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Album version
Here in northeast Ohio, back in eighteen-o-three
James and Danny Heaton found the ore that was lining Yellow Creek
They built a blast furnace here along the shore
And they made the cannon balls that helped the Union win the war
Here in Youngstown, here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinking down
Here darling in Youngstown
Well my daddy worked the furnaces, kept 'em hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer, a job that'd suit the devil as well
Well taconite coke and limestone fed my children and made my pay
Them smokestacks reaching like the arms of God into a beautiful sky of soot and clay
Here in Youngstown, here in Youngstown
Sweet Jenny I'm sinking down
Here darling in Youngstown
Well my daddy come on the Ohio works when he come home from World War Two
Now the yard's just scrap and rubble, he said "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do."
Yeah these mills they built the tanks and bombs that won this country's wars
We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam, now we're wondering what they were dying for
Here in Youngstown, here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinking down
Here darling in Youngstown
From the Monongahela valley to the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalachia, the story's always the same
Seven hundred tons of metal a day, now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough, rich enough to forget my name
And Youngstown, and Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinking down
Here darling in Youngstown
When I die I don't want no part of heaven, I would not do heaven's work well
I pray the devil comes and takes me to stand in the fiery furnaces of hell
YOUNGSTOWN is a song written by Bruce Springsteen and released on his 1995 album The Ghost Of Tom Joad. The above lyrics are for Bruce Springsteen's album version of YOUNGSTOWN as released in 1995.
YOUNGSTOWN is a bleak parable about the decay of industrialized America. It was played live acoustic on solo tours, and full-band on E Street Band tours.
In 1985, author Dale Maharidge and photographer Michael Williamson published a book titled Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass. The book chronicles the new class of unemployed and dispossessed workers that had arisen in the early 80's in the US. Springsteen was one of 15,000 people who bought a copy when the book was first published. And then, he said, "I sort of put it away on the shelf."
Ten years later, on a sleepless night in his Beverly Hills home, Springsteen reached to the bookshelf and pulled Journey To Nowhere; this ultimately provided the catalyst for the completion of his new album, The Ghost Of Tom Joad. "I was downstairs one night and I pulled [Journey To Nowhere] out and started to read it," he told the Washington Post. "And I read the whole book straight through. It's very powerful and basically it was a source for me for 'Youngstown' and 'The New Timer'." He told Bob Costas in an interview that he was very frightened when he closed the book. "You never know what tomorrow brings. It strikes you straight some sort of real." He added, "What if you couldn't take care of your family? What if you had to leave them? What if you couldn't be home with your sons and your daughters? What if you couldn't pay for their health care, and couldn't provide them with the health care that they need?"
By the time Springsteen recorded The Ghost Of Tom Joad, the book had gone out of print. In an effort "to replay something that meant something to me," he talked about the book in concerts during The Ghost Of Tom Joad Solo Acoustic Tour. When the publisher Hyperion Books decided to reprint it in March 1996, Springsteen wrote a new introduction for the book. In it, he mentions that he "had completed most of the Tom Joad record when one night, unable to sleep, I pulled this book down off my shelf. I read it in one sitting and I lay awake frightened by its implications. In the next week I wrote 'Youngstown' and 'The New Timer'." 15 years later, Springsteen introduced Maharidge and Williamson's work again, with his foreword to their 2011 book, Someplace Like America: Tales From the New Great Depression.
YOUNGSTOWN is a tribute to the family line of steel workers in Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley. It ponders the corporate bosses who built a steel plant in Youngstown, used up the local resources, and then walked away. The narrator's father says: "Them big boys did what Hitler couldn't do". That particular scenario is directly taken from Journey To Nowhere, in which laid off Youngstown steelworkers Joe Marshall Sr. and Jr. are poking through the rubble of the Campbell Works, whose six 10-story blast furnaces have been dynamited: "How could they shut us down?" The older man pauses. "What Hitler couldn't do, they did it for him."
YOUNGSTOWN was recorded sometime between April and June 1995 at Thrill Hill Recording (Springsteen's home studio) in Beverly Hills, CA. On this track, Springsteen handles guitar and vocals and is backed up by five musicians: Jim Hanson on bass, Gary Mallaber on drums and percussion, Chuck Plotkin on keyboard, Marty Rifkin on pedal steel guitar, and Soozie Tyrell on violin. The track, as well as the rest of the album, was produced by Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Plotkin and recorded and mixed by Toby Scott at Thrill Hill Recording.
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Endowed with large deposits of coal and iron as well as "old growth" hardwood forests needed to produce charcoal, the Youngstown area eventually developed a thriving steel industry. The area's first blast furnace, the Hopewell Furnace, was established in 1803 by James and Daniel Heaton; it was built on the banks of Yellow Creek in what is now Struthers. It was the first blast furnace in Ohio and likely the first one west of the Allegheny Mountains. The song's lyrics were sometimes misheard as James and Dan "Eaton" rather than "Heaton", but Dan did change his name to "Eaton" later in life.
The Monongahela Valley is located in north-central west Virginia and south western Pennsylvania in the United States. It is the path of the Monongahela River. The Mesabi Iron Range is a vast deposit of iron ore in the region collectively known as the Iron Range of Minnesota. Discovered in 1866, it is the chief deposit of iron ore in the United States. Appalachia is a region in the eastern United States that stretches from southern New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. The region is rich in coal deposits.
The Jeanette Blast Furnace (nicknamed Sweet Jenny in the song) once stood along the Mahoning River at the Brier Hill Plant of the Youngstown Sheet And Tube Company (YS&T). Built in 1917-1918 and lighted on 20 Sep 1918 by its namesake, Mary Jeanette Thomas, daughter of W.A. Thomas who was the President of Brier Hill Steel. The Jeanette furnace went out of blast in September 1977 when the Brier Hill Plant was shut down. It was one of the oldest blast furnaces in the United States, and the last of its kind in Youngstown. It was demolished on 29 Jan 1997.
Following the Jan-Feb 1995 studio reunion with the E Street Band and the release of Greatest Hits, Bruce Springsteen writing activity increased significantly. Between March and September 1995, Springsteen wrote and recorded about two-albums worth of new songs. From the scattered comments made by Springsteen and other session participants, it would seem that over an album's worth of solo material and over an album's worth of band material were recorded during these sessions. The Ghost Of Tom Joad album consist of 7 solo tracks and 5 band tracks. The songs Springsteen recorded solo may have spanned the entire session period and the band sessions appear to have been split into two or three phases during the spring and summer of 1995.
In his 1998 book Songs, Springsteen wrote: "I knew that The Ghost of Tom Joad wouldn't attract my largest audience. But I was sure the songs on it added up to a reaffirmation of the best of what I do. The record was something new, but it was also a reference point to the things I tried to stand for and be about as a songwriter.
The Ghost Of Tom Joad was released on Columbia Records on 21 Nov 1995. It was produced by Bruce Springsteen and Chuck Plotkin. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album in 1997.
The Ghost Of Tom Joad features 12 new Springsteen compositions and clocks at 50:16.
The album version of YOUNGSTOWN was included on the Columbia Records Radio Hour Part 1 & 2 radio show in 1995. It was also released on two promotional CD singles in 1996.
Other versions of YOUNGSTOWN were also officially released.
In preparation for The Ghost Of Tom Joad Solo Acoustic Tour, YOUNGSTOWN was performed during the tour's public warm-up rehearsal show that took place on 21 Nov 1995 at State Theatre in New Brunswick, NJ.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 75 times during The Ghost Of Tom Joad Solo Acoustic Tour (128 dates, November 1995 to May 1997). At the beginning it was performed on every single show during the tour's first five months, but then it started to get omitted from the setlist until it became more and more of a rarity as the tour progressed. In the 1997 part of the tour, which consisted the tour's last 27 shows, the song appeared only four times. The live 09 Dec 1995 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the Columbia Records Radio Hour Part 1 & 2 radio show in 1995. The live 19 Mar 1996 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the King's Hall, Belfast March 19, 1996 official live download in 2017.
In preparation for The Reunion Tour, YOUNGSTOWN was performed during both of the tour's two public warm-up rehearsal shows that took place in March 1999 in Asbury Park. The song is also known to have been practiced during at least one of the private rehearsals that took place in March 1999 in Asbury Park prior to the tour's first leg, during the private rehearsal that took place in April 1999 in Barcelona the day before the tour kicked off in Spain, and during the private rehearsal that took place in February 2000 in University Park, PA, the day before the tour's final leg kicked off.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 132 times during what is known as The Reunion Tour (132 dates, April 1999 to July 2000); that is each and every one of the tour's regular dates. The song was played in a new raging rocking arrangement that soon became one of the highlights of the tour. The live 25 Sep 1999 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the First Union Center, Philadelphia September 25, 1999 official live download in 2020. The live 30 Sep 1999 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the Chicago September 30, 1999 official live download in 2018. The live 23 Oct 1999 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the Los Angeles October 23, 1999 official live download in 2019. The live 27 Jun 2000 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the Madison Square Garden, New York 06/27/2000 official live download in 2021. The live 29 Jun 2000 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the Live In New York City album and home video in 2001.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed once during The Rising Tour (120 dates, August 2002 to October 2003). The song was played in an acoustic arrangement featuring Springsteen on acoustic guitar and vocals and Soozie Tyrell on violin.
In preparation for the Vote For Change Tour, YOUNGSTOWN is known to have been practiced during two of the tour's three private rehearsals that took place from 27 to 29 Sep 2004 in Asbury Park.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 4 times during the Vote For Change Tour (7 dates, October 2004), most appropriately in Pennsylvania and Ohio.
In preparation for the Devils & Dust Solo Acoustic Tour, YOUNGSTOWN was performed during both of the tour's two public warm-up rehearsal shows that took place in April 2005 in Asbury Park. The song is also known to have been practiced during at least 3 of the private rehearsals that took place in March and April 2005 in Asbury Park prior to the tour's first leg.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 11 times during the Devils & Dust Solo Acoustic Tour (72 dates, April to November 2005), mainly in the tour's first couple of weeks.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed once during The Seeger Sessions Tour.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 10 times during the Magic Tour (100 dates, October 2007 to August 2008), most of them toward the end of the tour. On this tour, the song was played in a full-band rock arrangement. The 30 Aug 2008 performance was during Harley-Davidson's 105th Anniversary Celebration.
In preparation for the Working On A Dream Tour, YOUNGSTOWN is also known to have been practiced during at least one of the private rehearsals that took place in March 2009 in Asbury Park prior to the tour's first leg.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 16 times during the Working On A Dream Tour (83 dates, April to November 2009). On this tour, the song was played in a full-band rock arrangement. The live 28 Jun 2009 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the London Calling: Live In Hyde Park home video in 2010.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 18 times during the Wrecking Ball Tour (133 dates, March 2012 to September 2013). On this tour, the song was played in a full-band rock arrangement. The live 12 Nov 2012 version of YOUNGSTOWN was released on the St. Paul, MN Nov 12, 2012 official live download in 2020.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 3 times during the High Hopes Tour (34 dates, January to May 2014). On this tour, the song was played in a full-band rock arrangement. Audio recordings for most High Hopes Tour shows are officially available for purchase.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 6 times during The River Tour 2016 (75 dates, January to September 2016). On this tour, the song was played in a full-band rock arrangement. Audio recordings for all The River Tour 2016 shows are officially available for purchase.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed 10 times during the Summer '17 Tour (14 dates, January and February 2017). On this tour, the song was played in a full-band rock arrangement. Audio recordings for all Summer '17 Tour shows are officially available for purchase.
YOUNGTOWN was performed off-tour on 14 Dec 1995 at Ed Sullivan Theater in New York City, NY, during the taping of an episode of Late Show with David Letterman.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed on two of the four Barack Obama 2008 election rallies on which Springsteen appeared.
YOUNGSTOWN was performed on two of the seven Barack Obama 2012 election rallies on which Springsteen appeared. The song was played solo on acoustic guitar.
At least 15 artists have recorded and released Bruce Springsteen's YOUNGSTOWN.
Thanks riverdude2 (at Greasy Lake) for the higher resolution cover scan of the book Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass.
Some of the above info about the studio recording and the live performances is taken from Brucebase. Info for some of the above YOUNGSTOWN cover releases are taken from the Nebraska website. The Jeanette Blast Furnace photo is copyright Harald Finster (StahlArt Industrial Photography) from Aachen, Germany, used with permission.
Any additions, comments, or corrections to this page are always welcome. You can contact me via the below form or by email: .
List of available versions of YOUNGSTOWN on this website:
YOUNGSTOWN [Album version]
