Bruce Springsteen – The Ghost of Tom Joad Review

A three-year gap after two album releases where neither had a shot at greatness is understandable. Bruce Springsteen turns away from the studio, licks his wounds and accounts for the changing times. His country shift after Born in the U.S.A. was simply not to be. He returns, then, to his influences and their roots. Contemporary folk and the sweet embrace of the land of the free comes from an Americana-themed album. Despite a consistent desire to make some of the ugliest record sleeves around, Springsteen also dedicates himself on The Ghost of Tom Joad to highlighting cultural cornerstones, as he has done before in all those great hits of his. The Grapes of Wrath to Woody Guthrie and back around to reuniting with The E Street Band, it should all come together for Springsteen here. But “should” and “can” are two very different states.  

Springsteen digs deep, that is where credit must be given. His moody sound reaches for a time which no longer exists, those abandoned railroad tracks, wandering around in this macabre setting, are a swing at Nebraska. A continuation of those tones which served him so well in a time of great crisis. The Ghost of Tom Joad does much the same, just less so. A three-year break and Springsteen is still struggling, more with the fatigue of being one of the most famous musicians of his generation, than anything else. It is hard to write for the working man as he did so beautifully, so consistently, through the 1970s and 80s, when the financial draw, the spotlight struggle, replaced the open road and everyday trivialities. But there is still a rugged heart to the title track, that hopeful Promised Land still exists for many. Springsteen would give way without it.  

Never doubt the conviction of a heartfelt Springsteen encounter. The Ghost of Tom Joad is not singular in its devastation, there is a wide-open set of reasons for The Boss to be this aggrieved, and the slow tones do the talking for him on the likes of Highway 29. In those journeys through the past is a rage leftover from Born in the U.S.A. Gone is the macho pop which conned the nation into listening to protest songs and in its place is a deflated, near-defeated songwriter looking on at the rubble. Youngstown lays those hang-ups bare. Rightful rage which has lasted more than a few decades. The Ghost of Tom Joad is all about the spirits Springsteen is still haunted by. He did more than most, yet the guilt and horrors of those lived-in news cycles still hold major weight.  

Much of The Ghost of Tom Joad is an industrial say-what-you-see songbook. It is this brutality which draws a listener into Youngstown and Balboa Park. This frankness in the face of dead communities, money-bled towns and cities, is staggering. It is the reason The Ghost of Tom Joad works. This is not an American problem, a bleeding Heartland, but a global phenomenon. Your hometown is dead. Never forget it. He promises on Across the Border to be stronger. Whether that is for himself or for the country, Springsteen would never tell. He does not strike as a patriot, not in the usual, blind sense, but as a sincerely concerned citizen who wants to be one, but cannot because he has a moral standing which questions the world. The Ghost of Tom Joad is an album of learning, sleight experiences which build and build, the fury in the calm storm completely understandable, powerful too.