Live 10 Mar 2000 version
[Spoken intro:] Thank you. Thank you. I'm gonna sing this one tonight for the Fort Lauderdale Veterans Center. Lots of folks with us here tonight from the Fort Lauderdale Vet Center. They serve veterans and their families. And, uh, professional counseling, community education. They're here working for veterans in Fort Lauderdale. If you see them on the way out give them a hand, stop by and see what they're all about. It's for the folks from Fort Lauderdale Veterans Center.
Men walking 'long the railroad tracks
Going someplace, there's no going back
Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge
Hard 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
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 he 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
Come on
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
Yeah look for me, Mom, I'll be there
Wherever somebody's fighting for a place to stand
Or a decent job or a helping hand
Wherever somebody's struggling to be free
Well look in their eyes, Mom, and you'll see me"
Well the highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes
I'm sitting down here in the campfire light
Yeah with the ghost of old Tom Joad
The above lyrics are for the live 10 Mar 2000 performance of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD at National Car Rental Center in Sunrise, FL, during The Reunion Tour. The song was played in a full-band arrangement.
List of available versions of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD on this website:
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD [1995 album version]