Viktor is a real person Billy met when he performed in the USSR in 1987. Yes he had a sad life but the message at the end is uplifting. We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad
What I love about Billy Joel is how he changes his voice on different songs but the outcome is always the same, a great crystal clear voice singing devastating lyrics
Victor had a reunion with Billy Joel when he visited the United States in 2015 to see Joel’s concert at Madison Square Garden. A beautiful song with brilliant lyrics. One of my favorites of his.
It really does have a positive ending with Billy and Viktor becoming friends. This is a true story. Check out the actual video which displays this story. Thanks for the reaction. Didn’t mean to bring you down.
My favorite Billy Joel song. Heck, one of my favorite songs period. You cannot listen to it without feeling deeply within your soul that, in spite of all the schemes and manipulations of those who use us from their seats of power, the Human Family is but one. Beyond ideologies, religions and artificially created national boundaries. In all things which really matter and make us human we are one, facing together the vastness of time and space.
I always tear-up when I hear this song. In the lyrics he talks of Victor making his daughter laugh- this is what actually happened when Billy toured there. I think you might like to see the official video - this is where you will see Billy meet Victor with his young daughter.
Look for the positive in the song Harri. The real message is despite the differences between governments we are the same and just want to be friends with each other and live in peace. Listen again and you’ll realise the uplifting message.
This song came after the cold war had ended, and travel was opened up from the United States into Russia. Billy toured Russia with his daughter and his time there is where the inspiration for this song came from
It was released two years before the end of the Cold War. Which ended in December of 91 when the Soviet Union dissolved. I know the history well as I spent 10 of my childhood years watching my dad "man a post" in the 70's and 80's less then 120 km's from the Iron Curtain. I then enlisted in the Marine Corps from 86-90, though I served in the U.S. only. My dad spent 15 of his 26 years guarding against a continuation of WW2 that the Soviet Union (the State, not so much the people) always seemed to want to start back up. Anyways, it is a beautiful song and Billy's voice is just amazing as is his custom...
My parents were born in '49, like Billy Joel. Our families were military & foreign service so the cold war was perhaps much more real to us than others. Even now. This song always makes me weep though. This and Sting's Russians.
30 years ago, I purchased the Laserdisc "Storm Front" from Billy Joel. Basically, a video album of of the music. This was my first year in college, single, having lived through the fall of the Soviet union, and THIS song captured me as my most absolute favorite song on the disk. I had never heard it before until I watched that Laserdisc As a 19 year old, my room mate noticed I was a bit teary eyed, and asked what was going on..as I never got like this. I played him this song, and he too was touched by it as well! Now, here I am married, and I have just adopted an 8 year old boy from Bulgaria several months ago, and his name... Victor! I had sort of forgotten about this song over the years until I was thumbing through my record collection and saw this laserdisc in it, and had to play it again, and it hit me emotionally even moreso. Bulgaria, was a soviet country as well, although my son is young enough he never lived in communist times, he did loose his parents. Never would I have known when I heard this song the first time that I would adopt a son from eastern Europe by that name!
Harri's reactions stimulate analysis of music I have heard many times but never really listened too. This is another one, and now I have seen and heard the lyrics and I am morose. I grew up around my family elders who all had fought in WW2 and Korea, we are Patriots and proud. I remember my older cousin coming back from 'nam in his uniform all spiffed up with a chest full of ribbons and how proud I was of him. I went in as soon as I turned 17 with my old man's signature to get out of my town. It was still the cold war era, I remember duck and cover cover as a kid. I eventually retired. I recall my cousin often, the last time I saw him he had long ratty hair, ratty dirty clothes and no teeth long before I knew what homeless vets were. He lived in a small camper trailer in the woods, and died in that little trailer not too long after I had seen him show up at a family get together where I remember he didn't interact with anyone much, and I saw his eyes, a lifetime of pain in a glance. Today I saw some men killed by a drone that dropped a grenade on them while they were sleeping in a shallow fighting position, it woke them up long enough for them to realize they were done for, their foxhole became the grave they had dug for themselves, and the drone operator watched and recorded and broadcast the moments for all of us to see. Where I once was enthusiastic and stimulated by the patriotism that motivates us to want to go kill others before they kill us to protect our country and family, now I am sickened at the thought of it. The politicians sicken me. The military industrial complex sicken me. The oligarchs who manipulate the business and politics that drive one countries men against another for perpetual profit at the cost of their life blood sicken me and I realize once again how manipulated people are by all of it. This song reminds me of all of it and I feel is loss. I'm glad Billy met Victor, the end gives us some hope that one day all people will say no. No, we will not go along with this insanity any longer.
I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1986, my father was still in the Air Force at the time (he had served for 16 months as a Door Gunner in Vietnam 66-7). His father had served in the Army and was wounded on D-Day. Both of them talked to me and prayed that I would never have to jump into a h I t Landing Zone or onto a beach with the world exploding all around me. As luck would have it, I never saw combat during my time in. The song is about two hardened and indoctrinated people coming together and finding out that besides their differences that there was common ground on which they could become friends. Billy's voice is just so commanding in this song that is is included in my everyday playlist. Check out "Down Easter Alexa"... Great, great, great song by Billy...
Sadly, power hungry despots just keep never ending wars alive. Leave it to the genius of Billy Joel to weave a story like this from someone he met. Great request Jami. Nice reaction Harri 🌺✌️
I love your comment, its so true. It reminds me of something one of my favorite history professors said in college. He said, “To those in power, there’s no profit in peace”. It really does speak to the fact that the governments and leaders of the world will always bang the drums of war as long as it keeps the money rolling in.
I'm really sorry that's what Harry took from the song. Yes, in many ways it's full of sorrow, but from out of that sorrow are born as well understanding, acceptance, wisdom, brotherhood and compassion. A measure of inner peace. And so, out of the sorrow we get some joy too. It's like a bitter pill which is good for your soul. For me, while I understand why Harry would feel like he does, it's quite the opposite: I listen to it all the time.
I just discovered this gem about when you did. The music video shows footage of Billy and his family going to Leningrad, and he and Victor hanging out. Beautiful song about war and friendship.
Unless my memory is wrong, Billy Joel was the 1st American artist allowed to tour or play in Russia after the end of the cold war. He wrote this after actually meeting the man discussed and being Billy wrote a song that does express the sadness of growing up during the cold war (both sides), but the hope that NOW maybe things can be different.
This tells an amazing story of 2 people growing up in the same era, but in different worlds and coming to meet each other with kindness and love…when in childhood they were taught to hate each other.
I hope you watch the official video on your own time. It's very moving and shows historical clips to provide context, also features Billy and his baby daughter at the time actually meeting Viktor. It's actually very uplifting. This was during the Cold War, a very scary and tense time. And it just goes to show that Americans and Russians really did not (and should not) have to be enemies.
The song is about the human connection. The world would be a much better place without political ambition that sends young people to war and their death. I personally know the cost having lost my nephew in Iraq. Young men and women die because old men and women have immoral thirst for power. The song is reassuring that most people, like Viktor and Billy, have a true human connection and that can overcome the political thirst for power if we connect.
Actually Billy was not so very removed.....he was as I am a child born in 1949 and we had air raid drills in school. Get under your desk and put your hands over the back of your neck. The nightmares that gave me and I am sure so many others. I love this song...
I understand the story, and that Billy Joel actually met Viktor. But I'm in my sixties. This takes me back. Here we are also, though, as you mentioned, with regard to Russia and Ukraine. You have a kind heart, Harri. It makes you sad because you're a good person.
Mr HarriBest, its because you are an enlightened soul that you have been effected by this beautiful song called Lenningrad. I think it came out in 1990 or 91. You are a person who feels empathy and care for other sentient beings, which is why you were moved by the lyrics. It is a beautiful place where you are and you can effect many, many people in your life time! Embrace this wonderful person that you are. How ever I must warn you, that it is a lonely road.
I was born about 12 years after the Cuban Missle Crisis and being on the brink of nuclear war. My parents were teenagers and told me about it. Years later on September 11, 2001 I thought of the line, “In that bright October sun we knew our childhood days were done”. Replace “September” with October and it describes exactly how I felt that day at 27 years old.
It's a great song. For a generation east and west were divided, and told to hate and fear. This song points out, ordinary people don't want to do that. It was quite joyous when the iron curtain was torn down. Let's hope that the current conflict is an aberration.
All of us in that age - Soviets and Americans were forced to hate each other. Good to hear a little cheer for those on the other side. None of us wanted to be there. MCPO SS ret
Great song with an uplifting message. Not sure how sadness can be the takeaway from this? The sad part we already know, opression on the Russian side, and fear on the US side (hide under the desks) of the cold war becoming hot. What the song ultimately brings to the table though is the positive; that the people in those countries , at least in the US and Russia, can sometimes connect on a human level depite the politics of the governments.
It’s too long to react to, but you have to watch the double DVD/BluRay set about his tour in the USSR. And yes, still the USSR. He was the first western performer to do such a tour there.
The siege of Leningrad was really brutal. He barely scratches the surface of that in his song, but i agree, it is sad. The song starts out sad, but it gets better at the end. Two Cold War kids meet and find their commonality. You are not at all selfish for being glad that you missed the Cuban Missile Crisis. That was scary, and way after the fact we learned how bad it really was. Your generation has its own scary crap to worry about. Good luck. The longer I spent in the military the more antiwar I became. We need better leaders who have the mental ability to think of better ways to contain autocrats and dictators. You should listen to this song again, and focus on the part about two Cold War kids who meet and find their own reality outside the propaganda each side spews to the public. Victor made Billy's daughter laugh. What are we fighting for?
I don't think it's a sad story, it's just what life was there in this period (as Billy himself says in the song), so it's a song that is helpful to understand the social issues of that big part of the world. Then the end of the story told in the song is a happy one, with the discover of true friendship.
In the late 40s and early 50s, They had regular air raid drills in our part of the U.S. When you heard the sirens you would get under your desk. Of course, this was to protect you from a nuclear blast. LOL.
...and this is the official video others had mentioned: ruclips.net/video/LgD_-dRZPgs/видео.html and this is footage of the concert he gave in Leningrad in 1987: ruclips.net/video/C9D50PZXIN4/видео.html
You can also hear that he was trying to write the music in the style of Russian music, the piano melody and chords, the mood of it, was definitely an attempt to sound like their music, it certainly doesnt sound American like his other music, no rythm & blues or soul feel to this piece, more like army music
I feel bad for the people of Russia who have no choice in what their leaders decide. They are dying for a corrupt government that cares as little about their lives as they do the enemies. There are evil people in the army that invaded the Ukraine, but we need to remember that not everyone forced into that fight wanted it.
Viktor is a real person Billy met when he performed in the USSR in 1987. Yes he had a sad life but the message at the end is uplifting. We never knew what friends we had until we came to Leningrad
Victor passed away and his brother gave his ashes to Billy Joel. Billy said this in an interview I heard on Sirius xm.
@@dragonreader3817 Viktor isn't dead. He's alive and on social media.
That last line really chokes me up. I have spent time in both Ukraine and Russia, and what’s going on now is heartbreaking.
There is a film on Joel's tour of Russia in 1987, meeting Victor & singing this song in Leningrad.
Lots of great events in that film.
What I love about Billy Joel is how he changes his voice on different songs but the outcome is always the same, a great crystal clear voice singing devastating lyrics
Absolutely agree, what a singer/songwriter
Victor had a reunion with Billy Joel when he visited the United States in 2015 to see Joel’s concert at Madison Square Garden. A beautiful song with brilliant lyrics. One of my favorites of his.
It really does have a positive ending with Billy and Viktor becoming friends. This is a true story. Check out the actual video which displays this story. Thanks for the reaction. Didn’t mean to bring you down.
You must be Jami A. If so, your taste in music is incredible!
My favorite Billy Joel song.
Heck, one of my favorite songs period. You cannot listen to it without feeling deeply within your soul that, in spite of all the schemes and manipulations of those who use us from their seats of power, the Human Family is but one. Beyond ideologies, religions and artificially created national boundaries. In all things which really matter and make us human we are one, facing together the vastness of time and space.
Goodnight Saigon is another war song that he was asked to write by Viet Nam veterans - also amazing and also tears your heart apart
I always tear-up when I hear this song. In the lyrics he talks of Victor making his daughter laugh- this is what actually happened when Billy toured there. I think you might like to see the official video - this is where you will see Billy meet Victor with his young daughter.
Have the same swell of emotion too. Joel is truly one of the greatest songsmiths.
Look for the positive in the song Harri. The real message is despite the differences between governments we are the same and just want to be friends with each other and live in peace. Listen again and you’ll realise the uplifting message.
This song came after the cold war had ended, and travel was opened up from the United States into Russia. Billy toured Russia with his daughter and his time there is where the inspiration for this song came from
It was released two years before the end of the Cold War. Which ended in December of 91 when the Soviet Union dissolved. I know the history well as I spent 10 of my childhood years watching my dad "man a post" in the 70's and 80's less then 120 km's from the Iron Curtain. I then enlisted in the Marine Corps from 86-90, though I served in the U.S. only. My dad spent 15 of his 26 years guarding against a continuation of WW2 that the Soviet Union (the State, not so much the people) always seemed to want to start back up.
Anyways, it is a beautiful song and Billy's voice is just amazing as is his custom...
How is every song of his so amazing
My parents were born in '49, like Billy Joel. Our families were military & foreign service so the cold war was perhaps much more real to us than others. Even now.
This song always makes me weep though. This and Sting's Russians.
I love this song it is my favorite by Billy Joel.
30 years ago, I purchased the Laserdisc "Storm Front" from Billy Joel. Basically, a video album of of the music. This was my first year in college, single, having lived through the fall of the Soviet union, and THIS song captured me as my most absolute favorite song on the disk. I had never heard it before until I watched that Laserdisc As a 19 year old, my room mate noticed I was a bit teary eyed, and asked what was going on..as I never got like this. I played him this song, and he too was touched by it as well! Now, here I am married, and I have just adopted an 8 year old boy from Bulgaria several months ago, and his name... Victor! I had sort of forgotten about this song over the years until I was thumbing through my record collection and saw this laserdisc in it, and had to play it again, and it hit me emotionally even moreso. Bulgaria, was a soviet country as well, although my son is young enough he never lived in communist times, he did loose his parents. Never would I have known when I heard this song the first time that I would adopt a son from eastern Europe by that name!
"VIENNA" Is low key Amazing...! (hidden gem)
Wonderful percussion
Billy's "Only The Good Die Young" would be a good upbeat follow up song!
I had to Google the words and read them, and it is a very sad song, and especially hits home right now. ☮️
Harri's reactions stimulate analysis of music I have heard many times but never really listened too. This is another one, and now I have seen and heard the lyrics and I am morose. I grew up around my family elders who all had fought in WW2 and Korea, we are Patriots and proud. I remember my older cousin coming back from 'nam in his uniform all spiffed up with a chest full of ribbons and how proud I was of him. I went in as soon as I turned 17 with my old man's signature to get out of my town. It was still the cold war era, I remember duck and cover cover as a kid. I eventually retired. I recall my cousin often, the last time I saw him he had long ratty hair, ratty dirty clothes and no teeth long before I knew what homeless vets were. He lived in a small camper trailer in the woods, and died in that little trailer not too long after I had seen him show up at a family get together where I remember he didn't interact with anyone much, and I saw his eyes, a lifetime of pain in a glance. Today I saw some men killed by a drone that dropped a grenade on them while they were sleeping in a shallow fighting position, it woke them up long enough for them to realize they were done for, their foxhole became the grave they had dug for themselves, and the drone operator watched and recorded and broadcast the moments for all of us to see. Where I once was enthusiastic and stimulated by the patriotism that motivates us to want to go kill others before they kill us to protect our country and family, now I am sickened at the thought of it. The politicians sicken me. The military industrial complex sicken me. The oligarchs who manipulate the business and politics that drive one countries men against another for perpetual profit at the cost of their life blood sicken me and I realize once again how manipulated people are by all of it. This song reminds me of all of it and I feel is loss. I'm glad Billy met Victor, the end gives us some hope that one day all people will say no. No, we will not go along with this insanity any longer.
This was always one of my favorite songs from him, even as a kid. I'm so glad it moved you
I enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1986, my father was still in the Air Force at the time (he had served for 16 months as a Door Gunner in Vietnam 66-7). His father had served in the Army and was wounded on D-Day. Both of them talked to me and prayed that I would never have to jump into a h I t Landing Zone or onto a beach with the world exploding all around me. As luck would have it, I never saw combat during my time in.
The song is about two hardened and indoctrinated people coming together and finding out that besides their differences that there was common ground on which they could become friends. Billy's voice is just so commanding in this song that is is included in my everyday playlist.
Check out "Down Easter Alexa"... Great, great, great song by Billy...
The last chords are SO powerful
Tutti gioielli i brani di Piano Man ... Talento incredibile e da giovane performer fenomenale dal vivo ... Il più completo 🎹👏
Good night Saigon always gets me personally it's such an amazing song but it always makes me get weepy
Sadly, power hungry despots just keep never ending wars alive. Leave it to the genius of Billy Joel to weave a story like this from someone he met. Great request Jami. Nice reaction Harri 🌺✌️
I love your comment, its so true. It reminds me of something one of my favorite history professors said in college. He said, “To those in power, there’s no profit in peace”. It really does speak to the fact that the governments and leaders of the world will always bang the drums of war as long as it keeps the money rolling in.
I'm really sorry that's what Harry took from the song. Yes, in many ways it's full of sorrow, but from out of that sorrow are born as well understanding, acceptance, wisdom, brotherhood and compassion. A measure of inner peace. And so, out of the sorrow we get some joy too. It's like a bitter pill which is good for your soul.
For me, while I understand why Harry would feel like he does, it's quite the opposite: I listen to it all the time.
I just discovered this gem about when you did. The music video shows footage of Billy and his family going to Leningrad, and he and Victor hanging out.
Beautiful song about war and friendship.
Unless my memory is wrong, Billy Joel was the 1st American artist allowed to tour or play in Russia after the end of the cold war. He wrote this after actually meeting the man discussed and being Billy wrote a song that does express the sadness of growing up during the cold war (both sides), but the hope that NOW maybe things can be different.
This tells an amazing story of 2 people growing up in the same era, but in different worlds and coming to meet each other with kindness and love…when in childhood they were taught to hate each other.
I hope you watch the official video on your own time. It's very moving and shows historical clips to provide context, also features Billy and his baby daughter at the time actually meeting Viktor. It's actually very uplifting. This was during the Cold War, a very scary and tense time. And it just goes to show that Americans and Russians really did not (and should not) have to be enemies.
Billy Joel Allentown
The song is about the human connection. The world would be a much better place without political ambition that sends young people to war and their death. I personally know the cost having lost my nephew in Iraq. Young men and women die because old men and women have immoral thirst for power. The song is reassuring that most people, like Viktor and Billy, have a true human connection and that can overcome the political thirst for power if we connect.
Actually Billy was not so very removed.....he was as I am a child born in 1949 and we had air raid drills in school. Get under your desk and put your hands over the back of your neck. The nightmares that gave me and I am sure so many others. I love this song...
I understand the story, and that Billy Joel actually met Viktor. But I'm in my sixties. This takes me back. Here we are also, though, as you mentioned, with regard to Russia and Ukraine. You have a kind heart, Harri. It makes you sad because you're a good person.
Mr HarriBest, its because you are an enlightened soul that you have been effected by this beautiful song called Lenningrad. I think it came out in 1990 or 91. You are a person who feels empathy and care for other sentient beings, which is why you were moved by the lyrics. It is a beautiful place where you are and you can effect many, many people in your life time! Embrace this wonderful person that you are. How ever I must warn you, that it is a lonely road.
I was born about 12 years after the Cuban Missle Crisis and being on the brink of nuclear war. My parents were teenagers and told me about it. Years later on September 11, 2001 I thought of the line, “In that bright October sun we knew our childhood days were done”. Replace “September” with October and it describes exactly how I felt that day at 27 years old.
Beautiful song and a beautiful reaction. Thanks, Harri!
History doesn't often repeat itself but it usually rhymes... .
Harri… you are so right…this should not be happening now !!! Such a sad world 😥😥
It's a great song. For a generation east and west were divided, and told to hate and fear. This song points out, ordinary people don't want to do that. It was quite joyous when the iron curtain was torn down. Let's hope that the current conflict is an aberration.
I love your video reactions, Harri.
see the day after tomorrow song and it's like deja vu all over again
All of us in that age - Soviets and Americans were forced to hate each other. Good to hear a little cheer for those on the other side. None of us wanted to be there. MCPO SS ret
❤
Great song with an uplifting message. Not sure how sadness can be the takeaway from this? The sad part we already know, opression on the Russian side, and fear on the US side (hide under the desks) of the cold war becoming hot. What the song ultimately brings to the table though is the positive; that the people in those countries , at least in the US and Russia, can sometimes connect on a human level depite the politics of the governments.
It’s too long to react to, but you have to watch the double DVD/BluRay set about his tour in the USSR. And yes, still the USSR.
He was the first western performer to do such a tour there.
It's a very good song though, and sometimes difficult things need to be said.
The siege of Leningrad was really brutal. He barely scratches the surface of that in his song, but i agree, it is sad.
The song starts out sad, but it gets better at the end. Two Cold War kids meet and find their commonality.
You are not at all selfish for being glad that you missed the Cuban Missile Crisis. That was scary, and way after the fact we learned how bad it really was. Your generation has its own scary crap to worry about. Good luck.
The longer I spent in the military the more antiwar I became. We need better leaders who have the mental ability to think of better ways to contain autocrats and dictators.
You should listen to this song again, and focus on the part about two Cold War kids who meet and find their own reality outside the propaganda each side spews to the public. Victor made Billy's daughter laugh. What are we fighting for?
Same old problem different year. Sting wrote the song “Russians” in the 80’s and it’s still relevant.
I don't think it's a sad story, it's just what life was there in this period (as Billy himself says in the song), so it's a song that is helpful to understand the social issues of that big part of the world. Then the end of the story told in the song is a happy one, with the discover of true friendship.
In the late 40s and early 50s, They had regular air raid drills in our part of the U.S. When you heard the sirens you would get under your desk. Of course, this was to protect you from a nuclear blast. LOL.
To the theme: Sting - Russians
Goodnight Saigon may break you.
Check out "fallout" dude....."war never changes".
Cheer yourself up by listening to "Ordinary People" by The Box.
...and this is the official video others had mentioned: ruclips.net/video/LgD_-dRZPgs/видео.html and this is footage of the concert he gave in Leningrad in 1987: ruclips.net/video/C9D50PZXIN4/видео.html
3:00.. I don't believer we are "The Good Guys "...Putin tries to safe what is left of Tartaria
Viktor Razinov
You can also hear that he was trying to write the music in the style of Russian music, the piano melody and chords, the mood of it, was definitely an attempt to sound like their music, it certainly doesnt sound American like his other music, no rythm & blues or soul feel to this piece, more like army music
well thank you Kevin for making this brilliant observation, even though nobody else acknowledged it !
Since you will not play it again because it is too unconvertable follow up with Pete Townshend's Hiding Out on the White City Fighting album.
I feel bad for the people of Russia who have no choice in what their leaders decide. They are dying for a corrupt government that cares as little about their lives as they do the enemies. There are evil people in the army that invaded the Ukraine, but we need to remember that not everyone forced into that fight wanted it.
what a bullshit
I appreciate you not grandstanding .
You need to do his song Lullaby.
Oh that is gorgeous...