#----------------------------------PLEASE NOTE---------------------------------#
#This file is the author's own work and represents their interpretation of the #
#song. You may only use this file for private study, scholarship, or research. #
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Date: Mon, 27 Nov 1995 13:38:07 -0600
From: jgroce@mail.utexas.edu (Jason Groce)
Subject: GHOST OF TOM JOAD by Bruce Springsteen
THE GHOST OF TOM JOAD
By Bruce Springsteen
(From the album "The Ghost of Tom Joad")
Note: I'm just including chords for this song, since not all of it is
fingerpicked in a repeating pattern, and since I play this by myself I
strum most of it after the first chorus, anyway. Harmonica players will be
glad to see this song is in B minor, which allows you to play it on your D
major harmonica. (Nebrasks fans will undoubtedly have a D harmonica.) I
don't include fingerings for this song. There'll standard, as far as my
ear can discern.
Bm
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
G
The highway is alive tonight
D A Bm
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
A
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
Preachers 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
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 a 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
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
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Corrections are more than welcome. Enjoy!
Jason Groce - jgroce@mail.utexas.edu
Playwriting, Department of Theatre and Dance
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