Ed Brayton is a journalist, commentator and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of 
The world is celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Berlin Wall coming down, as well it should. That was a great event in the annals of liberty. And it reminds me of the concert that was done there a year later when Roger Waters performed The Wall live. The show included American and Russian soldiers, choirs and orchestral musicians as well as a number of other famous singers doing some of the songs.
A lot of Pink Floyd fans hate this show but I loved it. Well, most of it. I don't have a clue what the hell Bryan Adams was doing there, but most of the other performances were quite good - especially Cyndi Lauper, who really has a tremendous voice. And the stage show was extraordinary. Here's a clip of the last 10 minutes of the show, which includes the tearing down of the wall that had been built up throughout the first act.
And here's the encore, a song called The Tide is Turning from a different Waters album. It was a perfect way to end a concert that explored Cold War themes. Except for Bryan Adams, again, who just doesn't belong there.
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I remember listening to that live (and waiting 20 minutes as they had to 'reboot' the set after a bad start). It had its moments but what I remember most is that its the show that introduced me to Van Morrison (who sang Comfortably Numb).
Posted by: yoshi | November 14, 2009 10:03 AM
Awesome.
Posted by: Sadie Morrison | November 14, 2009 10:29 AM
That was powerful. I can't even imagine the amount of money and man-hours required to put on such a larger-than-life show.
Posted by: Eric | November 14, 2009 12:34 PM
Having read A Saucerful of Secrets, a history of the band up until the late 80s or so, I was prepared to hate that concert. Waters is portrayed as quite a jerk within that book. He's also apparently tone deaf, which is quite an amazing obstacle for any musician to overcome, much less one who actually writes his own tunes. I enjoyed the concert despite the big question mark that appeared over my head at the appearance of Bryan Adams. Cyndi Lauper's presence also puzzled me but her performance won me over. The best cameo award has to go to Albert Finney as the judge in the final sequence. I felt sorry for the fake David Gilmour, but he did a decent job.
Posted by: Strummer | November 14, 2009 12:51 PM
I don't know how you can bring up that show and not mention Joni Mitchell singing Goodbye Blue Sky. She is just outrageously great there.
Posted by: FishyFred | November 14, 2009 12:51 PM
I can't say I'm a fan of anyone in the show, but I thoroughly enjoyed it at the time, and it seems to have held up well.
I had forgotten Bryan Adams existed. So I get to remember some bad 80s music. Sucks.
Posted by: kehrsam | November 14, 2009 1:29 PM
I like Cyndi Lauper too, but why the hell did they have her sing "Another Brick in the Wall"? That was awful.
A great concert though, if a little too on the nose.
Posted by: Geoff | November 14, 2009 1:58 PM
God, Cyndi Lauper sucks a thousand times more than Bryan Adams.
Posted by: allison | November 14, 2009 4:27 PM
The fall of the Berlin Wall was a part of a larger wave of events which made 1989 such a great year in the history of Europe. It began with the roundtable talks in Spring 1989 in Poland, where Communists and anti-communist opposition came to an agreement to save the country from complete economic and political disaster. I remember this year, it was wonderful to live through it.
Posted by: Roman | November 14, 2009 5:24 PM
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hang on! Why are we celebrating the fall of the Berlin Wall? I thought we were all freedom-hating communists here!
I'm so confused.
Posted by: MPW | November 14, 2009 5:46 PM
As is standard practice in internet politics, I notice members of every faction are claiming their side, or the icons of their side, are solely responsible for the fall of communism.
Ask a republican, it was all the republicans work, and the democrats were a load of traitorous communists themselves. Ask a democrat, and it was their commitment to peaceful resolution and economic success that bought it down, while the republicans could think only of preparing for a military conflict. Ask a Christian, and communism was brought down by it's godlessness and lack of Christian morals. Ask a communist... well, if you can actually *find* one, he'll say that the fall happened from within due to corruption and incompetence.
Posted by: Suricou Raven | November 14, 2009 7:36 PM
@Suricou
Ask an American, and they will start deliberating whether the credit goes to *American* democrats or *American* republicans ;-) As if the locals had no say in the matter ;-)
Posted by: Roman | November 15, 2009 11:27 AM
The absolute coolest thing about that show is that Thomas Dolby agreed to participate when they said they could suspend him from a crane.
Posted by: Jon H | November 17, 2009 6:25 PM