The Ghost of Tom Joad - Springsteen, Bruce (CD 1995)

Bruce's The Ghost of Tom Joad was, like Nebraska before it, a risky undertaking at an important juncture in his career. The earlier album was sandwiched between the rollicking, band-oriented The River (which had his biggest radio hit up to that point, "Hungry Heart") and the monumental (in terms of his career) Born in the USA. This album came to us from out of left field, in the wake of the disappointingly overlooked Lucky Town and Human Touch, two mediocre albums that, with better editing and sequencing, should have been a single great album. Rather than rush the reunion with the E Street Band that would come a couple of years later, Bruce decided to record this intimate, gripping solo work, in the spirit of, but totally different than, Nebraska.

The superficial difference is the studio polish on these songs. Yes, they feature Bruce and his acoustic guitar, but most add percussion, keyboards and other treatments. This is not a four-track, recorded-in-the-kitchen work. In fact, Tom Joad seems to be the natural and logical continuation of the style successfully introduced with "Streets of Philadelphia"--stark, sparse, melancholic, but beautiful. The rawness of Nebraska may be gone, but not the hypnotic, Dylanesque power.

Contextually, Joad is filled with a new cast of characters, but the stories are the same, reiterating the same themes Bruce has, in one way or another, woven into his work since his first record--the struggles of the disenfranchised, the big dreams of small people, etc.

This is a terrific record, not (in my book) as essential to a growing Springsteen collection as Nebraska is, but just as well-crafted and powerful. "Youngstown" may be Bruce's best song in years--I recently saw him perform it live, full-band style, and its power was nothing compared with its original incarnation.

Enjoy...