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.

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 жыл бұрын

Thanks for the info James! I've pinned your comment and will update the year to the correct one.

@James007Bone

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheAlStewartArchives - The fact that this was not broadcast until 1977, I don't think you should necessarily change the date, D.N.

@MaggieClarkePhD

2 жыл бұрын

Do you know if he's tuned his guitar down a half or full step?

@James007Bone

2 жыл бұрын

@@MaggieClarkePhD - I do not know.

@vito9674

2 жыл бұрын

One of My favorite songs ever ! Years later it still brings up the same emotions and more !

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.

@Drench3

10 ай бұрын

Night of the 4th of may *cough*

@mt.bakerexperience5562

28 күн бұрын

How about Nostradamus? I love both. Best line ever? Strolling through a crowd like Peter Lorre contemplating a crime.

As of 2022 Al is 77 years old and still touring. He has the same youthful outlook. Great guy.

@TheAlStewartArchives

Жыл бұрын

Yes he still has that youthful twinkle in his eye!

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."

Every kid should have to memorize this song to know what their great great grandparents went through in all armies.

Thunderous applause...and well deserved. One of the greatest songs ever.

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.

Amazing. Musically & Historically Classic. Priceless. Epic! Never matched or surpassed. Never get tired of listening.

Superb songwriter. Lucky enough to have seen him live three times.

His voice is so soothing. He can sing me the phone book and I would still listen.

Sublime! Best performance of this song I have ever seen or heard. Al's voice in absolute top form.

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 жыл бұрын

Agreed Steve I almost got a bit emotional the first time I heard it - incredible performance.

@martaholt

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheAlStewartArchives you should have seen/heard him perform in Bristol UK - it was much better!!!

@joanmader9755

3 ай бұрын

So scarily appropriate now

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.

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.

@geoffteece265

10 ай бұрын

Absolutely. Incomprehensible why he isn’t recognised as such. This song alone - an out and out masterpiece-should seal his legacy.

@robinsmith1614

7 ай бұрын

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.

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.

A most incredible performance, as vibrant and topical as ever...

I think this is hands down the best version of Roads to Moscow on KZread

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 жыл бұрын

I would have to agree!

my parents were from '55 and '59. I, 1982. This is the music grew up.

The perfect song transcending words and sounds creating a masterpiece in songwriting.

What a terrific story teller

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 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.

Thank you Mr Stewart for this wonderful masterpiece.

masterpiece

I saw him in Bellingham WA in 76 perform this song at the college. What a great show it was.

Incredible live performance !!

@TheAlStewartArchives

Жыл бұрын

Isn't it just! Thanks for watching!

A great at his top!!! Heavenly! ❤

This is a marvelous recording - thank you! I, my husband, and brothers saw him in concert during the 70's in Seattle.

@TheAlStewartArchives

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

it's like magic has reached out and touched your soul.... GOAT....

@TheAlStewartArchives

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching glad you enjoyed!

Absolutely incredible. The echo makes it sound even more haunting. This video had me hypnotized the entire time!

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 жыл бұрын

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'!

@sunny.lie.melody

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheAlStewartArchives definitely!!

Great video. Brings me back to his concert in Montreal in '76. I still have the lp but no player so TG for utube!

Excellent - a true balad. A history set to music. The two broken Tiger Tanks their souls to the wind.

@rickarmknecht8903

2 жыл бұрын

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."

@benmercadante5774

Жыл бұрын

@@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...

@JeffreyWilliams-dr7qe

5 ай бұрын

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.

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.

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

my favorite Al Stewart song wonderful story and great guitar work and singing, this the best live version of it on KZread! Thank you for posting this video

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 ай бұрын

Yes it really is a masterpiece and this is the best live version I've ever seen!

Simply amazing

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!

Great! Absolutely the best live version so far. Thanks for sharing. I LOVE IT!!!!

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 жыл бұрын

It’s really special isn’t it! Glad you enjoyed!

@michelavazzana

2 жыл бұрын

@@TheAlStewartArchives , it's simply amazing! What a great song and what a great band Al had! ❤

WOW... Al was so young. I was in HS in 76, so I must have looked young too.

WWOOOWW !!! ABSOLUTLY AMAZING !! Great, great video David !! Thanks a lot for sharing another treasure !!

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 жыл бұрын

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!

@josezurita9470

2 жыл бұрын

Wonderful idea !! Congratulation for your amazing channel David !!@@TheAlStewartArchives

Great value for us to hear

LOVE AL😊

What is amazing is as he got older his voice remained the same.

@TheAlStewartArchives

11 ай бұрын

Yep he sounds as good as ever!

Saw him last year in Florence Massachusetts

I felt like i was there

@TheAlStewartArchives

Жыл бұрын

Magical performance, isn't it!

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...

@TheAlStewartArchives

3 ай бұрын

It really is a masterpeice!

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.. kzread.info/dash/bejne/ZaSg2sOidqiehbA.html

@rexwave4624

2 жыл бұрын

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.

@mwatney9775

2 жыл бұрын

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"

@reliantncc1864

Жыл бұрын

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.

A few years back I heard a Russian language version of this song in a bar in Tallinn.

@TheAlStewartArchives

Жыл бұрын

Wow very interesting! Is there a recording of this version?

@permanentkick

Жыл бұрын

@@TheAlStewartArchives It was just a bar singer with a guitar singing in Russian.. I don't speak Russian but the tune is instantly recognised...

Maybe the greatest war ballad ever written!

@TheAlStewartArchives

3 ай бұрын

Agreed!

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.

@TheAlStewartArchives

5 ай бұрын

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!

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).

TRES Heavy!!

Beautiful. Name of the quitarist

First time listening to this live version. Wonderful. Didn't Mark Goldenberg appear on TP album in Valdntina way?

Today.

The singing historian

does anyone know the names of the musicians?❤

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.

Looks/sounds like he and his guitarist tuned their guitars down a half or full step?

I always thought queensryche could have covered this song

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.

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

Is that guitarist issac guillory?

All instruments are beautiful, but acoustic does something beautiful to my whole been. 😔❤️

Anyone know who the accompanying guitarist is?

@TheAlStewartArchives

2 жыл бұрын

Hi Jack - it’s Mark Goldenberg.

@James007Bone

2 жыл бұрын

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.

@reinaldocarmo5213

Жыл бұрын

@@James007Bone thanks for the info

Indescribable.