Sunday, August 18, 2013

Bruce Springsteen: The Ghost of Tom Joad



This is the title track from Springsteen's 1995 album. Tom Joad, of course, is a character from Steinbeck's The Grapes for Wrath and the final verse is a paraphrase of Joad's final speech in the novel.

But there are contemporary resonances too:
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.
Rather surprisingly, this reached no. 26 in the UK. It was not released as a single in America.

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