“The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Bruce Springsteen

The Ghost of Tom Joad
Columbia Records
1995




This is a song based on John Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath. Tom Joad is a character invoked as a symbol of struggle against the powerful and wealthy.

Man walks along the railroad track

Goin' some place, there's no turnin' back

The Highway Patrol chopper's

Comin' up over the ridge

Man sleeps by a campfire under the bridge

The shelter line stretchin' around the corner

Welcome to the New World Order

Families sleepin' in their cars

Out in the Southwest

No job, no home, no peace, no rest

This stanza continues the bleak picture of poverty.

And the highway is alive tonight

Nobody's kiddin nobody about where it goes

I'm sitting down here in the campfire light

Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

He pulls his prayer book out of a sleepin' bag

The preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag

He's waitin' for when the last shall be first and

The first shall be last

In a cardboard box sleepin under tha overpass

With a one way ticket to the promised land

With a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand

Sleepin on a pillow of solid rock

Bathin' in the cities' aqueducts

And the highway is alive tonight

And where it's headed, everybody knows

I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light

Waitin on the Ghost of Tom Joad

Now Tom Said;

"Ma, whenever there's a cop beatin' a guy

Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries

Where there's a fight against the blood and

Hatred in the air look for me ma' I'll be there

Wherever somebodies fightin for a place to stand

For a decent job or a helpin' hand

Wherever somebody is strugglin' to be free

Look in their eyes ma, you'll see me

And the highway is alive tonight

Nobody's kiddin nobody about where it goes

I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light

With the Ghost of Tom Joad

Interpretation

Man walks along the railroad track

Goin' some place, there's no turnin' back

The Highway Patrol chopper's

Comin' up over the ridge

This stanza introduces the literary character Tom Joad from the novel. The scene corresponds to his flight from the law after he kills a murderer.

Man sleeps by a campfire under the bridge

The shelter line stretchin' around the corner

Welcome to the New World Order

The stanza paints a more generic scene. A homeless man is sleeping under a bridge because the shelter was full. The “New World Order” is a reference to the conspiracy theory that the rich and powerful are working to establish a world government. The singer implies that the poverty represented by this homeless man would be the result of such a system.

Families sleepin' in their cars

Out in the Southwest

No job, no home, no peace, no rest

This stanza continues the bleak picture of poverty.

And the highway is alive tonight

Nobody's kiddin nobody about where it goes

I'm sitting down here in the campfire light

Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

This stanza alludes to Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan. The “highway” on which the parable takes place is full of activity. There are robbers, victims, and self-righteous onlookers but the hero of the story is missing—the narrator is searching for Tom Joad’s “ghost”. This means he wants someone to stand up against these wrongs but no one can be found.

He pulls his prayer book out of a sleepin' bag

The preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag

He's waitin' for when the last shall be first and

The first shall be last

In this stanza, the “preacher” symbolizes God’s preference for the poor and oppressed and God’s opposition to the wealthy and powerful by showing the nearness of God to the poor. The “preacher” hopes for the day to come when the words of liberation in the Bible will become a reality.

In a cardboard box sleepin under tha overpass

With a one way ticket to the promised land

With a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand

Sleepin on a pillow of solid rock

Bathin' in the cities' aqueducts

This stanza present one more scene of poverty though this one includes overtones of violence. Implied here is that poverty contributes to and exacerbates violence towards and by those caught in poverty.

And the highway is alive tonight

And where it's headed, everybody knows

I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light

Waitin on the Ghost of Tom Joad

Now Tom Said;

"Ma, whenever there's a cop beatin' a guy

Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries

Where there's a fight against the blood and

Hatred in the air look for me ma' I'll be there

Wherever somebodies fightin for a place to stand

For a decent job or a helpin' hand

Wherever somebody is strugglin' to be free

Look in their eyes ma, you'll see me

This stanza returns to the literary character of Tom Joad and depicts him telling his mother that he will fight tirelessly to oppose violence, poverty, hatred, inequality, exploitation, and oppression. He says that wherever people fight against those things he will be there in spirit. The obvious parallel is that just as Tom Joad is present wherever people fight injustice, so is Jesus.

And the highway is alive tonight

Nobody's kiddin nobody about where it goes

I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light

With the Ghost of Tom Joad

This stanza changes its tone since now the narrator is no longer looking for the ghost. The “ghost of Tom Joad” is present. This indicates a realization on the part of the narrator that he must stand up and fight against injustice and in this way carries on Tom’s legacy.