I heard the cover of Ghost Of Tom Joad that Rage Against the Machine did at work today. The song is actually covered really well. It was originally done by Bruce Springsteen and for those of you who don't know this already, Tom Joad was the main character in The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. The book was written about the Dust Bowl that took place in the late 30's in the mid west. Farmers and their families migrated west to California to find work. I re-read the lyrics and surprisingly the song is still relevant to today in many ways.
Everyday at work I stare out at San Francisco's unbelievable homeless population. Addiction, poverty, violence, crime, you name it and I have seen it. Almost everyone I talk to is from somewhere else, displaced from New Orleans or just headed out West to leave their past behind. It's sad to see people leave home to head for a better life and just to hit rock bottom. I don't know why I was compelled to post this, it just seems fitting for where I am.
The Ghost Of Tom Joad
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
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 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
The highway is alive tonight
But 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."
The highway is alive tonight
But nobody's kiddin' nobody about where it goes
I'm sittin' downhere in the campfire light
With the ghost of old Tom Joad
Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubriand - he gets it.
14 years ago
