The Ghost Of Tom Joad

Words & Music:

Bruce Springsteen

Men walkin' long the railroad tracks.

D Bm A

Goin' someplace, there's no goin' back.

Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge.

Bm A Bm

Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge.

Shelter line stretchin' round the corner.

D Bm A

Welcome to the new world order.

Families sleepin' in their cars in the Southwest.

Bm A Bm

No home, no job, no peace, no rest.

CHORUS:

The highway is alive tonight,

D A Bm

But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes.

I'm sittin' down here in the campfire light,

Bm A Bm

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 a gun in your hand.

Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock, bathin' in the city aqueduct.

CHORUS:

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 a decent job or a helpin' hand

Wherever somebody's strugglin' to be free

Look in their eyes Mom you'll see me."

CHORUS: