Bruce Springsteen-‘The Ghost of Tom Joad’ Album Review and Reflection

Bruce Springsteen-The Ghost of Tom Joad

Album Review and Reflection

2 ½ Stars

By Anthony Kuzminski

After the completion of Bruce Springsteen’s 1992-1993 tour, he laid low. He received a call to provide a song for the film, Philadelphia, the first mainstream movie to deal with the AIDS crisis. The end result, “Streets of Philadelphia” was a huge hit for Springsteen and immediately erased the mixed feelings and reviews of his double releases from 1992. He won an Oscar and a slew of Grammy’s and to catch the wave, he reunited the E Street Band to record some new songs for his first Greatest Hits record in early 1995. Everyone assumed that a full tour would follow, alas, it was not meant to be. Springsteen’s mind was in another place. One of the songs he brought into the sessions he did with the E Street Band was “The Ghost of Tom Joad”, but the rock arrangement, Springsteen felt, didn’t suit the song. Months later, he was in his California studio cutting the song with a hushed voice and sparse instrumentation. In November of 1995, The Ghost of Tom Joad found its way to record stores and to this date, it is without question, Springsteen’s most inaccessible work.

When the album was released it was regarded as a valiant work. There are many who feel this was an album that had to be made and it is largely an intellectual work of art. It’s a stunning collection of lyrics and is commendable but this does not make it any more listenable. It’s intentionally made this way, but I find the lack of production to be something that ultimately weighs down the album even more so than the album’s heavy themes. I was in all of my Springsteen glory when this was released. I was devouring everything I could get my hands on and even though I listened to this album at least once a week for the first few years and once a month thereafter (until late 2003), it never grew on me or opened itself up past that initial listen.

The songs that embody the album took a while to compose as Springsteen researched the characters and geography meticulously through a number of books and newspaper articles. With most of the characters finding home in the Southwest of America, this was an album by a rock artist unlike any before it. The album’s title track (also the album’s strongest song) finds the narrator striving for salvation. However, it’s important to note the key word in the title; “ghost”. Ghosts don’t live in reality, yet the narrator is hoping he appears because this is one ghost who would bring hope, whereas the real nightmares are the bleakness of life. One of my issues with the album as a whole is that Springsteen largely summed up the ruggedness of the Mexican immigrants in this one song and didn’t need another eleven. “Highway 29” is a character who decided to take a little more for themselves venturing out on a Bonnie and Clyde venture that goes horribly wrong. Sadly, the crystal clear realization of his actions comes a little too late. This is my favorite song on the record and the one that harkens closest to Nebraska. “Straight Time” finds an ex-con struggling with his past identity and what the future may hold. He struggles with how he lives, how he is viewed and who he may or may not become. “Youngstown” is narrated by a familiar voice, a disenchanted factory worker who has been laid off. When Springsteen reworked this one with the E Street Band on their 1999 tour (which was performed every night of the tour), it found its footing and it roared amidst ripping guitars. At last, the music ignited the message. Another song that was deserving of a more muscular arrangement is the picturesque “Across the Border”. The song is about longing for a better life in a promised land where one feels all of their dreams come true. In a rare occurrence harkening back to the characters from Born To Run where they seek escape and a better life from their current state. “Across the Border” is one of the few songs on Joad that feels authentic. At its best, music flows effortlessly and doesn’t need to be studied or researched.

“The Line”, a distant cousin of “Highway Patrolman”, finds a border cop struggling with his own identity and he makes a sacrifice for love with a story that is richer than its end result. The main character of “Balboa Park” is homeless and living under a freeway while the two Mexican brothers of “Sinaloa Cowboys” deal drugs. “The Ghost of Tom Joad” covers similar territory in both songs in a much better fashion. ”The New Timer” and “Galveston Bay” for all their lyrical beauty lacks personal touch. The rest of the record straddles with monotone spoken word like songs that are rich in detail but lack melody and a focal point of connection.

Overall, the album never finds its true authentic voice for two very distinctive reasons. The first is the overall production of the record. The minimal atmosphere is sprinkled with more instruments than Nebraska, but it lacks the oomph and drive of the latter. Springsteen’s larger body of work in the 1990’s could have been amongst his best, but his choice to not stray outside what he already knew hindered not just him, but his music as well. Over the course of three records, Springsteen wrote some remarkable and perceptive lyrics that would make anyone stand back and take notice. However, very few took notice because on record these songs never jump out at you and don’t entice the listener to look beyond an initial listen. I do feel the Joad songs came to life on the tour that followed in startling arrangements, however, there is no official document of this tour and all that one is left with is a half baked album that does not show these songs in their full glory. It’s a sad day when most people associate “The Ghost of Tom Joad” with Rage Against The Machine and not Bruce Springsteen and it’s all due to the production.

The second issue which hinders The Ghost of Tom Joad is the weighty nature of the material. Its one thing to be grave and to connect with your audience and it's another to make the listening experience tedious. While the topics of these songs are broad, they are a bit too heavy handed. Instead of writing from his gut, Springsteen tended to over think this material by delving into books, film and newspaper articles. This isn’t the first time Springsteen has been influenced by literature or art and taken it and infused it back into his work. However, this time around, first person experiences took a back seat, which in my opinion was a glaring oversight. Most people view this album as a brave and bold, but the truth is, it’s anything but. Instead of conversing with these people and knowing what their existence is like, he needed “research” to complete these songs. Now, if Springsteen were executing his senior thesis on the cultural and sociological struggles of the new Southwestern American immigrant, I’d give him an A. But here’s the problem, he’s not a student writing his senior thesis. He’s a musician and his job isn’t to deliver minute details but to take a subject and find a way for your listener to embrace it. I feel that Springsteen was struggling with songwriting throughout most of the 1990’s and this album was no different. While the subject matter of Joad is extremely noble, good intentions are not enough to make a great album. Springsteen managed over the course of seven albums (up through Born in the U.S.A.) to stay in touch with his own blue collar roots. Until the end of The River tour, he feared where his next paycheck would come from. However, the success of U.S.A. put Springsteen into another stratosphere all together. When one never has to worry about money ever again, what do they have to worry about? Can they relate to the struggles the average person encounters? I never questioned his sincerity on his three relationship records, but I found myself asking these very questions as I listened to The Ghost of Tom Joad.

In Steve Pond’s Tunnel of Love review from Rolling Stone in 1987, he speaks of the impossibility to follow up Born in the U.S.A. where he says: "Trying to top Born in the U.S.A. with another collection of rock anthems would have been foolhardy artistically; on the other hand, to react the way Springsteen did after the breakthrough 1980 success of The River – with a homemade record as stark and forbidding as Nebraska – would have turned an inspired gesture into a formula”. The Ghost of Tom Joad sadly found Springsteen falling into a formula instead of spreading his wings. Nebraska was bold, brave and encompassed some of the best songwriting of the last thirty-years. More importantly, its eventual release was an accident. The characters of Tom Joad wallow in anguish, much like Springsteen’s best work, but sadly, these people are not as fully realized as the ones in his previous work because he doesn’t know them as intimately. Springsteen always found a way to veil his inner motions inside his characters shoes, but this time around the voice of these characters ring hallow. The minute details of their battles do not add up to much and sadly, while this is a well intentioned album, it is ultimately a dignified misstep.

Anthony Kuzminski is a Chicago based writer and Special Features Editor for the antiMusic Network and his daily writings can be read at The Screen Door and can be contacted at thescreendoor AT gmail DOT com.