The recent Madison Square Garden Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Concert generated a bit of politics from The Boss. This especially potent rendition of his 1995 song The Ghost of Tom Joad.
The song has a bit of history to it. That most famous movie year of 1939 gave us Henry Fonda as Tom Joad in the John Ford film of John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath. Woody Guthrie was commissioned to write a song for the movie, The Ballad of Tom Joad was so well done that Steinbeck commented that Guthrie managed to tell the story of a big book and a long movie all in one little song. Bruce Springsteen studied all three art forms and came up with his version which he claims true to the style of the times. AMPED UP A BIT! This is a rare one with lyrics as good as the music. All made much better by Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello
And to keep the politics warm Springsteen brings out Old Tom Fogarty to a bit of …ain no fortunate child…
The Ghost of Tom Joad
Men walkin’ ‘long the railroad tracks
Goin’ someplace there’s no goin’ back
Highway patrol choppers comin’ up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretchin’ round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleepin’ in their cars in the southwest
No home no job no peace no restThe highway is alive tonight
But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
Searchin’ for the ghost of Tom JoadHe pulls prayer book out of his sleeping bag
Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
Waitin’ for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box ‘neath the underpass
Got a one-way ticket to the promised land
You got a hole in your belly and gun in your hand
Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
Bathin’ in the city aqueductThe highway is alive tonight
But where it’s headed everybody knows
I’m sittin’ down here in the campfire light
Waitin’ on the ghost of Tom JoadNow Tom said "Mom, wherever there’s a cop beatin’ a guy
Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries
Where there’s a fight ‘gainst the blood and hatred in the air
Look for me Mom I’ll be there
Wherever there’s somebody fightin’ for a place to stand
Or decent job or a helpin’ hand
Wherever somebody’s strugglin’ to be free
Look in their eyes Mom you’ll see me."The highway is alive tonight
But nobody’s kiddin’ nobody about where it goes
I’m sittin’ downhere in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad