Roads To Moscow
Words and Music by Al Stewart
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
How softly we moved through the shadows slipped away through the trees
Crossing their lines and the mists and the fields on our hands and our knees
And now 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 Vyazma soon fell
By autumn we stood with our backs to the town of Orel
Closer and closer to Moscow they come
Riding the wind like a bear
General Guderian stands at the crest of the hill
Winter brought wither the rains, oceans of mud filled the roads
Gluing the tracks of their tanks to the ground while the sky filled with snow
And now 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 road 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
How 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 now 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 that 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 for ever