Live 15 Mar 2012 version
| Bruce Springsteen: | 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 | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | 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 | |
| Tom Morello: | 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's aqueduct | |
| Springsteen and Morello: | 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 | |
| Bruce Springsteen: | Now Tom said, "Mom, wherever there's a cop beating a guy |
| And 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 | |
| Tom Morello: | Wherever somebody's fighting for a place to stand |
| For a decent job or a helping hand | |
| Wherever somebody's struggling to be free | |
| Look in their eyes, Ma, you'll see me" | |
| Springsteen and Morello: | 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 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 | |
| With the ghost of old Tom Joad | |
| With the ghost of old Tom Joad |
The above lyrics are for the live 15 Mar 2012 performance of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD at Moody Theater in Austin, TX, during an intimate concert following Bruce Springsteen's keynote speech at the South By Southwest (SXSW) music festival. The song was performed as a duet with Tom Morello in a full-band rock arrangement similar to the 2014 album version.
Partial pro-shot video of the live 23 Mar 2012 performance of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD was subsequently posted on Bruce Springsteen's official website and Bruce Springsteen's YouTube channel.
List of available versions of THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD on this website:
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD [1995 album version]