The Ghost of Tom Joad (Electric Version)

The Ghost of Tom Joad - Bruce Springsteen

Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks

Goin' someplace there's no goin' back

Highway patrol choppers

Comin' up over the ridge

Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge

Shelter line stretchin'

'Round the corner

Welcome to the new world order

Families sleepin' in their cars

In the Southwest

No home no job no peace no rest

Well the highway is alive tonight

But nobody's kiddin' nobody

About where it goes

I'm sittin' down here

In the campfire light

Searchin' for the ghost of Tom Joad

He pulls a prayer book out

Of his sleeping bag

Preacher lights up a butt

And takes a drag

Waitin' for when the last shall be first

And the first shall be last

In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass

Got a one-way ticket

To the promised land

You got a hole in your belly

And gun in your hand

Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock

Bathin' in the city aqueduct

Well the highway is alive tonight

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

"Mom wherever there's a cop beatin' a guy

Wherever a hungry newborn baby cries

Where there's a fight

'Gainst the blood and hatred in the air

Look for me Mom I'll be there

Wherever there's somebody fightin'

For a place to stand

Or decent job or a helpin' hand

Wherever somebody's strugglin'

To be free

Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me "

Well the highway is alive tonight

Where it's headed everybody knows

I'm sittin' down here

In the campfire light

With the ghost of old Tom Joad

Well the highway is alive tonight

But nobody's kiddin' nobody about

Where it goes

I'm sittin' 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