"Youngstown" is a song by
Bruce Springsteen from his 1995 album ''
The Ghost of Tom Joad
''The Ghost of Tom Joad'' is the eleventh studio album, and the second acoustic album, by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released on November 21, 1995, by Columbia Records. It reached the Top Ten in two countries, and the Top Twenty ...
''. Although many of the songs on the album were performed by Springsteen solo, the lineup for "Youngstown" includes
Soozie Tyrell
Soozie Tyrell (born May 4, 1957), formerly known as Soozie Kirschner, is an American violinist, guitarist, and vocalist, most known for her work with Bruce Springsteen in the E Street Band and formerly The Sessions Band.
Biography
Tyrell wa ...
on violin, Jim Hanson on bass,
Gary Mallaber
Gary Mallaber (born October 11, 1946 in Buffalo) is a Los Angeles session drummer, percussionist and singer. He attended Lafayette High School, where he and Bobby Militello, along with other musicians, were mentored by saxophonist Sam Scam ...
on drums, co-producer
Chuck Plotkin
Charles Richard Plotkin (born September 8, 1942) is a recording engineer and producer, best known for his work with Bruce Springsteen and Bob Dylan.
Recording engineer
Plotkin has recorded, engineered, mastered and produced albums by Bruce Spri ...
on keyboards, and Marty Rifkin on pedal steel guitar. The song has also been covered by Kenny Greco, Blue Moon Rising,
Show Of Hands
Show of Hands is an English acoustic roots/ folk duo formed in 1986 by singer-songwriter Steve Knightley (guitars, mandolin, mandocello, cuatro) and composer and multi-instrumentalist Phil Beer (vocals, guitars, violin, viola, mandolin, mando ...
,
The Stairwell Sisters, Steve Strauss and
Matthew Ryan.
History and themes
The song tells the tale of the rise and fall of
Youngstown, Ohio
Youngstown is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio, and the largest city and county seat of Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Youngstown had a city population of 60,068. It is a principal city of ...
, over several generations, from the discovery of
iron ore
Iron ores are rocks and minerals from which metallic iron can be economically extracted. The ores are usually rich in iron oxides and vary in color from dark grey, bright yellow, or deep purple to rusty red. The iron is usually found in the fo ...
nearby in 1803 through the
decline of the steel industry in the area in the 1970s.
[ The lyric tells its story in a style reminiscent of ]Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
's " With God on Our Side", evoking American history through several wars.[ It tells of how in the ]Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
, Youngstown made the cannonballs that helped the Union prevail.[ Then the city built tanks and bombs to help win later wars, such as ]World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.[ Finally, the boys of Youngstown went to fight the ]Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
and the Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
.[ Despite the town's history, when it became uneconomical to keep the steel mills in Youngstown going, they were shut down, thus doing "what ]Hitler
Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Nazi Germany, Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his death in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the le ...
couldn't do," to the devastation of the community.
The song's story unfolds as the narrative of one family's history as factory-workers in Youngstown. The narrator of the song himself is a Vietnam War veteran (continuing Springsteen's fixation with that war, also evident in songs such as "Born in the U.S.A.
''Born in the U.S.A.'' is the seventh studio album by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released by Columbia Records on June 4, 1984. It topped the charts in nine countries, including the US and UK, becoming his most commercially su ...
", " Lost in the Flood", and "Galveston Bay") and his father fought in World War II. Both also worked in the steel mills. The narrator had worked himself up to the job of scarfer, a difficult but low-paying job
The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain und ...
that entails torching the steel to remove imperfections.[ Although he describes the job as one "that would suit the devil well," it is enough to put food on the table, pay his debts and provide a sense of purpose.][ When the mill is shut down, he tells the owners that "Once I made you rich enough/Rich enough to forget my name." Finally, he prays that "the devil comes and takes me/To stand in the fiery furnace of hell."][ Towards the end of the song, the scope expands beyond Youngstown to other areas that were devastated by the decline of the steel industry, including the ]Monongahela Valley
The Monongahela River ( , )—often referred to locally as the Mon ()—is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed August 15, 2011 river on the Allegheny Plateau in north-cen ...
, Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
's Mesabi iron range and Appalachia
Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...
.[
The song is set to a sparse melody.] Its simple chorus is:
:''Here in Youngstown''
:''Here in Youngstown''
:''My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down''
:''Here darlin' in Youngstown''
The Jenny mentioned in the chorus is possibly a woman but more importantly is the nickname of the Jeanette Blast Furnace, owned by Youngstown Sheet and Tube
The Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, based in Youngstown, Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio, was an American steelmaking, steel manufacturer. Officially, the company was created on November 23, 1900, when Articles of Incorporation of the Youngstown Iron S ...
, which shut down in 1977. Its rusting hulk still stood along the Mahoning River
The Mahoning River is a river located in northeastern Ohio and a small portion of western Pennsylvania. Flowing primarily through several Ohio counties, it crosses the state line into Pennsylvania before joining with the Shenango River to form the ...
and was visible for miles, constituting with others like it what one newspaper writer described as "the remains of a lost civilization."
Springsteen was inspired to write "Youngstown" and " The New Timer", another ''Ghost of Tom Joad'' song, after reading Dale Maharidge
Dale Maharidge (born 24 October 1956) is an American author, journalist and academic best known for his collaborations with photographer Michael Williamson.
Maharidge and Williamson's book '' And Their Children After Them'' won the Pulitzer Prize ...
's 1985 book '' Journey to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass'', illustrated by Michael Williamson. ''Journey to Nowhere'' chronicled the story of middle class Americans who lost their jobs and had become hobos riding freight trains like in the Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
.[ The stories of dying steel towns inspired "Youngstown" and the stories of boxcar hobos inspired "New Timer".][ In an interview with ]BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927). The service provides national radio stations covering ...
, Springsteen stated that his connection to this song was "probably through my own kids and my own job, in the sense that the thought of being told after 30 years or so, that what you're doing isn't useful anymore, or has no place, or that the world has changed and that's the way it is. And you're 50 and gotta find something else to do. That's almost impossible ... I don't know what I would do in that circumstance."[ With "Youngstown", he managed to trace the rise of America as an industrial power, and the subsequent breaking of its social contract.][ This contrast between the mythology of the American Dream and the realities faced by its working-class citizens is among Springsteen's most familiar themes.] Activist historian Howard Zinn
Howard Zinn (August 24, 1922January 27, 2010) was an American historian, playwright, philosopher, socialist thinker and World War II veteran. He was chair of the history and social sciences department at Spelman College, and a politica ...
included the lyrics of the song in his 2004 book, ''Voices of a People's History of the United States
''Voices of a People's History of the United States'' () is an anthology edited by Howard Zinn and Anthony Arnove. First released in 2004 by Seven Stories Press, ''Voices'' is the primary source companion to Zinn's ''A People's History of the Unit ...
''.[
]
Reception
Writing for ''The New York Times Magazine
''The New York Times Magazine'' is an American Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times''. It features articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors. ...
'', author Nicholas Dawidoff said that "Youngstown" was the best song on the album and was an example of "best of his songs hich
Ij ( fa, ايج, also Romanized as Īj; also known as Hich and Īch) is a village in Golabar Rural District, in the Central District of Ijrud County, Zanjan Province, Iran
Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also ...
have all the tension and complexity of great short fiction." Not everyone was taken with the song; ''The Dallas Morning News
''The Dallas Morning News'' is a daily newspaper serving the Dallas–Fort Worth area of Texas, with an average print circulation of 65,369. It was founded on October 1, 1885 by Alfred Horatio Belo as a satellite publication of the '' Galvest ...
'' criticized its "ham-fisted factory/hell metaphor".
No singles were released from the album in the United States, but "Youngstown" was the song that Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music, Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, the North American division of Japanese Conglomerate (company), conglomerate Sony. It was founded on Janua ...
most pitched to album oriented rock
Album-oriented rock (AOR, originally called album-oriented radio) is an FM radio format created in the United States in the 1970s that focuses on the full repertoire of rock albums and is currently associated with classic rock.
Album-orient ...
radio stations. The effort met with little success; as one station program director remarked, "Yeah, that'll get everybody up and dancing."
The song was popular in Youngstown itself, getting frequent local radio airplay and generating brisk sales of ''The Ghost of Tom Joad''. An editor at ''The Youngstown Vindicator
''The Vindicator'' is a daily newspaper serving Youngstown, Ohio, Youngstown, Ohio, United States and the Mahoning County, Ohio, Mahoning County region as well as southern Trumbull County, Ohio, Trumbull County and northern Columbiana County, Ohi ...
'' said that town reaction split into three camps: "Some people are taking this as, 'Yea Youngstown! Finally somebody noticed!' Some people are taking it as a real vindication of the working man. And some people feel, 'Oh no, we thought we had all this behind us!"
Springsteen made a point of playing Youngstown's Stambaugh Auditorium in January 1996 during the solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour
The Ghost of Tom Joad Tour was a worldwide concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen performing alone on stage in small halls and theatres, that ran off and on from late 1995 through the middle of 1997.Santelli, ''Greetings From E Street'', pp ...
, and tickets for the 2,600-seat venue were sold in record time. During the visit he was given the key to the city
The Freedom of the City (or Borough in some parts of the UK) is an honour bestowed by a municipality upon a valued member of the community, or upon a visiting celebrity or dignitary. Arising from the medieval practice of granting respected ...
by Mayor Patrick Ungaro
Patrick J. Ungaro (March 3, 1941 - August 17, 2019) was an Ohio politician, most noted for his long tenure as mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwi ...
. Springsteen introduced "Youngstown" at that show by saying, "This is about the men and women who lived in this town and who built this country. It's about he people
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...
who gave their sons and daughters to the wars that were fought ... and who were later declared expendable."[ ] He added that "You get into tricky territory when you write a song about someone's hometown. You don't want to get it wrong."
The audience, which included many who worked in the mills or had family members who did, was hushed during the performance and then gave Springsteen a standing ovation after its completion. Afterward, Springsteen was relieved that the performance had gone over well and changed his travel plans to stay an extra day and visit historic sites in the area.
Live performances
The reception to the Youngstown performance was not unique; whenever Springsteen played the song in the Midwest during the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, audiences kept quite still.
Beyond that tour, "Youngstown" has been a prominent song in many of Springsteen's live concert performances. It was a featured song on the 1999–2000 Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour
The Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour was a lengthy, top-grossing concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that took place over 1999 and 2000.
The tour was the first set of regular concerts given by Sp ...
, starting a five-song sequence (that also included "Murder Incorporated", "Badlands
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in ''Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, m ...
", "Out in the Street
"Out in the Street" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen from the 1980 album '' The River''. It was recorded at The Power Station in New York between March and May 1980, as one of the last songs recorded for the album. Origin ...
" and "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out" is the second song on Bruce Springsteen's breakthrough album ''Born to Run'', released in 1975.
Content
The song tells the story of the formation of the E Street Band. The meaning of the title is unclear. Even Springs ...
") that anchored the middle of almost every show. Here it was heavily rearranged into a hard rock vehicle, with pounding drums from Max Weinberg and a fiery guitar solo from Nils Lofgren
Nils Hilmer Lofgren (born June 21, 1951) is an American rock musician, recording artist, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. Along with his work as a solo artist, he has been a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band since 1984, a membe ...
. In addition, Springsteen was illuminated from below by stage front red lighting. ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' said the reworking "howled with desolation" and the ''Miami New Times
The ''Miami New Times'' is a newspaper published in Miami, Florida, United States, and distributed every Thursday. It primarily serves the Miami area and is headquartered in Miami's Wynwood Art District.
Overview
It was acquired by Village Voic ...
'' said that Lofgren's part almost stole the song.
One such performance from that tour was included on the '' Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York City'' CD and DVD in 2001. Greg Kot
Greg Kot (born March 3, 1957) is an American music journalist and author. From 1990 until 2020, Kot was the rock music critic at the ''Chicago Tribune'', where he covered popular music and reported on music-related social, political and busines ...
of ''Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' said of it that "Nils Lofgren's six-string rave-up drops a bomb on the relatively sedate studio version."
"Youngstown" was a regular during the opening stretch of Springsteen's 2005 solo acoustic Devils & Dust Tour
The Devils & Dust Tour was a 2005 concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen performing alone on stage on a variety of instruments. It followed the release of his 2005 album ''Devils & Dust''. The tour was named the Top Small Venue Tour of 2005 b ...
, before being dropped from the setlist. It appeared a few times during the band's 2007–2008 Magic Tour. Then for 2009's Working on a Dream Tour
The Working on a Dream Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009. It followed the late January 2009 release of the album '' Working on a Dream''. This was the first ...
, it was played more frequently, serving in a rotation spot with "The Ghost of Tom Joad
''The Ghost of Tom Joad'' is the eleventh studio album, and the second acoustic album, by American recording artist Bruce Springsteen, released on November 21, 1995, by Columbia Records. It reached the Top Ten in two countries, and the Top Twenty ...
" during those shows' song sequence devoted to the late-2000s recession. Both of those numbers delivered what '' Billboard'' magazine termed, in the "Youngstown" case, "the night's killer Nils Lofgren solo".
A live performance from the Hard Rock Calling
Calling Festival (formerly Hyde Park Calling and Hard Rock Calling) was an annual music festival, formerly held in Hyde Park, London, from 2006 until 2012, and from 2013 in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. In September 2013, Hard Rock In ...
show on that tour was included on the 2010 DVD '' London Calling: Live in Hyde Park''. Much of this arrangement is somewhat calmer than on the Reunion Tour, carried by Tyrell's violin and Charlie Giordano's accordion. The last two minutes are taken over by Lofgren's solo, which features several tempo changes and crescendos before culminating in the guitarist spinning in circles on the stage.
See also
* Allentown (song), a thematically similar 1982 song by Billy Joel
*Turn the Page (Bob Seger song)
"Turn the Page" is a song originally recorded by Bob Seger in 1971 and released on his ''Back in '72'' album in 1973. It was not released as a single until Seger's live version of the song on the 1976 ''Live Bullet'' album got released in Germany ...
a musically-similar song from 1972
References
External links
Lyrics, at official Springsteen website
{{Authority control
1995 songs
Bruce Springsteen songs
Songs written by Bruce Springsteen
Songs about cities in the United States
Youngstown, Ohio
Song recordings produced by Bruce Springsteen
Song recordings produced by Chuck Plotkin
Songs about Ohio