YOUNGSTOWN^©

Live 09 Dec 1995 version

[Spoken intro:]

Thank you, uh... we'll continue in that theme there. This is a song about how [clears throat]... how quick we are at sort of abandoning our own, you know. Uh, when I was just about finished with the songs for most of the Tom Joad record, I was staying up at night and had a little insomnia and went, went downstairs into my living room and pulled a book off the shelf and it was a book called "Journey To Nowhere". And uh, text by a fella named Dale Maharidge and photos by a fella named Michael Williamson and [clears throat] what they did was they... they traveled across the country in the mid-80's by train, uh, hopped in boxcars and all the way across into California and up into Oregon and they were sort of chronicling what they were seeing happening out there at the time, you know, as we were all kind of sitting home and hearing about "Morning in America". I was hearing from a lot of folks that I was seeing, people who worked at these different food banks and, and they reported in the book that, that there were more people coming in and needed those services than ever before, that there were people coming in who'd never been in before, there were people who previously, you know, held, held good jobs, had supported their families, you know. And uh... all night, you know I finished the book in one night and put it, put it down and I remember thinking, well, I'm a guy, like, I know, I know one thing, I know how to do one thing and what would happen if you're doing, you've done something for 30 years, and something that's built, built the buildings that we live in and built the, built the bridges that we cross, people who've given their sons to die in, in the wars for this country, who end up thrown out like yesterday's newspapers. So, you know, what would I say to my kids if they came home at night and I couldn't feed them or I couldn't, if they were hurt and I couldn't help them or I couldn't make them safe, insure their health, you know. I don't know. It strikes to such a central part of who you are... This is called "Youngstown". [cheers]

[Song:]

Here in northeast Ohio, back in eighteen-o-three
James and Dan Heaton found the ore that was linin' 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 sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy worked the furnaces, he kept 'em hotter than hell
I come home from 'Nam worked my way to scarfer, a job that'd suit the devil as well
That taconite coke and limestone fed my children, made my pay
Them smokestacks reachin' like the arms of God into a beautiful sky of soot and clay

Here in Youngstown, here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

Well my daddy came on the Ohio works when he come home from World War Two
Now that yard's just scrap and rubble, he said that those big boys did what Hitler couldn't do
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 dyin' for

Here in Youngstown, here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' 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, and sir you tell me the world changed
Once I made you rich enough, rich enough to forget my name

And Youngstown, and Youngstown
My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown

Now 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

Page last updated: 22 Jul 2008

10 tracks from the 08 and 09 Dec 1995 shows at Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA, were broadcast on the 14 Dec 1995 edition of the Columbia Records Radio Hour radio show. YOUNGSTOWN from the second night at Tower Theater was among the songs used, and the above lyrics are for that live version of the song. The radio show also used a selection of 4 studio tracks from The Ghost Of Tom Joad album (including YOUNGSTOWN) intercepted with interview segments -- a total of 35 minutes of a 90-minute interview journalist Bob Costs conducted with Bruce Springsteen on 21 Nov 1995 either before or after Springsteen's public warm-up show at the State Theater, New Brunswick, NJ.

The complete Columbia Records Radio Hour show was officially released in 1996 on a US-only promotional cassette and reel-to-reel tape.

• Bruce Springsteen: Columbia Records Radio Hour Part 1 & 2
  A very rare 1996 US-only promotional cassette. A-side contains album selections from The Ghost Of Tom Joad album interspersed with segments from an interview with Bob Costas; B-side includes a total of ten live tracks taped at the Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA, on 08 and 09 Dec 1995 (six of which were never made available in commercial form). Black-and-white picture inlay card, catalogue # COL CAT 7698.
  
  
   
• Bruce Springsteen: Columbia Records Radio Hour
  Extremely rare set of two 1996 promotion-only tapes for radio station use; containing ten live tracks recorded at Tower Theater, Philadelphia, PA, on 08 and 09 Dec 1995 on one reel, and an interview with Bob Costas on the other. Boxes feature blue/white labels with company logos of the manufacturer "NOW! Recording Systems, Inc.". No catalogue number.

List of available versions of YOUNGSTOWN on this website:

• Album's version (more details)
• Live 09 Dec 1995 version
• Live 29 Jun 2000 version

Scans and info for the above releases are taken from the Lost In The Flood website.