Men walking 'long the railroad tracks

Going someplace, there's no going back

Highway patrol choppers coming up over the ridge

Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge

Shelter line stretching 'round the corner

Welcome to the new world order

Families sleeping in the cars in the southwest

No home, no job, no peace, no rest

Well the highway is alive tonight

But nobody's kidding nobody about where it goes

I'm sitting down here in the campfire light

Searching for the ghost of Tom Joad

He pulls prayer book out of his sleeping bag

Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag

Waiting for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last

In a cardboard box 'neath the underpass

You 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

Bathing in the city's aqueduct

Well the highway is alive tonight

Where it's headed everybody knows

I'm sitting down here in the campfire light

Waiting on the ghost of Tom Joad

Now Tom said,

"Mom, wherever there's a cop beating 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.'

Well 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

Well 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
With the ghost of old Tom Joad
With the ghost of old Tom Joad