This was recorded at the Longhorn Theater (formerly the Aquarius Theater) in Hollywood, CA. This live taping, to be eventually shown on the late night concert TV show "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" , was actually recorded in 1976. This was an afternoon taping, before the live audience was eventually let in for the later acts to follow. Melissa Manchester was the next act. I was one of the 30 or so folks, mostly stage hands, sitting in the seats in front of the stage. Al Stewart and his band recorded 5 songs for that performance, including Year Of The Cat, On The Border, One Stage Before, and If It Doesn't Come naturally (Leave it). The video taping was directed by Emmy Award winning director Louis J. Horvitz, and produced by Bonnie Burns, David Yarnell, and Bruce Burns.
Saw this as a 14 year old, there was nothing else on TV at 1am but Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. I was a total nerd and couldn't believe some cat was singing about history. The next day I went to the record store and picked up Love Chronicles, Modern Times, and Past, Present, and Future from the cutoff bin for a buck an album. I caught him in Decatur, GA a few years ago and he was pattering away about how every song was really just a love song and there were two types of love songs, love lost and love found. I asked him which one Roads to Moscow is and he said "both and neither."
This is definitely his best ever song. History set to music. This is not just a balad, a folk song, its part of history. I think Al Srewart should have got an OBE just for this alone.
I first heard this on an alt rock station in Philly. I am now 64. Seen him many times. And still thise I mention him to don't know who he is! Rod Stewart? NO. "Year of the Cat" may be familiar to them. That's okay. It makes for a more personal relationship with Al.
This is a wonderful song. One of his very best . If not the best. Such atmosphere. Brilliant performance of it. He wrote some brilliant songs during that period.
People who like the history in this should dig out 'old admirals', 'The Last Day of June 1934', 'The Palace of Versailles' among others. He always finds an angle to look at history from that makes it new and real.
I think he sings: "Two broken Tigers on fire in the night flicker their souls to the wind." To me, the lines evoke Blake's "Tiger, tiger, burning bright, in the forest of the night."
@@rickarmknecht8903 def Blake inspired...but Stewart a real poet troubadour...this song encompasses most any books i have read in capturing an emotional element tied to some of that bleak history...
This is fictionalized history. This is however a correct account of how the Soviets treated their fighting men. Comrade received a bullet in the head and would never see home again. Brutal enemy on both sides of the front.
Always underrated and such a talented musician and story teller. I have followed Al since his first album and Roads to Moscow should be the starting point of discussion in schools about the history surrounding it.
I saw Al Stewart in December 1976 on a riverboat in St Louis as he was debuting Year of the Cat. Already a fan of his guitar, songwriting, and singing, this song taught me a new depth of humanity. My Dad was a WW2 veteran, but it took this song for me to appreciate what he and Alexander Solzenitza lived through.
I was lucky enough to see this superbard story teller in Minneapolis, I do not remember the venue,but it was a theater, not an stadium and anything huge, may 4000 people, the sound was unbelievable, what Al Stewart s voice is amplified right, he is one of the best.
We saw him in London, I want to say '76. The audience were real fans. So when it turned out he was too stoned to remember the words to "old admirals" we sang it to him.
The song is from the POV of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He was a Soviet Soldier in WWII who fought against the Nazis during their invasion of Russia and was later part of the attack on Berlin at the end of the war. He was captured for one day by the Nazis and was released. The Soviets killed or imprisoned Russian soldiers who were released by the enemy because they were considered "contaminated". So when the war ended he was imprisoned in a Gulag. this is what it was like when General Guderian's Tigers ran roughshod across the Russian steppe, Al Stewart is an accomplished military historian, heres a song of his about being a crewman in a submarine.. ruclips.net/video/3plxaiFE8UM/видео.html
And now we've learned that it wasn't all "Russian" steppe. Although, having visited the war monuments in Moscow, it was to the Russians, on a massive scale.
Life in Dark Water is actually written from the PoV of a shipwreck, not a crewman. Thus: "Now there's nobody from the crew left Five hundred years supply of food just for me"
I never realized this when I heard the song as a kid. I've read The Gulag Archipelago since then, and listening to the song now, it's so much darker. I didn't know what a "transit camp" was. But to be clear, Solzhenitsyn was never captured by the Germans. The NKVD picked him up for a letter he wrote to a friend criticizing Stalin. The character in the song may have been inspired by reading Solzhenitsyn's work, but he's not the man himself.
I’ve recommended this song to my son who is a world history teacher at a local high school. I think it captures the dark, bittersweet nature of the Russian Front during WW2. Adding that it is written from the perspective of a Nobel Prize winner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, it is both beautiful and heart wrenching.
Happy Birthday Al Stewart born on September 5, 1945. He is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960's and 1970's. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of characters and events from history. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Stewart
Quite possibly the best video on the channel isn't it Jose! The channel is almost at 500 subscribers so I have a special video planned for when we reach 500 subs!
Great live recording of this song and I've seen a few and heard many versions with various lineups over many years. (Although I haven't heard any live versions of Roads to Moscow recorded prior to Al's 1975 (?) tour supporting Linda Ronstadt.) To my mind this comes closest to capturing the studio "big band" version/sound. Just excellent!
my favorite Al Stewart song wonderful story and great guitar work and singing, this the best live version of it on RUclips! Thank you for posting this video
The first time I heard this song, it was 1977, I was 18 and I'd never heard its equal before or since. Operation Barbarosa from the perspective of a russian soldier. It is a unique song that has stuck with me for years...
To me Al is the most underrated "singer songwriter" (I hate that term) in history. I believe he has a sense of melody up there with Paul Mccartney, Barry Gibb, or Benny Andersson, other greats of that era.
Superba esecuzione live, quasi identica a quella incisa in studio! Alistair insuperabile cantastorie dei nostri tempi sentì doveroso dedicare un brano alla leggendaria resistenza del popolo russo contro la barbarie nazista, probabilmente l'evento più drammatico del novecento. Occorreva un brano musicale estremamente evocativo e Al con l'entusiastico sostegno di strumentisti di prim'ordine vi riuscì pienamente. Il brano e l'intero disco da cui é tratto catturarono l'interesse di Alan Parson, visionario ingegnere del suono, che in seguito produsse i leggendari album di Al che seguirono (Modern time, Year of the cat, Time passages).
One of Al’s very best songs, and what a line up!, I ‘ve followed Mark Goldenberg’s career since his time with The Cretones and he is an amazing guitarist
In order for Stalin to consolidate his control over the Soviet State immediately after Lenin died of a stroke in 1924 he had to eliminate the officer corp loyal to the working clas and Left Oppositionists. The officer corp was loyal to the Red Army commander Leon Trotsky whom Lenin had selected as the most capable. Hitler was well aware of Stalin's decapitation of the Red Army and took full advantage of that fact.
Mark Goldenberg still performs around the Los Angeles area (mostly at a club called Genghis Cohen). Mark had a cool New Wave/Power Pop band "The Cretones" that released a few albums. He featured prominently on a same period Linda Ronstadt album "Mad Love" released in 1980.
I've stood at the area where the Germans were stopped. It was Winter and although I was wearing modern Thinsulate clothing, it was the coldest most desolate landscape you can imagine. Anyone trapped there must have been totally FUBAR.
![RENAISSANCE - Can You Understand? [LIVE IN STUDIO] 1974 RARE](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/2A3bb47J3xU/mqdefault.jpg)
This was recorded at the Longhorn Theater (formerly the Aquarius Theater) in Hollywood, CA. This live taping, to be eventually shown on the late night concert TV show "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" , was actually recorded in 1976. This was an afternoon taping, before the live audience was eventually let in for the later acts to follow. Melissa Manchester was the next act. I was one of the 30 or so folks, mostly stage hands, sitting in the seats in front of the stage. Al Stewart and his band recorded 5 songs for that performance, including Year Of The Cat, On The Border, One Stage Before, and If It Doesn't Come naturally (Leave it). The video taping was directed by Emmy Award winning director Louis J. Horvitz, and produced by Bonnie Burns, David Yarnell, and Bruce Burns.
Thanks for the info James! I've pinned your comment and will update the year to the correct one.
@@TheAlStewartArchives - The fact that this was not broadcast until 1977, I don't think you should necessarily change the date, D.N.
Do you know if he's tuned his guitar down a half or full step?
@@MaggieClarkePhD - I do not know.
One of My favorite songs ever ! Years later it still brings up the same emotions and more !
Saw this as a 14 year old, there was nothing else on TV at 1am but Don Kirshner's Rock Concert. I was a total nerd and couldn't believe some cat was singing about history. The next day I went to the record store and picked up Love Chronicles, Modern Times, and Past, Present, and Future from the cutoff bin for a buck an album. I caught him in Decatur, GA a few years ago and he was pattering away about how every song was really just a love song and there were two types of love songs, love lost and love found. I asked him which one Roads to Moscow is and he said "both and neither."
As of 2022 Al is 77 years old and still touring. He has the same youthful outlook. Great guy.
Yes he still has that youthful twinkle in his eye!
This is definitely his best ever song. History set to music. This is not just a balad, a folk song, its part of history. I think Al Srewart should have got an OBE just for this alone.
Night of the 4th of may *cough*
How about Nostradamus? I love both. Best line ever? Strolling through a crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime.
Al Stewart. Got to be the most under appreciated & not recognized musical & lyrical talents ever. Why? Don’t get it. Love his music. God Bless.
Absolutely. Incomprehensible why he isn’t recognised as such. This song alone - an out and out masterpiece-should seal his legacy.
I first heard this on an alt rock station in Philly. I am now 64. Seen him many times. And still thise I mention him to don't know who he is! Rod Stewart? NO. "Year of the Cat" may be familiar to them. That's okay. It makes for a more personal relationship with Al.
Every kid should have to memorize this song to know what their great great grandparents went through in all armies.
Sublime! Best performance of this song I have ever seen or heard. Al's voice in absolute top form.
Agreed Steve I almost got a bit emotional the first time I heard it - incredible performance.
@@TheAlStewartArchives you should have seen/heard him perform in Bristol UK - it was much better!!!
So scarily appropriate now
This is a wonderful song. One of his very best . If not the best. Such atmosphere. Brilliant performance of it. He wrote some brilliant songs during that period.
People who like the history in this should dig out 'old admirals', 'The Last Day of June 1934', 'The Palace of Versailles' among others. He always finds an angle to look at history from that makes it new and real.
Thunderous applause...and well deserved. One of the greatest songs ever.
my parents were from '55 and '59. I, 1982. This is the music grew up.
Amazing. Musically & Historically Classic. Priceless. Epic! Never matched or surpassed. Never get tired of listening.
I think this is hands down the best version of Roads to Moscow on RUclips
I would have to agree!
Excellent - a true balad. A history set to music. The two broken Tiger Tanks their souls to the wind.
I think he sings: "Two broken Tigers on fire in the night flicker their souls to the wind." To me, the lines evoke Blake's "Tiger, tiger, burning bright, in the forest of the night."
@@rickarmknecht8903 def Blake inspired...but Stewart a real poet troubadour...this song encompasses most any books i have read in capturing an emotional element tied to some of that bleak history...
This is fictionalized history. This is however a correct account of how the Soviets treated their fighting men. Comrade received a bullet in the head and would never see home again. Brutal enemy on both sides of the front.
Always underrated and such a talented musician and story teller. I have followed Al since his first album and Roads to Moscow should be the starting point of discussion in schools about the history surrounding it.
Superb songwriter. Lucky enough to have seen him live three times.
2024! God bless you all!
I saw Al Stewart in December 1976 on a riverboat in St Louis as he was debuting Year of the Cat. Already a fan of his guitar, songwriting, and singing, this song taught me a new depth of humanity. My Dad was a WW2 veteran, but it took this song for me to appreciate what he and Alexander Solzenitza lived through.
it's like magic has reached out and touched your soul....
GOAT....
Thanks for watching glad you enjoyed!
His voice is so soothing. He can sing me the phone book and I would still listen.
Incredible live performance !!
Isn't it just! Thanks for watching!
This is a marvelous recording - thank you! I, my husband, and brothers saw him in concert during the 70's in Seattle.
Thanks for watching!
Absolutely incredible. The echo makes it sound even more haunting. This video had me hypnotized the entire time!
Yep, goosebumps. This is so good I think it would be worth sharing on Al's official Twitter/Facebook feed if we could convince 'his people'!
@@TheAlStewartArchives definitely!!
masterpiece
I was lucky enough to see this superbard story teller in Minneapolis, I do not remember the venue,but it was a theater, not an stadium and anything huge, may 4000 people, the sound was unbelievable, what Al Stewart s voice is amplified right, he is one of the best.
Thank you Mr Stewart for this wonderful masterpiece.
Such a powerful song........making music like this is forever a memory :-(
Thanks for watching!
Great! Absolutely the best live version so far. Thanks for sharing. I LOVE IT!!!!
It’s really special isn’t it! Glad you enjoyed!
@@TheAlStewartArchives , it's simply amazing! What a great song and what a great band Al had! ❤
A most incredible performance, as vibrant and topical as ever...
What a terrific story teller
I saw him in Bellingham WA in 76 perform this song at the college. What a great show it was.
The perfect song transcending words and sounds creating a masterpiece in songwriting.
Great video. Brings me back to his concert in Montreal in '76. I still have the lp but no player so TG for utube!
We saw him in London, I want to say '76.
The audience were real fans. So when it turned out he was too stoned to remember the words to "old admirals" we sang it to him.
A great at his top!!! Heavenly! ❤
What is amazing is as he got older his voice remained the same.
Yep he sounds as good as ever!
The song is from the POV of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. He was a Soviet Soldier in WWII who fought against the Nazis during their invasion of Russia and was later part of the attack on Berlin at the end of the war. He was captured for one day by the Nazis and was released. The Soviets killed or imprisoned Russian soldiers who were released by the enemy because they were considered "contaminated". So when the war ended he was imprisoned in a Gulag. this is what it was like when General Guderian's Tigers ran roughshod across the Russian steppe, Al Stewart is an accomplished military historian, heres a song of his about being a crewman in a submarine..
ruclips.net/video/3plxaiFE8UM/видео.html
And now we've learned that it wasn't all "Russian" steppe. Although, having visited the war monuments in Moscow, it was to the Russians, on a massive scale.
Life in Dark Water is actually written from the PoV of a shipwreck, not a crewman. Thus: "Now there's nobody from the crew left
Five hundred years supply of food just for me"
I never realized this when I heard the song as a kid. I've read The Gulag Archipelago since then, and listening to the song now, it's so much darker. I didn't know what a "transit camp" was. But to be clear, Solzhenitsyn was never captured by the Germans. The NKVD picked him up for a letter he wrote to a friend criticizing Stalin. The character in the song may have been inspired by reading Solzhenitsyn's work, but he's not the man himself.
thanks for the link, "Life in Dark Water" is another great song by him
A few years back I heard a Russian language version of this song in a bar in Tallinn.
Wow very interesting! Is there a recording of this version?
@@TheAlStewartArchives It was just a bar singer with a guitar singing in Russian.. I don't speak Russian but the tune is instantly recognised...
I’ve recommended this song to my son who is a world history teacher at a local high school. I think it captures the dark, bittersweet nature of the Russian Front during WW2. Adding that it is written from the perspective of a Nobel Prize winner, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, it is both beautiful and heart wrenching.
Happy Birthday Al Stewart born on September 5, 1945. He is a Scottish singer-songwriter and folk-rock musician who rose to prominence as part of the British folk revival in the 1960's and 1970's. He developed a unique style of combining folk-rock songs with delicately woven tales of characters and events from history. - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Stewart
WWOOOWW !!!
ABSOLUTLY AMAZING !!
Great, great video David !!
Thanks a lot for sharing another treasure !!
Quite possibly the best video on the channel isn't it Jose! The channel is almost at 500 subscribers so I have a special video planned for when we reach 500 subs!
Wonderful idea !!
Congratulation for your amazing channel David !!@@TheAlStewartArchives
Great live recording of this song and I've seen a few and heard many versions with various lineups over many years. (Although I haven't heard any live versions of Roads to Moscow recorded prior to Al's 1975 (?) tour supporting Linda Ronstadt.) To my mind this comes closest to capturing the studio "big band" version/sound. Just excellent!
my favorite Al Stewart song wonderful story and great guitar work and singing, this the best live version of it on RUclips! Thank you for posting this video
Yes it really is a masterpiece and this is the best live version I've ever seen!
Heard this for the first time on an album rock station in Nashville as a 19-year-old in 1976. Blew me away.
One of Al's best songs for sure!
Marvelous live version
Great value for us to hear
WOW... Al was so young. I was in HS in 76, so I must have looked young too.
The first time I heard this song, it was 1977, I was 18 and I'd never heard its equal before or since. Operation Barbarosa from the perspective of a russian soldier.
It is a unique song that has stuck with me for years...
It really is a masterpeice!
Saw him last year in Florence Massachusetts
LOVE AL😊
Wow! Found this by chance, and it's awesome!
Thanks for watching!
I felt like i was there
Magical performance, isn't it!
Maybe the greatest war ballad ever written!
Agreed!
Simply amazing
To me Al is the most underrated "singer songwriter" (I hate that term) in history. I believe he has a sense of melody up there with Paul Mccartney, Barry Gibb, or Benny Andersson, other greats of that era.
Agreed his melodies are wonderful, I try not to be biased as a fan but I can't comprehend how more of his songs aren't well known!
Not many songs where General Guderian gets a mention.
Superba esecuzione live, quasi identica a quella incisa in studio! Alistair insuperabile cantastorie dei nostri tempi sentì doveroso dedicare un brano alla leggendaria resistenza del popolo russo contro la barbarie nazista, probabilmente l'evento più drammatico del novecento. Occorreva un brano musicale estremamente evocativo e Al con l'entusiastico sostegno di strumentisti di prim'ordine vi riuscì pienamente. Il brano e l'intero disco da cui é tratto catturarono l'interesse di Alan Parson, visionario ingegnere del suono, che in seguito produsse i leggendari album di Al che seguirono (Modern time, Year of the cat, Time passages).
One of Al’s very best songs, and what a line up!, I ‘ve followed Mark Goldenberg’s career since his time with The Cretones and he is an amazing guitarist
All instruments are beautiful, but acoustic does something beautiful to my whole been. 😔❤️
Beautiful. Name of the quitarist
First time listening to this live version. Wonderful. Didn't Mark Goldenberg appear on TP album in Valdntina way?
TRES Heavy!!
In order for Stalin to consolidate his control over the Soviet State immediately after Lenin died of a stroke in 1924 he had to eliminate the officer corp loyal to the working clas and Left Oppositionists. The officer corp was loyal to the Red Army commander Leon Trotsky whom Lenin had selected as the most capable. Hitler was well aware of Stalin's decapitation of the Red Army and took full advantage of that fact.
does anyone know the names of the musicians?❤
Today.
Anyone know who the accompanying guitarist is?
Hi Jack - it’s Mark Goldenberg.
Mark Goldenberg still performs around the Los Angeles area (mostly at a club called Genghis Cohen). Mark had a cool New Wave/Power Pop band "The Cretones" that released a few albums. He featured prominently on a same period Linda Ronstadt album "Mad Love" released in 1980.
@@James007Bone thanks for the info
Looks/sounds like he and his guitarist tuned their guitars down a half or full step?
The singing historian
Is that guitarist issac guillory?
I've stood at the area where the Germans were stopped. It was Winter and although I was wearing modern Thinsulate clothing, it was the coldest most desolate landscape you can imagine. Anyone trapped there must have been totally FUBAR.
I always thought queensryche could have covered this song
Indescribable.