"Springsteen lashes out at bankers in Berlin show!" / Reuters News Service

[KoKo]

Springsteen lashes out at bankers in Berlin show
Reuters) - Rocker Bruce Springsteen touched on a nerve of widespread discontent with the financiers and bankers at a Berlin concert on Wednesday, railing against them as "greedy thieves" and "robber barons."
'FAT AND EASY ON BANKER'S HILL'

http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120531&t=2&i=613458813&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE84U022200

Berlin, largely a working class city, has been a special place for Springsteen since his July 1988 concert behind the old Iron Curtain in East Berlin.

Watched by 160,000 people, or about 1 percent of then Communist East Germany's population, it was the biggest rock show in East German history, and The Boss boldly spoke out against the "barriers" keeping East Germans in their portion of the city.

Some historians have said the concert fed into a movement gaining moment at the time that contributed to the tearing down of the Berlin Wall 16 months later in November 1989.

"Once in a while you play a place, a show that ends up staying inside of you, living with you for the rest of your life," he told the crowd on Wednesday after being handed a poster from a fan thanking him for the 1988 concert. "East Berlin in 1988 was certainly one of them."

Even though Germany has managed to come through the current financial crisis in fairly good shape, Berlin itself is struggling with a double-digit unemployment rate, low wages and a high poverty. And some of the lyrics in Springsteen's "Wrecking Ball" album clearly struck a chord with the crowd.

In "Shackled and Drawn", Springsteen sings about "Gambling man rolls the dice, working man pays the bill. It's still fat and easy up on banker's hill. Up on banker's hill the party's going strong, down here below we're shackled and drawn."

With "Easy Money", Springsteen rips into the "fat cats" who will "just think it's funny ... when you're whole world comes tumbling down." In "Death to My hometown", Springsteen assails the "greedy thieves and robber barons" who "destroyed our families, factories and they took our homes." In the song "Wrecking Ball", he sings: "Hold tight to your anger."



More at.......
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/31/entertainment-us-brucespringsteen-berlin-idUSBRE84U00N20120531

[KoKo]

1. Friday Night Remembers........

Kind of a cool story.