“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. East Berlin in 1988 was certainly one of them.” — Bruce Springsteen, May 30, 2012
In 1988, Bruce Springsteen played to about 160,000 East Germans (and by some estimates up to 300,000)–roughly one percent of East Germany’s entire population.
Much has been written (including an entire book) about that history-making and history-shaping show; it’s widely considered to be one of the accelerators that led to the removal of the Berlin Wall the following year.
Bruce doesn’t often talk about that show, but we certainly know it made an impression on him, because almost a quarter-century later he paid tribute to it when he opened his second-biggest German show ever with a cover of Wizz Jones’ 1973 folk song, “When I Leave Berlin,” a song written from the perspective of an East German yearning for the freedom of the west.
When Bruce started playing it, unannounced except as “something we learned just for you” it seemed clear that most of the crowd didn’t recognize it, but Bruce knows his craft: all it takes is the first mention of the name of your current location in song to get an audience revved up.
Had Bruce chosen to use its original arrangement, “When I Leave Berlin” might have fallen flat, but Bruce wisely leveraged the full power of his band–horn section and all–and gave the song an energetic Seeger Sessions-esque treatment.
If you paid close attention to the original and cover versions above, you might have noticed that Bruce made a subtle but significant lyrical change as well:
In the original version, the chorus begins with “Here today, but the wall is open, there are flowers alongside the dunes.”
Bruce changed the back half of that line to “gone are the soldiers and their guns” — just in case the meaning of the original lyrics weren’t as obvious so many years down the road.
It was a beautiful performance for an appreciative audience–just one of the many times Bruce shows his appreciation for his local audiences through song.
When I Leave Berlin
First performed: May 30, 2012 (Berlin, Germany)
Last performed: May 30, 2012 (Berlin, Germany)
When I first saw him in 78 ar age 15 I remember that he donated to the local food bank. It made a huge impression on me. Here was this famous guy taking the time to leave a footprint in the places he played in.
“Bruce shows his appreciation for his local audiences through song”. (KR)
You’re not kidding–this is great cultural understanding by Bruce. Liked the original by Wizz Jones as well.