The Ghost Of Tom Joad (1995) – Bruce Springsteen

The Ghost Of Tom Joad is a folk rock song by Bruce Springsteen and is the title track from his eleventh studio album released in 1995. It is the second song to feature here from the sessions after Dead Man Walkin’ although that song was not used on the album. The Ghost Of Tom Joad is a haunting and desolate track that grapples with the fractures of American capitalism and the human toll of economic displacement. It shines a light on America’s “rust belt,” regions once pulsing with industrial prosperity now left hollow by deindustrialization, joblessness, and social abandonment.

The song uses the character of Tom Joad from John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath as a symbol of resilience amid decay. Yet the speaker is trapped between crippling poverty and a crushing realization that they have no place in this changing America however The Ghost Of Tom Joad ultimately ends not in despair but in defiance: Wherever somebody’s struggling to be free / Look in their eyes, Ma, and you’ll see me”.

The following was extracted from the Wikipedia reference below:
The song also takes inspiration from The Ballad of Tom Joad by Woody Guthrie, which in turn was inspired by John Ford’s film adaptation of Steinbeck’s novel. Springsteen had in fact read the book, watched the film, and listened to the song, before writing The Ghost of Tom Joad. Springsteen identified with 1930s-style social activism, and sought to give voice to the invisible and unheard, the destitute and the disenfranchised. Like the rest of the album, The Ghost of Tom Joad is set in the early-to-mid-1990s, with contemporary times being likened to Dust Bowl images.

Originally a quiet folk song, has also been covered by Rage Against the Machine and Junip. Springsteen himself has performed the song in a variety of arrangements, including with the E Street Band, and a live recording featuring Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello as guest. In 2013, Springsteen re-recorded the track with Morello for his eighteenth studio album, High Hopes.

The Ghost of Tom Joad album was recorded between April and June 1995, at Springsteen’s Los Angeles home studio. The title track was given limited release as a single in The Netherlands and the UK, wherein the latter it reached number 26 on the UK Singles Chart. It was not released as a single in the U.S., and radio airplay on album-oriented rock stations was practically non-existent.

[Verse 1]
Men walking along the railroad tracks
Going someplace and there’s no going back
Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge

[Verse 2]
Shelter line stretching around the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleeping in the cars in the southwest
No home, no job, no peace, no rest

[Chorus]
Well, the highway is alive tonight
But nobody’s kidding nobody about where it goes
I’m sitting down here in the campfire light
Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad

[Verse 3]
He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag
Preacher lights up a butt and he takes a drag
Waiting for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass

[Verse 4]
Got a one-way ticket to the promised land
You got a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand
Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
Bathing in the city aqueduct

[Verse 5]
Now Tom said, “Mom, wherever there’s a cop beating a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me, Mom, I’ll be there

[Verse 6]
Wherever somebody’s fighting for a place to stand
Or a decent job or a helping hand
Wherever somebody’s struggling to be free
Look in their eyes, Ma, and you’ll see me”

References:
1. The Ghost of Tom Joad (song) – Wikipedia