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A Matter Of Trust: The Bridge To Russia (A Documentary Film)
Recorded in 1987. All credits to Billy and his band.
Taken from a VHS tape recorded from a Television Broadcast in the mid-90s. Digitally restored and for the first time on YouTube the original version of the Documentary in 4:3 format with its edition for TV. Scaled to 1080 to preserve video quality.
It was August 2 and Billy Joel was full of fear, of nerves, because he was about to appear in the middle of the Cold War in Leningrad, what we know today as Saint Petersburg, Russia. To understand the dimension of this presentation, it is necessary to talk about the 1985 Geneva Summit, which was the first meeting between the then president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, and the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mikhail Gorbachev.
The main objective of the meeting was to seek peace between the United States and the Soviet Union, Reagan himself defined the summit as a 'mission for peace', and as a contribution to the cultural exchanges agreed in this meeting, Billy Joel ventured to hold a six-concert tour of the USSR two years later.
On August 2, 1987, Billy Joel appeared at the Lenin Sports Complex in Leningrad, the audience was so euphoric that they broke some chairs and lifted Joel on their shoulders to remove him from the stage. The event was also broadcast on Moscow TV, which is why millions of Soviets saw this rock star showing his talent on stage.
The performance of the concert was a personal and professional victory for Billy Joel. The Soviet Union opened up to the world and the artist came to it with music, which marked an important advance for the relationship between the two continents. On the other hand, the importance of the event also lies in the fact that it was the first large-scale tour that a rocker from the United States dared to do in the USSR. It featured three presentations at the Moscow Olympic Stadium and three in Leningrad.
Some of the most iconic songs that Billy Joel performed in his performances were Back in the USSR by The Beatles and The Times They Are A-Changin 'by Bob Dylan. At the beginning of his show, people were shy, but then little by little, song after song, with the euphoria of the concert, the music became a universal language.
Apart from marking a milestone in musical history, this experience also impacted Billy Joel, who two years later, in 1989, decided to write a song to capture what he experienced on that date. The single was titled Leningrad and was included on the album Storm Front (1989).
