[00:01.421]Well mister I just overheard you talking through your drink
[00:04.428]How the Russians lie like rugs how they've pushed us to the brink
[00:07.676]Now sit right here beside me I've an old man's tale to tell
[00:12.426]How Yanks and Reds were friends once...at the Elbe
[00:19.927]My name is Joe Polowski I hitched up in '41
[00:23.676]Left my sweetheart in Chicago and I learned to fire a gun
[00:27.669]The fog in the Ardennes so thick you could not see your nose
[00:31.421]Nor the ghosts in the Belgian wood advancing through the snow
[00:36.578]We left our dead behind us and we scaled the Dragon's Teeth
[00:41.828]With screaming mimis overhead not one of us could sleep
[00:45.832]Some fell to the enemy some fell to the creeping cold
[00:49.580]And I killed a German sniper who was not fourteen years old
[00:54.585]When a soldier takes a hit my friend it ain't like Hollywood
[00:58.337]Bone and guts go flying and everywhere there's blood
[01:01.831]For a moment he is mystified there must be some mistake
[01:05.333]As it all drains out in a crimson lake
[01:09.085]Then April turned the weather and likewise the tide of war
[01:13.079]As haggard hungry Germans surrendered by the score
[01:16.832]And thank God for the Russians who took the battle's brunt
[01:20.580]And broke the back of the Wermacht along the Eastern Front
[01:25.338]Then we saw a burst of lilacs and the river swift and wide
[01:28.579]And rest and welcome waiting for us on the other side
[01:32.331]And Yanks and Reds laughed out loud to be alive at the Elbe
[01:40.583]We caught the glint of water and upon the distant shore
[01:43.580]Men and trucks and horses not German and not ours
[01:47.830]No bridge to cross but at the dock a boat securely tied
[01:51.336]We blew the chain and rowed like demons for the other side
[01:55.338]But when we stepped up on the land oh Jesus what a sight
[01:59.831]Blackened bodies of civilians like driftwood piled high
[02:03.583]Cut down by stray artillery — what the hell is it all for
[02:07.589]We knelt and cursed the cruelty and madness men call war
[02:12.580]Three Russians approached us, we shook hands and then embraced
[02:15.834]Stalingrad had traced its lines of sadness on their face
[02:19.835]Upon that field of corpses these weary happy men
[02:23.087]Swore an oath that it must never happen again
[02:26.582]And then we wept and cheered and spoke in languages unknown
[02:30.334]They poured us Russian vodka by God we drank it down
[02:34.082]We sang "The Volga Boatman" they sang "Tavern in the Town"
[02:37.834]And I never kissed so many men as on that afternoon
[02:42.839]When we saw a burst of lilacs and the river swift and wide
[02:46.328]And rest and welcome waiting for us on the other side
[02:50.081]And Yanks and Reds laughed out loud to be alive at the Elbe
[03:00.655]But no sooner were we stateside than the Cold War headlines read
[03:04.647]Commies in the unions commies under every bed
[03:08.154]Hurrah the Nazi devil's down long live the devil Red
[03:11.649]And not one word about the oath we swore amongst the dead
[03:16.906]There are kids today who'll tell you we fought Russia in the war
[03:20.159]There are armchair heroes set to settle some old score
[03:23.907]There are profiteers and pushers primed to send young men once more
[03:27.659]To blow themselves to glory on some godforsaken shore
[03:32.651]So drape my coffin with the flag of the good old USA
[03:36.157]Let Yanks in army khaki and Reds in Russian gray
[03:39.905]Lower me so gently into the German clay
[03:43.657]And speak again the oath we swore that day
[03:47.152]When we saw a burst of lilacs and the river swift and wide
[03:51.158]And rest and welcome waiting for us on the other side
[03:54.407]And Yanks and Reds laughed out loud to be alive at the Elbe
[04:01.652]At the Elbe
[04:05.160]At the Elbe