A New Look At Springsteen's Youngstown

One of my all-time favorite Bruce Springsteen songs is "Youngstown," taken from the vastly underrated 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad. The most overtly political statement of Springsteen's lengthy canon of works, the album's diverse lyrical themes are drawn from then-current events, the songwriter suggesting that amidst the so-called prosperity of the Clinton years, that something was rotten beneath the surface. A new working class was created by poorly-paid immigrants while factory jobs that once offered a comfortable living wage were being exported to Third World countries, with American workers at the whim of the Clinton-signed NAFTA act. A once-stable American middle class was forced to scramble for the economic security that once seemed to be its birthright as the financial chasm between blue collar and boardroom grew ever wider....

"Youngstown" is a quietly elegant song, powerful in its emotion and pointed in its criticism of the economic forces that gutted the once-proud steel-manufacturing region of western Pennsylvania and northeast Ohio. This video collage is magnificent, capturing the spirit of the song while presenting Springsteen's stark lyrics in all of their potent simplicity, matching the words with indelible images. It's a message we should take to heart as another Clinton runs for the Presidency after eight disastrous years of the Bush administration.

Bruce Springsteen - "Youngstown"


(Click on the CD cover to buy The Ghost Of Tom Joad from Amazon.com)