Complex Numbers

The Power of Rock & Roll

There can be no clearer evidence of the world-shattering power of rock & roll in general - and Bruce Springsteen in particular - than the following article.

Did the Boss help bring down the Berlin Wall?

BERLIN - When Bruce Springsteen spoke out against the Berlin Wall at the biggest concert in East German history in 1988, no one in the crowd of 160,000 had the faintest idea that the symbol of the Cold War would soon be history.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25696021/>1=43001

“Springsteen’s concert and speech certainly contributed in a larger sense to the events leading up to the fall of the Wall,” said Gerd Dietrich, a historian at Berlin’s Humboldt University.

Okay, giving credit where credit is due, I have to give Pink Floyd partial credit. Still:

Springsteen stopped halfway through the three-hour show for a short speech — in heavily accented German:

“I want to tell you I’m not here for or against any government,” Springsteen said, as he pointedly introduced his rendition of the Bob Dylan ballad “Chimes of Freedom.”

“I came to play rock ’n’ roll for you East Berliners in the hope that one day all the barriers will be torn down.”

Well, of course we can't point the finger of responsibility at any one person. Like any action in a Communist country, the fall of the Wall was a group effort. Still, sometimes these things take a catalyst, or at least a Last Straw.

I had a friend in the Army at the time stationed in Germany, and he was there when the Wall came down. Got me a piece of it, too. I haven't the slightest idea where it is now - most likely at some point, some well-meaning cohabitant thought it was trash. Women - you gotta watch 'em every second (hmm, that's not such a bad thing).

“People didn’t want to leave when it was over,” [Cherno Zobatey] said [of the concert]. “The police gave up after a while. I walked back across town for about two hours and everywhere everyone was happy and on a real high. But it didn’t feel like a revolution, just yet anyhow.”

I forget who said it, but I've heard that it's not poverty that causes revolutions - it's the knowledge of poverty.

Twenty years later, Bruce is still working for social justice. And East Berlin? It's history.



Thanks to Deelyte- Chillin' for sending me the link!