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Red Army Blues Lyrics
When I left my home and my family
my mother said to me
"Son, it's not how many Germans you kill that counts
it's how many people you set free"
So I packed my bags
brushed my cap
Walked out into the world
seventeen years old
Never kissed a girl
Took the train to Voronezh
that was as far as it would go
Changed my sacks for a uniform
bit my lip against the snow
I prayed for mother Russia
in the summer of '43
And as we drove the Germans back
I really believed
That God was listening to me
We howled into Berlin
tore the smoking buildings down
Raised the red flag high
burnt the reichstag brown
I saw my first American
and he looked a lot like me
He had the same kinda farmer's face
said he'd come from some place called Hazzard, Tennessee
Then the war was over
my discharge papers came
Me and twenty hundred others
went to Stettiner for the train
Kiev! said the commissar
from there your own way home
But I never got to Kiev
we never came by home
Train went north to the Taiga
we were stripped and marched in file
Up the great siberian road
for miles and miles and miles and miles
Dressed in stripes and tatters
in a gulag left to die
All because Comrade Stalin was scared that
we'd become too westernized!
Used to love my country
used to be so young
Used to believe that life was
the best song ever sung
I would have died for my country
in 1945
But now only one thing remains
but now only one thing remains
But now only one thing remains
but now only one thing remains
The brute will to survive!
my mother said to me
"Son, it's not how many Germans you kill that counts
it's how many people you set free"
brushed my cap
Walked out into the world
seventeen years old
Never kissed a girl
that was as far as it would go
Changed my sacks for a uniform
bit my lip against the snow
I prayed for mother Russia
in the summer of '43
And as we drove the Germans back
I really believed
That God was listening to me
tore the smoking buildings down
Raised the red flag high
burnt the reichstag brown
I saw my first American
and he looked a lot like me
He had the same kinda farmer's face
said he'd come from some place called Hazzard, Tennessee
my discharge papers came
Me and twenty hundred others
went to Stettiner for the train
Kiev! said the commissar
from there your own way home
But I never got to Kiev
we never came by home
Train went north to the Taiga
we were stripped and marched in file
Up the great siberian road
for miles and miles and miles and miles
Dressed in stripes and tatters
in a gulag left to die
All because Comrade Stalin was scared that
we'd become too westernized!
used to be so young
Used to believe that life was
the best song ever sung
I would have died for my country
in 1945
But now only one thing remains
but now only one thing remains
But now only one thing remains
but now only one thing remains
The brute will to survive!
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Could'nt agree with you more. This song is brilliant. They are one of the most underated bands of all time. Just look at how little comments they have on their songs.
One of the best songs ever by one of the best bands ever, the sorely underrated and criminally relatively unknown Waterboys... love 'em!
one of the best lyrics ever written! great song about russian soldiers who fought in berlin, and then return to russia, but they get killed there because Stalin thinks they've became to "westerized" cause they spend some time with americans...
I agree that the Waterboys are one of the greatest and most underated bands ever. This is so haunting and lyrical.
I agree that the Waterboys are one of the greatest and most underated bands ever. This is so haunting and lyrical.
Yes, one of the great songs - incisive, passionate, and still as profound as when it was first recorded almost 30 years ago. 3 comments in 8 years - that is sad!!
Mitzilola, agreed it is sad that there are so few comments for this great song, by a great artist.
Really nice melody, really nice lyrics. It is told that the song is inspired by the book "the Diary of Vikenty Angorov".
To comment a little bit more on the lyrics part: This is a touching but completely fictional story. Red Army soldiers were never sent to Gulags just because they came into contact with western soldiers.
However, this doesn't cancel the fact that this is a great song.
Definitely one of the best sound of the 80s. This song still gets my senses connected and spontaneously gets me singing along effortlessly yet powerfully. With vigor. I don't know much about the truth behind the lyrical contents but it's still deeply touchy by sound alone. Yet the storyline makes it even more emotionally charged. Puts me in another world even at 51. I love this sound.
Thanks to this 'heroic' song, I learned to know the fantastic Waterboys in the early 80ies and love them ever since.