| Men walkin' 'long the railroad tracks
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| Goin' someplace and there’s nowhere to go back
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| Highway patrol choppers comin' up over the ridge
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| Hot soup on a campfire under the bridge
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| Shelter line stretchin' round the corner
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| Welcome to the new world order
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| Families sleepin' in their cars in the southwest
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| No home no job no peace no rest
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| The highway is alive tonight
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| Nobody’s kiddin' nobody about where it goes
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| I’m sittin' down here in the campfire light
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| Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad
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| Takes a prayer book out of his sleeping bag
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| Preacher lights up a butt and takes a drag
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| He waits for when the last shall be first and the first shall be last
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| 'neath a cardboard box in the underpass
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| You’ve got a one-way ticket to the promised land
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| You’ve got a hole in your belly and a gun in your hand
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| Sleeping on a pillow of solid rock
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| Bathin' in the city aqueduct
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| The highway is alive tonight
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| But where it’s headed everybody knows
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| I’m sittin' down here in the campfire light
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| Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad
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| «Whenever there’s a cop beatin' a guy
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| Whenever a hungry newborn baby cries
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| Where there’s a fight against the blood and hatred in the air
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| Just look for me and I’ll be there
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| Wherever there’s somebody waitin' for a place to stand
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| Or a decent job or a helpin' hand
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| Wherever there’s somebody strugglin' to be free
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| Just look in their eyes and you’ll see me»
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| The highway is alive tonight
 | 
| Nobody’s kiddin' nobody about where it goes
 | 
| I’m sittin' downhere in the campfire light
 | 
| Waitin' on the ghost of Tom Joad
 | 
| The highway is alive tonight
 | 
| Nobody’s kiddin' nobody about where it goes
 | 
| I’m sittin' downhere in the campfire light
 | 
| With the ghost of old Tom Joad |