Al Stewart - Roads To Moscow

Al Stewart - Roads To Moscow



They crossed over the border the hour before dawn


Moving in lines through the day


Most of our planes were destroyed on the ground where they lay


Waiting for orders we held in the wood - word from the front never came


By evening the sound of the gunfire was miles away



Ah, softly we move through the shadows, slip away through the trees


Crossing their lines in the mists in the fields on our hands and our knees


And all that I ever was able to see


The fire in the air glowing red silhouetting the smoke on the breeze



All summer they drove us back through the Ukraine


Smolensk and Viasma soon fell


By autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel


Closer and closer to Moscow they came - riding the wind like a bell


General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill



Winter brought with her the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads


Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground while the sky filled with snow


And all that I ever was able to see


The fire in the air glowing red silhouetting the snow on the breeze



In the footsteps of Napoleon the shadow figures stagger through the winter


Falling back before the gates of Moscow,


Standing in the wings like an avenger


And far away behind their lines the partisans are stirring in the forest


Coming unexpectedly upon their outposts, growing like a promise


You'll never know, you'll never know


Which way to turn, which way to look, you'll never see us


As we're stealing through the blackness of the night,


You'll never know, you'll never hear us


And the evening sings in a voice of amber, the dawn is surely coming


The morning roads leads to Stalingrad, and the sky is softly humming



Two broken Tigers on fire in the night flicker their souls to the wind


We wait in the lines for the final approach to begin


It's been almost four years that I've carried a gun


At home it will almost be spring


The flames of the Tigers are lighting the road to Berlin



Ah, quickly we move through the ruins that bow to the ground


The old men and children they send out to face us, they can't slow us down


And all that I ever was able to see


The eyes of the city are opening now it's the end of the dream



I'm coming home, I'm coming home,


Now you can taste it in the wind, the war is over


And I listen to the clicking of the train wheels as we roll across the border


And now they ask me of the time


When I was caught behind their lines and taken prisoner


"They only held me for a day, a lucky break", I say;


They turn and listen closer


I'll never know, I'll never know


Why I was taken from the line and all the others


To board a special train and journey deep into the heart of holy Russia


And it's cold and damp in the transit camp, and the air is still and sullen


And the pale sun of October whispers the snow will soon be coming


And I wonder when I'll be home again and the morning answers "Never"


And the evening sighs and the steely Russian skies go on forever