The Ghost Of Tom Joad

In the spirit of *Nebraska*, Bruce Springsteen strips down his sound (though not always to barebones acoustics) and tells tales of people disenfranchised by the widening gap between rich and poor. The characters are people on society’s margins, working in the shadows and struggling to get by. The title track is a masterstroke, a touching portrait of a modern-day John Steinbeck character; one can hear Bruce reach back to Woody Guthrie. For “Straight Time,” an ex-con with a new wife and kids ponders the pull of his previous life. “Youngstown” speaks from the soul of a despairing coal miner in the Ohio city. Two Mexican brothers in “Sinaloa Cowboys” end up cooking methamphetamine when fieldwork doesn’t pay the bills. Several songs here were inspired by newspaper stories, while others came from what Springsteen has witnessed around the country over the years. It’s a dark album. “My Best Was Never Good Enough” spits forth with a bitterness uncommon to Springsteen’s hopeful works. It’s a harrowing ride, but well worth taking.

The seven albums after Bruce Springsteen’s commercial peak tell a story of lost faith and self-doubt. It’s a darker, messier portrait that still includes one of his essential records.

Check out our album review of Artist's The Ghost Of Tom Joad on Rolling Stone.com.

In 1982, with Ronald Reagan in the White House and much of America torn between a newly fierce patriotism and the dispassionate conservatism of the dawning "Greed Is Good" era, a number of roots-oriented rock musicians began examining the State of the Union in song, and one of the most powerful albums to come out of this movement was Bruce Springsteen's stark, home-recorded masterpiece Nebraska.