"Back in the U. S. S. R."

Here’s a great excerpt from Alec Baldwin’s interview with Billy Joel on WNYC’s Here’s the Thing.

Alec Baldwin: The trip to Russia in ’87, was that your first time there?

Billy Joel: It was the first time they’d ever had a major act from the West, from America. People had gone there before but played with small P.A. systems in little private rooms. We played at the Lenin Stadium, the Olympic Stadium, and we brought a western P.A. system, the same P.A. system we’d use in Madison Square Garden. They’d never heard a P.A. system like that. The helicopters come in at the beginning of “Goodnight Saigon” and they’re looking around for the helicopters. And then the hard rock is hitting and the drums – they started going berserk. There were security guards going around, giving people sedatives because they thought they were having fits. The Cold War ended to me right then. This was still when Reagan was calling it 'The Evil Empire.'  I’m thinking, we’re not going to have a war with these people. They can’t even get toilet paper right. We’re not going to fight with them. I don’t want to fight them. They love us. Everywhere I went, it was 'Viva America, long live America.' This is great. The Cold War ended so I was thrilled that that went the way it did.