Live July 2018 version
Alright. I never believed that people come to my shows or to rock shows in general to be told anything. But, I do believe that they come to be reminded of things, to be reminded of who they are at their most joyous, at their deepest when life feels full. It's a good place to get in touch with your heart and your spirit. It's good to be amongst the crowd, be reminded of who we are and who we can be collectively. Music does those things pretty well. Sometimes, they can come in pretty handy. And particularly these days, when some reminding of who we are and who we can be isn't such a bad thing. You know? Uh... I re− I refer back to the weekend of the March For Our Lives when we saw all those young people in Washington, and citizens all around the country, remind us of what faith in America and what real faith in American democracy and how sacred that is. You know, uh... that weekend, you just saw what it actually looked and felt like. And it was just encouraging to see all those people out on the street and all that righteous passion alive in the service of something good. To see it's still there, at the center of the beating heart of our country... and... in spite of what we've been going through. And it was a good day, you know? It was just... it was just one good day. But it was a necessary day. Because these are times when we've also seen folks marching, and in the highest offices of our land, who want to speak to our darkest angels, who wanna call up the ugliest and the most divisive ghosts of America's past. And they want to destroy the idea of an America for all. That's their intention. That's what we've been seeing, in the outrage of the broken families on the border, and in hate-filled marches on American streets this year. Things I never thought I would see again in my lifetime. Things that I thought were dead and gone forever, on the ash heap of history. You know, uh... we've come too far and worked too hard, too many good people paid too high a price, paid, paid with their lives, to allow this to happen now. You know, uh, uh... There's been too much hard work done, and sacrifice. There's a beautiful quote by Dr. King that says, "The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice." It is important to believe in those words and to carry yourself and to act accordingly, to live with compassion. And have faith in that what we're seeing now, it's just another hard chapter in the long, long, on− ongoing battle for the soul of the nation.
Men walking 'long the railroad tracks
Going someplace, there's no going back
Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge
Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
Shelter line stretching 'round the corner
Welcome to the new world order
Families sleeping in their cars in the southwest
No home, no job, no peace, no rest
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
He pulls a prayer book out of his sleeping bag
Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
Waiting for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass
You 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
Well the highway is alive tonight
Where it's headed everybody knows
I'm sitting down here in the campfire light
Waiting on the ghost of Tom Joad
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
Wherever somebody 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, Mom, you'll see me"
Well the highway is alive tonight
Where it's headed everybody knows
I'm sitting down here in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad
The above lyrics are for the live July 2018 performance of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD at Walter Kerr Theatre in New York City, NY, during Springsteen On Broadway. The song was played solo on acoustic guitar and harmonica.
This performance of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD was recorded on 17 or 18 July 2018 during the taping of the Springsteen On Broadway Netflix special. It was released on the Springsteen On Broadway album in 2018.
Springsteen On Broadway was a Bruce Springsteen concert residency held at Walter Kerr Theatre (in 2017-2018) and St. James Theatre (in 2021) in New York City, NY. The show consisted of Springsteen performing five shows a week, Tuesday through Saturday, at the Broadway theatres. The sold-out series of performances began with seven previews starting on 03 Oct 2017 and officially opened on 12 Oct 2017. It was extended three times after its initial eight-week run, running through 15 Dec 2018 and bringing the total number of performances at Walter Kerr Theatre to 238. On 10 Jun 2018, Springsteen received a special Tony Award for his Broadway show. In 2021, an additional limited run was announced, this time held at St. James Theatre instead of Walter Kerr Theatre. This new series of performances opened on 26 Jun 2021 and ran through 04 Sep 2021, bringing the total number of performances at both theatres to 268.
The show featured Springsteen, solo, playing guitar, piano, and harmonica, performing his music, restating incidents from his 2016 autobiography Born To Run, and performing other spoken reminiscences written for the show. His wife, Patti Scialfa, has also appeared at most shows, singing backing vocals on a total of three different songs.
Springsteen On Broadway, a Netflix special directed by Grammy- and Emmy-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny, was filmed during two special invitation-only shows on 17 and 18 Jul 2018. The film launched globally on Netflix on 16 Dec 2018 at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time, just hours after the final Broadway performance at Walter Kerr Theatre closed. Two days prior, on 14 Dec 2018, Columbia Records released Springsteen On Broadway, an audio album encompassing the full film soundtrack. The audio was mixed by Bob Clearmountain and mastered by Bob Ludwig. The album is available physically as a 2-disc CD set or a 4-disc LP set, as well as digitally.
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List of available versions of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD on this website:
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD [1995 album version]