Too Good Not to Share

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One night during the holiday weekend, Mrs. S and I re-listened to the long Ron Paul segment in Thursday's episode of No Agenda [please listen to that episode if you have not already]. Then we talked for a long time about the 2012 presidential election, about how it might be our very last chance to avert absolute tyranny and slavery, and about how that last chance would depend on Ron Paul being victorious. We talked about how even that might not be enough, and the lengths to which THEY would go to stop him. [My scenario was that he wins Iowa, shows well in New Hampshire and is is coming up in the polls for South Carolina, et al, only to be lost in a tragic plane crash.]

Then we talked about how all the rest of the choices represented little more than a grab bag of puppets, all the property of the same grand puppeteers. We both arrived at a point where we just could not talk about it any more. She went off to bed, hoping to avoid nightmares. I was in a very dark place. I went to the kitchen, fixed an adult beverage, and then sat down in from of the TV. After a few minutes of channel-surfing, I happened upon this song, this performance from the 2009 concert for the 25th anniversary of The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I cannot say that it cheered me up, but by the end I did not feel so helpless and alone. I hope you enjoy it even half as much as I did.

If this embedded video does not load, go here.

The lyrics:

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.

Bruce Springsteen wrote The Ghost of Tom Joad, which was the title track on an album released in 1995.

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