30 years ago, Bruce Springsteen released The Ghost of Tom Joad, a mildly received record that is only slightly more produced than his heartbreaking Nebraska, which he released 13 years prior. Nebraska, recorded on a four-track tape recorder in Springsteen's basement, is rife with naked honesty and raw hopelessness and is still considered a timeless Springsteen cult classic.
Nebraska went Platinum (more than one million units sold) in the US charts, and to this day, consistently ranks smack dab in the middle of just about every list of “Greatest Records Of All Time.”
The Ghost of Tom Joad never received the same success--which is somehow fittingly appropriate (but I will get to that later). It only achieved Gold in the US (more than 500,000 units sold) and is pretty much only closely listened to by those fans that specifically want to closely listen to Springsteen’s thoughts about poverty and immigrants—in song.
The Ghost Of Tom Joad is perhaps the most relevant album in Springsteen’s canon
Often thought of as "kinfolk" to Nebraska, The Ghost Of Tom Joad keeps that similar subdued pace and thoughtful wonderment of a famous artist sitting on a basement couch reminding us all of the American (and Mexican) downtrodden. And like Nebraska, The Ghost Of Tom Joad was inspired by American literature and folk tales he was absorbing at the time, most notably--and more than obviously--John Steinbeck’s book The Grapes Of Wrath.
In case your eyes just glazed over because you skipped reading The Grapes Of Wrath in high school (or are or are younger than 38), Tom Joad is the protagonist in Steinbeck’s book and, in American folklore, he has come to represent the struggling and often overlooked working class hero—the stalwart individual doing whatever must be done to survive the troubles life will inevitably throw.
Much like Springsteen’s record, hardworking and honest Tom Joad is overlooked, passed over, and taken for granted by the broader society around him (much like Springsteen's record). Yet, in struggling through his life circumstances almost unseen, Tom clearly represents the backbone of America’s hope of progress and success.
Now, on a personal level, I hate it when songs and albums written decades ago highlighting struggle and disenfranchisement remain relevant today. Why do we keep having these same conversations over and over? Why do we need songwriters to remind us that life is tough and that we can’t forget about those for whom life is even tougher?
What’s the point of all that melancholic drudgery and why doesn’t it ever seem to go away? Leave me alone Springsteen, cause all I really want is to dance to a funky groove, drink a Coors Banquet, and high-five everyone around me.
Unfortunately, I am beginning to think there are no real clear answers to those questions—yes, you can and should dance to a funky groove and high-five everyone around you, but you can't do that all the time. In fact, maybe you shouldn't.
At the risk of overdoing the metaphor, let me say that America’s backbone--the unseen and underrepresented--will always have to bend and twist and get pushed around almost to the breaking point, but America’s backbone is still that part of us that makes us stand up straight. The American story is made up of struggles as much as it is made up of successes.
Now, I am not Bruce and I have no clue as to what was going through his mind as he wrote this album, but it seems to me The Ghost Of Tom Joad was not intended to be a political statement kind of album. The stories that he creates are deep and intricately woven to present real-life struggles, but he doesn’t try to give an answer to the issues he writes about on this record. Though he makes you feel his characters' restlessness and confusion about their lives, Springsteen is subtle and not up in your face about anything in particular.
He is presenting very real and messy life circumstances, yet on this record he seems more interested in forcing you--the listener--to draw your own conclusions about his stories and characters. He doesn't seem interested in simply telling you what he thinks and how he thinks you should think about what he thinks. This is not a Public Enemy record. This is not a Rage Against The Machine record…although let me take this moment to cut to a necessary sidebar:
In 2008 Springsteen brought Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine on the road with him and The E Street Band and effectively reinvented the title song "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" in one of the most explosive and meaningful collaborations in the history of everything everywhere. I saw that tour live in South Africa while I was living there at the time and my angsty soul is still recovering.
If you want a song to explode your emotions into a thousand different sonic places, their collaborative reworking of "The Ghost Of Tom Joad" is the one. I recommend seeing the video of their performance at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame 25th anniversary concert, which you can find on YouTube…but you already know that. So maybe that song is actually a little more charged up than I originally thought.
As a complete album, The Ghost Of Tom Joad is a jaw-dropping and gut-wrenching work created by one of America’s greatest songwriters and lyricists. But it is not sad or angry. Springsteen forces you to lean in and pay attention to his sometimes barely audible lyrics, which are telling the true-to-life stories we need to be consistently reminded of.
It tells the stories of migrant laborers trying to create new lives; it tells the stories of criminals trying to walk the straight and narrow; it tells the stories of border law enforcement on both sides of the fence trying to survive their jobs and do right by humanity; it tells the stories the poor are trying to tell and the wealthy are trying to pretend don't exist. It reminds us that everybody is just…trying.
There is a lot going on in 2025. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from, but only 2 months into 2025 and you already know how much of an understatement that is. The Ghost Of Tom Joad reminds us that, right now, we have to hear everyone’s story. We have to understand that there are two sides to every border and that no matter what we do, they will always remain porous because human stories interconnect in messy ways, but we owe it to ourselves to hear those human stories.
Every lyric on this record echoes that truth, and Springsteen’s words are extremely poignant in today’s America. So if you put this album on again and listen to Springsteen’s interpretive stories of Americana folklore, you will hear for the first time that The Ghost Of Tom Joad is more than just a mellow album by the guy that did “Born In The USA.”
It is a lyrical and sonic masterpiece full of nostalgic truth that ultimately needed 30 years to sit in the basement and ferment so it could eventually cement its relevance and timelessness in our American story.