Song · Rage Against the Machine
“The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Rage Against the Machine
Released 1997
“The Ghost of Tom Joad” by Rage Against the Machine appears on 13 radio countdowns from 9 stations between 1997 and 2021. It was first released in 1997. Its best result is #42 (tie) on the WBER Listener Countdown 1997. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #110 alternative song of 1997 and #3,712 alternative song of all time.
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Rage Against the Machine released their take on "The Ghost of Tom Joad" in November 1997, grabbing a Bruce Springsteen song that began life as a quiet folk number, the title track of his 1995 album, and throwing it into the furnace. The title reaches back to Tom Joad, the character from John Steinbeck's 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath, and in Rage's hands Springsteen's story becomes a slow, grinding march that erupts into full-bore fury.
The connection stuck: Springsteen later played it live with Tom Morello as his guest, and the two re-recorded it together for his 2014 album High Hopes.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | 72 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1997 | 100 |
| 1997 | 75 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1997 | 107 |
| 1997 | 97 | 105.7 The Point St. Louis, MO | 105.7 The Point Top 105.7 of 1997 | 106 |
| 1997 | 42 (tie) | WBER Rochester, NY | WBER Listener Countdown 1997 | 99 |
| 1997 | 74 | Triple J Australia (national) | Triple J Hottest 100 of 1997 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 240 | WHFS | WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) | 500 |
| 1999 | 815 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 626 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 2001 | 423 | WBRU | WBRU Modern Rock Top 500 (2001) | 500 |
| 2002 | 886 | KISW | KISW Top 999 of All Time (2002) | 999 |
| 2004 | 310 | 107.7 The End | The End Original Alternative 500 (May 2004) | 500 |
| 2020 | 405 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2020) | 420 |
| 2021 | 363 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2021) | 420 |
Also listed as: Ghost of Tom Joad; The Ghost Of Tom Joad.
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