Ghost of Tom Joad Tour
Artist	Bruce Springsteen
Dates	November 21, 1995 - May 26, 1997
No. of legs	7
No. of shows	128

The Ghost of Tom Joad Tour was a lengthy, 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. It followed the release of his 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad. Bruce Frederick Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. ... November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... A concert comprises a performance, usually involving some degree of formality, and particularly a performance featuring music. ... Bruce Frederick Springsteen (born September 23, 1949) is an American rock and folk singer, songwriter, and guitarist. ... The Ghost of Tom Joad is the eleventh studio album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1995 (see 1995 in music). ...

Itinerary

The tour began on November 21, 1995 at the State Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey. The first group of shows ran through the end of the year in major media centers such as Los Angeles, the San Francisco area, Washington, Philadelphia, New York, and Boston. November 21 is the 325th day of the year (326th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The State Theatre is a performing arts center in New Brunswick, New Jersey built in 1921 as a vaudeville and silent film theatre. ... New Brunswick is a City located in Middlesex County, New Jersey, 31 miles (50 km) southwest of New York City on the Raritan River about 15 miles (24 km) from its mouth. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,290. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion. ... Flag Seal Nickname: DC, The District Motto: Justitia Omnibus (Justice for All) Location Location of Washington, D.C., with regard to the surrounding states of Maryland and Virginia. ... Philadelphia is a village located in Jefferson County, New York. ... Flag Seal Nickname: Big Apple Location Location in the state of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area     City 1,214. ... Boston is a town and small port c. ...

After a winter holiday break, the show visited other North American cities in January 1996, including a stop in Youngstown, Ohio due to "Youngstown" being the album track most (relatively) played on radio. Political highlights of North America North America is the third largest continent in area and the fourth ranked in population. ... Official website: http://www. ...

February and March saw shows in Western Europe, followed by a three-week break during which Springsteen attended the Academy Awards show in Los Angeles. The tour resumed in Europe through earlyish May. A common understanding of Western Europe in modern times. ... Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent film awards in the United States and most watched awards ceremony in the world. ...

A family man with three small children at the time, Springsteen took off the summer of 1996 and then started up again in the U.S. in mid-September, now playing smaller markets and colleges, as well as local stops in Asbury Park and his old St. Rose of Lima School in Freehold, and finishing up in mid-December. The crumbling roof of a Howard Johnsons on the boardwalk in Asbury Park Asbury Park is a city located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. ... Freehold is a Borough located in Monmouth County, New Jersey. ...

Another winter holiday break was taken, then in late January 1997 Springsteen took the show for three weeks in Japan and Australia. In May the final leg started up; first Springsteen went to Stockholm to accept the Polar Music Prize, then he toured Central Europe for perhaps the first time, seeing Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic, before concluding with additional shows back in Western Europe. The 128th and final show of the tour was on May 26, 1997 at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. Stockholm panorama from the City Hall is the capital of Sweden, located on the south east coast of Sweden. ... The Polar Music Prize is an international music prize and awarded to individuals, groups or institutions in recognition of exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music. The prize was founded in 1989 following a donation from Stig Anderson and is awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of... Regions of Europe Central Europe is the region lying between the variously and vaguely defined areas of Eastern and Western Europe. ... May 26 is the 146th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (147th in leap years). ... 1997 (MCMXCVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur Tossed by the waves, she does not founder Coordinates : , Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) Administration Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Département Paris (75) Région ÃŽle-de-France Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (PS) City (commune) Characteristics Land Area 86. ...

The show

While the Ghost of Tom Joad album was in the more acoustic, somber vein of his earlier Nebraska, it did contain some limited additional instrumentation and arrangements. However, Springsteen decided to perform the new material completely by himself, using only acoustic guitar and harmonica. (In actuality, a couple of the dourest Joad numbers did have a hidden offstage synthesizer being played, to supply some badly-needed instrumental coloring.) Nebraska is a heartland rock album by Bruce Springsteen, released in 1982 (see 1982 in music). ... An acoustic guitar is a modern form of guitar descended from the Classical guitar, but generally strung with steel strings for a brighter, louder sound. ... Wikibooks has a manual, textbook or guide to this subject: Harmonica A harmonica is a free reed musical wind instrument (also known, among other things, as a mouth organ or mouth harp, French harp, tin sandwich, blues harp, simply harp, or Mississippi saxophone), having multiple, variably-tuned brass or bronze... A synthesizer (spelling var. ...

Given that Springsteen was famous for his full-band, high-energy, crowd-rousing concerts, this tour was sure to be a surprising departure. Advertisements tried to make this clear, and all show tickets were printed with Solo Acoustic Tour on them [1] to give audiences a firm understanding of what to expect (and leading some to call the tour by that name, although it would become ambiguous in light of the later Devils & Dust Tour; Springsteen's publicists did not give this tour any formal name). The Devils & Dust Tour was a 2005 concert tour featuring Bruce Springsteen performing alone on stage on a variety of instruments. ...

In any case, after an opening rendition of "The Ghost of Tom Joad", which featured audience members whooping and "Brooocing" by habit, Springsteen regularly addressed this audience with some variation of this speech:

"This is where I get to set the ground rules a little bit ... a lot of these songs tonight were composed using a lot of silence, silence is a part of the music, so I really need your collaboration tonight in giving me that silence so I can do my best for you ... if you feel like clapping or singing along, you'll be an embarrassment to your friends and family ... if someone sitting next to you is talking, politely ask them to shut the fuck up ... Don't make me come down there and smack you around, it'll mess with my man-of-the-people image."

Sometimes Springsteen felt the need to reiterate parts of the message after subsequent songs, especially if Brooocing continued. The whole bit created quite an impression among Springsteen fans, some of whom would always refer to this as the Shut the Fuck Up Tour as a result, and others of whom would wish the same rules were in effect for slower songs at future Springsteen E Street Band concerts. The E Street Band is a backing band that has toured and recorded with rock musician Bruce Springsteen since 1972. ...

The performance style of the tour varied greatly depending upon song. Some older numbers such as "Darkness on the Edge of Town" and the recently-exumed "Murder Inc." were vigorously strummed on guitar and bellowed in voice. Slide work also sometimes lent musically dynamism. But most selections, including almost all of the Joad material, were indeed arranged with silence as the leading accompaniment. Even normal fan favorite "Born in the U.S.A." was recast into a snarling attack mostly bereft of its anthemic title line. "The Promised Land" was transformed into a ghostly echo of its usually-rousing self, propelled by percussive slapping of Springsteen's guitar body. Example of a bottleneck, with fingerpicks and resonator guitar. ... Born in the U.S.A. is a 1984 song about the effects of the Vietnam War, written and performed by Bruce Springsteen. ...

The typical all-Joad six-song closing sequence of the main set - "Youngstown", "Sinaloa Cowboys", "The Line", "Balboa Park", "The New Timer", and "Across the Border" - was especially stark and quiet. Based on the fates of lost American workers and Mexican immigrants in California, it suffered from some of same lack of melodic interest and forced didactic purpose that the album had been criticized for. Official language(s) English Capital Sacramento Largest city Los Angeles Area  Ranked 3rd  - Total 158,302 sq mi (410,000 km²)  - Width 250 miles (400 km)  - Length 770 miles (1,240 km)  - % water 4. ...

As the tour wore on, shows became a little looser. Springsteen introduced some humorous songs he had recently written, including "In Freehold", a ribald homage to his growing up, "Sell It and They Will Come", a tribute to the insanity of late-night infomercials, and "Pilgrim in the Temple of Love", a tale of Santa Claus doing something naughty. Indeed explicit sexual mentions became something of a theme of the tour, with Springsteen telling any children in the audience that words they didn't understand were Latin for "doing your homework." Springsteen also engaged the faithful by unearthing some old numbers that had not seen concert action in a long time, or most famously in the case of Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J.'s "The Angel", ever. Infomercials are television commercials that run as long as a typical television program (roughly thirty minutes or an hour). ... A common portrayal of Santa Claus. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Greetings From Asbury Park, N.J. was the first album recorded by Bruce Springsteen & the E-Street Band, released in 1973 (see 1973 in music), and sold about 25,000 copies in the first year. ...

Critical and commercial reaction

Poster for the final shows in Paris.

Due to the small venues played on the tour, often in the 2,000-to-3,000 capacity range, tickets were often hard to get, creating a "ticket scalpers' heaven." [2]

Broadcasts and recordings

Portions of the December 8 and December 9, 1995 shows from Philadelphia's Tower Theater were later broadcast on the syndicated Columbia Records Radio Hour on U.S. album oriented rock stations. December 8 is the 342nd day (343rd in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... December 9 is the 343rd day (344th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Tower Theater is a music venue in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. ... Album Oriented Rock, abbreviated AOR, was originally an American FM radio format focusing on album tracks by rock music artists rather than singles releases. ...

Sources

• Killing Floor's concert database supplies the itinerary and set lists for the shows, but unfortunately does not support direct linking to individual dates.
• Brucebase the same, with ticket and promotional images as well.