By Greg Pratt and Megan Cole
There a few things that all Bruce Springsteen fans have in common. The first is we all call him something different. To one person he’s Bruce, to another he’s Springsteen and to all of us he’s “The Boss.” The second thing is it’s hard to come to any kind of agreement on what Springsteen album we all love most, which is understandable when you realize he’s produced 18 recordings of various kinds.
When we decided to talk Springsteen, it took us a little while to come to a decision on which album we’d drool over for your reading pleasure. We settled on The Ghost of Tom Joad, which, unless you’re a true-blue Springsteen fan, you have probably ignored a little bit. We won’t hold that against you, but hopefully after hearing why this acoustic recording blows our minds two decades after its release, maybe you’ll hit up a secondhand store and find this underrated Springsteen album on cassette.
Megan: When do you remember hearing this album for the first time?
Greg: I think I probably heard it for the first time, not right when it came out, I was a bit late to the Bruce game, so I think by the time it came out, which was in 1995, I was into Bruce, but I was still going back in time and acquainting myself with the classics. This was definitely not considered a classic; it’s one of the lesser-talked-about Bruce albums. It was under my radar, I’m guessing I heard it a couple years after it came out, and if memory serves I found it on cassette in a pawn shop, which I think was the fate of a lot of the cassettes of this album that were sold. I put it on and I was very, very blown away by it. I thought it was so different, unique and interesting; I loved it right away.
Megan: I’ll admit I definitely didn’t hear this when it came out because I was in Grade 5. It came to me much, much later in life. I did a little research on this album and it was interesting to see that it was one of his few albums that never broke the top five of any of the big music charts, but it’s still regarded as being one of the best works of the ’90s.
Greg: It’s a very understated and unassuming record. It reminds me a lot, and even to the point where I get them mixed up in my head, of Devils and Dust, which came out 10 years later in 2005. To me, they are very similar albums, and two of my favourite albums.
Megan: I think so many people think of Springsteen as that rocker, and this is a side of him that I think a lot of people forget, and that is the folk-inspired side. You can hear Woody Guthrie and those artists in his lyrics, because he’s telling a story, and a lot of people forget that when they hear “Born in the U.S.A.” that he has that in him.
Greg: As you know, like yourself, I love Bruce, but sometimes his storytelling can seem a bit forced or something. But on this album it is just phenomenal. The lyrics are great and you can really get caught up in the stories and the characters. He just did an amazing job. The whole vibe is very California and Mexico, and has that overall feel, musically and lyrically, and that gets me every time.
Megan: Re-listening to this album, I really noticed how on-point his voice was on this album. It was like butter. It has that Springsteen quality that fans love, and you hear it and think, “This is why he’s The Boss.”
Greg: Yeah, totally, and it’s not perfect; there are parts where his voice cracks or hits the wrong note here or there, but it’s really raw and I really like that. “Straight Time,” the second song on the album, is maybe my favourite Bruce song ever. It’s just a phenomenal song. The lyrics to “Youngstown” are just amazing.
Megan: When I was listening to the album again this morning, I listened to it a lot, I was listening to “Across the Border,” and as soon as it came on with that guitar at the beginning it set me off right when it starts.
Greg: That song definitely gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. There is just a vibe on this album that’s amazing.
Megan: It’s almost haunting, in a way. He has this effect of storytelling that’s beautiful, but very haunting at the same time.
Greg: The lyrics definitely aren’t too hopeful, to put it nicely, but at the same time there’s a bit of hope, even in the beaten-down characters, like in the song “Highway 29,” another amazing song, but very sad song, the last lyric is “I was running then I was flying,” and he sings that in a very sad tone, but it’s an amazing, positive moment, too.
Megan: I have to mention this Facebook battle I got into with my dad over the Tom Morello version of “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” versus the Springsteen version. He mentioned the songs that had affected him most in his life and he said “The Ghost of Tom Joad,” by Tom Morello, and I took him to task on this because I said it was a cover and song was originally by Springsteen; you can’t give credit to Tom Morello. Have you heard the Tom Morello version?
Greg: I have heard the Rage Against the Machine version, which was amazing, and that was before I had heard the Bruce Springsteen version, and at that time I was a young fellow, and thought Bruce was just this cheesy, ’80s rock star guy; I had no idea. It was a revelation to me when I found out that it was a Bruce Springsteen cover. I’m not sure if I’ve heard the Tom Morello solo version. It’s an amazing song though, and this album has been a bit forgotten and underrated, but that song is more well known and is very powerful. Bruce himself re-did it with Morello on his most recent album, and it was amazing.
Megan: I know it’s hard for Springsteen lovers like us to pick a favourite, but where would you place The Ghost of Tom Joad among Springsteen albums?
Greg: Listening to this album, I am struck with having to say… I might have to say it’s my favourite Bruce album, which is crazy. It’s probably this or Born to Run, and that is one of the greatest rock albums ever, and it’s apples and oranges in comparing it to The Ghost of Tom Joad, but I just think this is Bruce at his finest, in a way.
Megan: For me it really highlights his talent as a songwriter and a musician; that he can come off of doing all these high records with the E Street Band and produce this album, which is the polar opposite in some ways, but it’s still so powerful and so moving. You really see the diversity of his skill in this album.
Greg: You know what I don’t like on this album? The last song, “My Best Was Never Good Enough,” it’s kind of a little joke song in a way, and I don’t know what he’s doing vocally on that song, but, god, I hate it. I just thought it was a horrible way to end a great album.
Megan: You almost wonder if he thinks everyone has turned it off by that point and just threw it on there?
Greg: Yeah, like some people might be too depressed after eight or nine songs and can’t get to the end of it. I guess it might be a bit of comedy to end it off with, but I always thought it was a bad move.
The Ghost of Tom Joad was released in 1995 by Columbia.
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