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Youngstown (song)

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"Youngstown"
SongbyBruce Springsteen
from the albumThe Ghost of Tom Joad
ReleasedNovember 21, 1995
RecordedApril – June 1995at Thrill Hill West inLos Angeles[1]
GenreFolk rock
Length3:57
LabelColumbia
Producer(s)Bruce Springsteen,Chuck Plotkin

"Youngstown"is a song byBruce Springsteenfrom his 1995 albumThe Ghost of Tom Joad.Although many of the songs on the album were performed by Springsteen solo, the lineup for "Youngstown" includesSoozie Tyrellon violin, Jim Hanson on bass,Gary Mallaberon drums, co-producerChuck Plotkinon keyboards, and Marty Rifkin on pedal steel guitar. The song has also been covered by Kenny Greco, Blue Moon Rising,Show Of Hands,The Stairwell Sisters,Steve Strauss andMatthew Ryan.[2]

History and themes

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The song tells the tale of the rise and fall ofYoungstown, Ohio,over several generations, from the discovery ofiron orenearby in 1803 through thedecline of the steel industry in the area in the 1970s.[3][4][5][6][7]The lyric tells its story in a style reminiscent ofBob Dylan's "With God on Our Side",evoking American history through several wars.[5]It tells of how in theCivil War,Youngstown made the cannonballs that helped the Union prevail.[4]Then the city built tanks and bombs to help win later wars, such asWorld War II.[4]Finally, the boys of Youngstown went to fight theKorean Warand theVietnam War.[4]Despite the town's history, when it became uneconomical to keep thesteel millsin Youngstown going, they were shut down, thus doing "whatHitlercouldn't do, "to the devastation of the community.[3][7]

The song's story unfolds as the narrative of one family's history as factory-workers in Youngstown.[8]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.","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 ofscarfer,a difficult butlow-paying jobthat entails torching the steel to remove imperfections.[3]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.[3][6]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."[3]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 theMonongahela Valley,Minnesota'sMesabiiron range and the coal mines ofAppalachia.[3]

The song is set to a sparse melody.[9]Its simple chorus is:

Here in Youngstown
Here in Youngstown
My sweet Jenny, I'm sinkin' down
Here darlin' in Youngstown
An abandoned facility of theYoungstown Sheet and Tube Company,owner of the Jeanette Blast Furnace, "Jenny" in the song

The Jenny mentioned in the chorus is possibly a woman but more importantly is the nickname of the Jeanette Blast Furnace, owned byYoungstown Sheet and Tube,which shut down in 1977.[3][10]Its rusting hulk still stood along theMahoning Riverand was visible for miles, constituting with others like it what one newspaper writer described as "the remains of a lost civilization."[9]

Springsteen was inspired to write "Youngstown" and "The New Timer",anotherGhost of Tom Joadsong, after readingDale Maharidge's 1985 bookJourney to Nowhere: The Saga of the New Underclass,illustrated byMichael Williamson.[3][11]Journey to Nowherechronicled the story of middle class Americans who lost their jobs and had become hobos riding freight trains like in theGreat Depression.[3]The stories of dying steel towns inspired "Youngstown" and the stories of boxcar hobos inspired "New Timer".[3]In an interview withBBC Radio,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."[3]With "Youngstown", he managed to trace the rise of America as an industrial power, and the subsequent breaking of its social contract.[7]This contrast between the mythology of theAmerican Dreamand the realities faced by its working-class citizens is among Springsteen's most familiar themes.[12]Activist historianHoward Zinnincluded the lyrics of the song in his 2004 book,Voices of a People's History of the United States.[4]

Reception

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Writing forThe New York Times Magazine,authorNicholas Dawidoffsaid that "Youngstown" was the best song on the album and was an example of "best of his songs [which] have all the tension and complexity of great short fiction."[12]Not everyone was taken with the song;The Dallas Morning Newscriticized its "ham-fisted factory/hell metaphor".[13]

No singles were released from the album in the United States, but "Youngstown" was the song thatColumbia Recordsmost pitched toalbum oriented rockradio stations.[14]The effort met with little success; as one station program director remarked, "Yeah, that'll get everybody up and dancing."[14]

The song was popular in Youngstown itself, getting frequent local radio airplay and generating brisk sales ofThe Ghost of Tom Joad.[9][10]An editor atThe Youngstown Vindicatorsaid 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!"[9]

Springsteen made a point of playing Youngstown'sStambaugh Auditoriumin January 1996 during the solo acousticGhost of Tom Joad Tour,[15]and tickets for the 2,600-seat venue were sold in record time.[10]During the visit he was given thekey to the cityby MayorPatrick Ungaro.[15]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 [the people] who gave their sons and daughters to the wars that were fought... and who were later declared expendable."[10]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."[11] 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.[10][11]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.[10]

Live performances

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The reception to the Youngstown performance was not unique; whenever Springsteen played the song in theMidwestduring the Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, audiences kept quite still.[12]

Beyond that tour, "Youngstown" has been a prominent song in many of Springsteen's live concert performances. It was a featured song on the 1999–2000Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band Reunion Tour,starting a five-song sequence (that also included "Murder Incorporated", "Badlands","Out in the Street"and"Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out") that anchored the middle of almost every show. Here it was heavily rearranged into a hard rock vehicle, with pounding drums fromMax Weinbergand a fiery guitar solo fromNils Lofgren.[16]In addition, Springsteen was illuminated from below by stage front red lighting.The New York Timessaid the reworking "howled with desolation" and theMiami New Timessaid that Lofgren's part almost stole the song.[16][17] One such performance from that tour was included on theBruce Springsteen & The E Street Band: Live in New York CityCD and DVD in 2001.[18]Greg KotofRolling Stonesaid of it that "Nils Lofgren's six-string rave-up drops a bomb on the relatively sedate studio version."[19]

"Youngstown" was a regular during the opening stretch of Springsteen's 2005 solo acousticDevils & Dust Tour,before being dropped from the setlist. It appeared a few times during the band's 2007–2008Magic Tour.Then for 2009'sWorking on a Dream Tour,it was played more frequently, serving in a rotation spot with "The Ghost of Tom Joad"during those shows' song sequence devoted to thelate-2000s recession.[20]Both of those numbers delivered whatBillboardmagazine termed, in the "Youngstown" case, "the night's killer Nils Lofgren solo".[20] A live performance from theHard Rock Callingshow on that tour was included on the 2010 DVDLondon Calling: Live in Hyde Park.[21]Much of this arrangement is somewhat calmer than on the Reunion Tour, carried by Tyrell's violin andCharlie Giordano's accordion.[22]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.[22]

See also

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References

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  1. ^"Brucebase, On the Tracks: The Ghost of Tom Joad".Retrieved2010-08-15.
  2. ^"Youngstown covers".allmusic.Archived fromthe originalon August 21, 2010.Retrieved2010-08-16.
  3. ^abcdefghijkSawyers, J.S. (2006).Tougher Than the Rest.Omnibus Press. pp. 140–142.ISBN978-0-8256-3470-3.
  4. ^abcdeKirkpatrick, R. (2007).The Words and Music of Bruce Springsteen.Praeger. pp.134–138.ISBN978-0-275-98938-5.
  5. ^abHumphries, P. (1996).Bruce Springsteen.Omnibus Press. pp. 113–114.ISBN0-7119-5304-X.
  6. ^abBasham, P. (2005).The Essential Bruce Springsteen.Pocket Essentials. pp. 80–81.ISBN1-903047-97-8.
  7. ^abcSymynkywicz, J. (2008).The Gospel According to Bruce Springsteen.Westminster John Knox Press. pp.124–125.ISBN978-0-664-23169-9.
  8. ^Linkon, S.L. & Russo, J. (2002).Steeltown, U.S.A: Work and Memory in Youngstown.University Press of Kansas. p. 1.ISBN978-0-7006-1161-4.
  9. ^abcdDyer, Bob (1995-12-13)."Where steel was once king: Springsteen song resonates in Ohio Valley".The Beaver County Times.Knight-Ridder Newspapers.p. C5.Retrieved2010-08-18.
  10. ^abcdefHilburn, Robert(1996-01-28)."Bruce Springsteen (1996): Reborn in the U.S.A."Los Angeles Times.Retrieved2010-08-17.[dead link‍]
  11. ^abc"Research aids Springsteen tune".Rome News-Tribune.Associated Press.1996-01-14. p. 10A.Retrieved2010-08-18.
  12. ^abcDawidoff, Nicholas(1997-01-26)."The Pop Populist".The New York Times Magazine.Retrieved2010-08-17.
  13. ^Christiansen, Thor (1995-11-19)."Boss'latest illuminates the darkness"(fee required).The Dallas Morning News.Retrieved2010-08-18.
  14. ^abHinckley, David (1995-12-14)."Show a Little Faith, Still Magic in the Night".New York Daily News.Retrieved2010-08-18.
  15. ^abD’Astolfo, Guy (2009-04-09)."Boss exhibit takes fans back to the glory days".The Youngstown Vindicator.Retrieved2010-08-17.
  16. ^abFloyd, John (2000-03-09)."Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss".Miami New Times.Retrieved2010-08-17.
  17. ^Pareles, Jon(2000-06-13)."Born to Run, or at Least to Be Redeemed".The New York Times.Retrieved2010-08-17.
  18. ^"Youngstown".allmusic.Retrieved2010-08-15.
  19. ^Kot, Greg(2001-04-06)."Live In New York City by Bruce Springsteen".Rolling Stone.Archived fromthe originalon June 20, 2010.Retrieved2010-08-18.
  20. ^abCarpenter, Troy; Vrabel, Jeff (2009-06-14)."Bruce Springsteen, Wilco Soar At Bonnaroo".Billboard.Retrieved2010-08-17.
  21. ^"London Calling: Live in Hyde Park".allmusic.Retrieved2010-08-15.
  22. ^abChris Hilson(director) (2010-06-22).London Calling: Live in Hyde Park(Blu-ray, DVD).Columbia Records.
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