European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - November 7, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Review by Mikal Gilmore King features Syndicate Truro Springsteen s record breaking tour night engagement at the los Angeles memorial coliseum All together he played or roughly 340.000 people the biggest collective audience any single performer has drawn in the City s history was an unqualified Triumph. In particular his closing performance e last month also the final Date of his 17-month world tour was a heartening and exemplary event that demonstrated not merely Rock n Roll s ability to unify a mass audience in a common adventure of meaning but also the music s increasing capacity for social and political Impact. In fact it was an astonishingly wide ranging display Springsteen Sang songs of fear Hope anger courage revelry and simple forbearance with perhaps greater intensity and commitment than i d Ever heard from him before but also with a concern that seemed specific to the occasion. It was As if the stakes of each song each performance had been raised simply by the knowledge this concert was a matchless last stand of sorts a significant conclusion to an american sojourn that had come to matter As much to the audience As it did to the Singer and so Springsteen treated the evening As if it weren t his Triumph alone but rather a testament to what we had All come to share in the last year or so. In other words he treated it As a testament to the Ideal of hard earned Community to the ties that bind us sometimes Only for an evening or a season and sometimes for a lifetime. You could hear the dark Side of this theme in the raw blues toned fury of seeds a new song about Oil workers whose lives had been horribly ruined by the recent Vicissitudes of american business and government and you could hear a sad but Loving Side of it in the new spoken Intro to the River where Springsteen Affe tingly recounted a moment when he and his father come to realize that blood tics were irrefutable that sometimes they were even enough to overcome years of difference and bitterness. There were lighter instances that also conveyed Springsteen s Faith in the need and Worth of Community such As the splendid moment at the end of dancing in the dark when he beckoned his wife Julianne from the stage wings danced with her in Sweet abandon then swept her up in his arms and kissed her in a Long and Happy kiss. I had to save the last dance for her he said smiling proudly. Perhaps to some it seemed Bruce was saying he had discovered something new and wonderful to take the place of the Bond with this audience but More Likely he was simply giving us a glimpse of new expanded family in fact declaring that in a sense his marriage is his own Way of attempting to live up the the Best promises of his own Musit it s a real and risky commitment to making a better world. You can t Start a fire without a spark Springsteen has Sung Many times to Many audiences. He was open enough to show us just what that Means now is his own life. And there were even More statements just As generous and moving for example his dedication of no surrender to Steve Van Zandt and the members of the e Street band there s no Way i can Ever measure what their Friendship has meant Bruce Springsteen ends his 17-month world four in los Angeles. To me Over the Yea Sand his invitation to his sister Pam and his manager and producer Jon Landau to join him on guitars during his Gleeful and rambunctious encores. But the most stirring gestures and comments not surprisingly were the ones the Singer offered to his audience that massive excitable and somewhat confusing Force that has helped establish Springsteen As both an alluring pop idol and a daring Symbol of the modern american experience. Indeed a voice of egalitarian conscience unlike any that Rock has Ever before produced. This has been the greatest year of my life Springsteen told his fans. I want to thank you Lor making me feel like the Luckiest Man in the  and yet his Bond with this mass audience is also the trickiest example of Community mentioned Here Lor As Springsteen has won a phenomenally larger following this last year he has also tried to Challenge it in part by making his onstage commentary More pointedly political. It s As if he realized that an expanded and notably younger audience called for enlarged responsibility that it meant he would have to say More in plainer terms perhaps to avoid any further misinterpretations As the rambo of Rock As one odious bumper sticker read Sand perhaps simply to make More of a difference to More people if possible. His most daring attempt at this was a moment that came Midway in the opening set every night of his l. A.  we grew up in the 60s, we grew up with War. A War Many of us were involved in. If you re in your teens now next time they la be looking at you and in 1985, Blind Faith in your leaders will just get you  then he slammed into the most potent moment of his show a a or Sharp and impassioned version of Edwin Starr s 1970 Cordy motown hit , bearing Down hard and Clear on the line induction destruction who wants to die in a Warf was this a veiled Call to draft resistance i would like to think so but no matter How you regard it there is something terrifically heartening about a Man who stares out at his audience and who in Defiance of the current political mood and perhaps even the beliefs of that audience cares enough about them to Hope they will not die in a futile and demoralizing War. Watching this moment i was reminded of something Springsteen had said earlier on the tour remember nobody wins unless everybody  recalling that it was easy to understand How he could mix such songs As Dow bound train born in the u.s.a., Johnny 99, and trapped songs about people who Don t win with such rousing choices As i m Coin Down Thunder Road Bobby Jean glory djs Cadillac ranch and the glorious encore of twin and shout. For one thing he did it because Rock n Roll has always been about both extremes. In fact its Knack for combining joyous sounds and rhythms with hard facts sometimes makes a rough reality More bearable. But Springsteen also mixed them because he wanted us to understand How quickly one might Cross the line Between the two experiences songs like Dow bound train gave us a necessary idea of How isolated those who lose must feel while twin and shout helped us sense what it might feel like if we All did win or at least if we All joined. In those glorious closing minutes of this meaningful tour when 83,000 of us were shaking singing throwing our hands in the air in unison roaring lovingly at the Boss for just one More song and then another in All he played for More than four hours performing 31 son sit was an impressive display of collectively Felt and enjoyed Power. In fact the music and the moment Felt better because we knew we were All doing it together and we enjoyed our mass connection at that Point that is at least Lor those minutes we cared about a shared Joy and a common welfare. If Bruce Springsteen s shows this last year and a half were about anything they were about the idea that such a thing As Community is possible. Though this Ideal May have seemed As fleeting As the four hours that it took Springsteen to present it night after night i would t be surprised if the Singer spends the rest of his career restating that possibility that Hope that need in one Way or another. After All for All the hard knowledge and unvarnished disillusion in his music there is also a great Deal of intrepid Hope and Plain stamina. Indeed there was probably no More encouraging moment in his shows than when at the end of a night full of anguish and Triumph he Drew a deep Long breath Shook off his exhaustion with a Strong assuring shrug and said to us i think i m just about getting my second  it was the Promise that More and better moments were to come and that we could All share in them. But then clearly that has always been Rock n Roll s brightest Promise. November 7, 7965 stripes Magazine i