- and one utterly unprovoked by us. Putin and his kleptocratic oligarchs may well have succeeded at what decades of communist regimes could not: destroying the USofA. You are beyond deluded if you think this lot are not "bad guys."
I have not heard this song in decades. No radio station around me ever plays it, including satellite radio. Stuart’s finest. Glad to know there are still some people around besides me who appreciate this.
I heard that song once a million years ago; once, but I got it or most of it. I've been looking for it ever since and found it tonight. I'll play it over and over. My father was in the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) ground crew during WWII in the Soviet invasion and surrendered to the US Army. My grandfather was a civilian German scientist and forced to labor in the Soviet Union for five years after the war. I was born there and we went to Canada. I was a Cold War American Soldier in Germany along the Fulda Gap in 1976-'78 and served 37 years in a couple of wars, now 62 y.o. and a cop, barber etc. War is cruel, an evil waste of resources and lives.
Thank you for saying that, and for having served, both. The myths of glory and valor are necessary to instill the willingness of the young to do what their country may need to call them to do. It's a tragic manipulation and exploitation, and a total travesty when we abuse their trust to send them to war for anything short of absolute necessity. We need voices like yours to tell the truth that so many prefer not to hear. Glad you survived; far too many did not. We are all in debt to all of you, and will be forever.
I will never forget the first time that I heard this song, it was on the Year of the Cat tour.Al and his whip crack band played Woolsey Hall here in New Haven,Connecticut on the Yale campus.Back in those days it was highly unusual that they allowed any rock shows at Woolsey Hall,I was in awe of his talent and gift for storytelling along with an incredibly tight band.I seem to remember that there was a video screen behind the band with historical views of Moscow and the war during the winter.At the time I was just a teenager and I was mesmerized by this song and the performance of it.
The ending of the song seems to be inspired by "One Day In The Life of Ivan Denisovich." If you read the book, you know that his "crime" was to be captured by the Germans, then escaping.
This is a Great Song! Beautiful Harmonies and wow, what a thrill to sing on stage together with Al Stewart!! I would LOVE to see this Live!! Simply Wonderful! Peace and Love!! Steve
Me alegra saber que todavía uno de mis cantantes favorito en décadas anteriores es capaz de hacer grandes versiones en directo de sus mejores temas. Al menos en esta ocasión.
Hello I really do appreciate you for being a big fan thank you for your wonderful comments on my post it really means a lot to me.I sincerely hope you never stop listening to my music…..❤️❤️❤️
Hello I really do appreciate you for being a big fan thank you for your wonderful comments on my post it really means a lot to me.I sincerely hope you never stop listening to my music…..❤️❤️❤️
That was a great version, even better to him laughing at the over loud chorus, who did a great job! Such a haunting and gripping song. Always has been one of my top favorites. Thank you Al Stewart for this.
Those are some impressive backing vocals! I'm not sure I agree w/ hippiemotel that this is *the* very best rendition here, but it is definitely a keeper. Decades later, and I still can't have this on as background muzak -- it commands full attention, and full immersion, or nothing. I'd heard rumors, noises to the effect that Mr Stewart doesn't like doing this live, but if that's true, he's sure doing a darn good job of faking it here. Thanks so much for sharing it.
