Brillliant. I bought The Ghost of Tom Joad in 98 while living in Oz. and along with Nebraska is a great album. All my mates (not many like) if the album is not commercial it's useless. They have no taste at all . Bruce Springsteen is great, my favourite male artist
"Why do you need Japanese steel?" Classic picture. Our country has been gutted by multinational corporations, and the US military is nothing more than their personal police force.
ALways enjoyed this song, now this video. I grew up here and all my family, father, brothers, nephews, bother-in-laws, etc. work in the steel mills of Youngstown and Warren.
this is really good. I'm posting it on my facebook page. I'm in SF since 84, from Ohio. Back then I wrote a song called 'ghost town youngstown'...about how the country (both parties by the way) were destroying manufacturing and sending us into downward spiral. While still fighting their wars etc. anyway. not a big bruce fan....but this album has EXCELLENT lyrics all through it!. How strange for someone so rich and famous to be able to do that.
Your video is very good. Because of some comments on here I would like to add that Springsteen said this of the song Youngstown "This is about the men and women who lived in this town and who built this country. It's about who gave their sons and daughters to the wars that were fought ... and who were later declared expendable." Ironically the rockstar known as the Boss has always stood up for American workers and I think thats what he intended for this song.
A beautiful piece of music and history combined. But let's not spoil this with cries of how Washington brought down the industry. It was the people demanding cleaner air, that drove the EPA to enforce stricter standards. This required more money be spent cleaning the fumes dumping into the air. And the trade policies that first opened up China were started by favorite Republican son Richard Nixon, so please, do not try and rewrite history.
@MikeBodin The U.S. was making the cheapest steel in the world. Your EPA rules did not bring the industry down. It was the heavy foreign subsidy we had to compete with. We chose not to subsidize our industry and we could not compete with the foreign subsidized steel industry. I think you are rewriting history mr. Bodin
Want a sad days drive? Start at the mouth of the Cuyuhoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio and then drive east and south through Warren, Youngstown, Struthers, Steubenville, Salem, to Wheeling, West Va. See the prosperity our federal government has wrought. It is a sad,sad trip. I used to travel that road in the 1960's and 70's buying steel for Ford. Now there isn't enough steel produced there to make a tin can. Thanks Washington, DC you sold us down the river to China and India.
@BuckeyeJoe44 Joe, I know it will never be as it once was but it is coming back a little. My father put in 28 years at USS Ohio Works and 2 in USS Homestead Pa. both of which are now long gone. I lived through the closings of the 70's in Youngstown. I am a fourth generation steelworker, I'm a Millwright at a new facility just outside of Youngstown. We are still under new construction and soon we will have a new EAF along with triple melt capabilities, VIM ESR VAR. V&M & Republic adiing jobs too
Interesting video although misguided. It implies that the "fat cats" or "big money" (note the GOP logo one character was wearing) took them for all they were worth and then let them down. Fact is the EPA and federal government trade policies spelled doom for our steel industry. I personally know that the chairman of Bethlehem Steel and the president of the United Steel Workers worked hand in glove to lobby the government to help the industry, they work together but were unsuccessful. Sad!
Just learned this tune. Will be doing it at the open mic tonight and at our Thunderboltz show on Friday. Always liked it, but was driven to revisit it when a friend turned me on to US Steel by Tom Russel- similar theme and story involving the city of Homestead PA. Didn't research yet which came first. Both are powerful each in their own right.
Still one of my favorite videos on YouTube. For my g-g-g-grandfather Thomas McDonald (the Village of McDonald, OH is named for him), who LOVED the mills and the men who worked those mills...I thank you.
"Those wishing to post comments intended as political sniping will kindly take their diatribes and shove them up...some other forum. And thanks for viewing."
If you don't want 'political sniping' then don't single out one political party by putting their button on the big fat aloof politician. You dumb motherfucker.
I live in the north east of France in a region where everyone worked in the steel industr. In 70' ,it was closed and destroyed the factories, putting thousands of people on unemployment, entire cities have been emptied. That is why this song affects me a lot.Babylon 9
90% of the problem is the dumb ass EPA enforcing rules and regulations on our factories and running our jobs out of the country to China where there are no EPA rules. FUCK THE EPA!!!! The EPA can stick that in their pipe and smoke it!
@farfrompukin1974 Think about the long term. The EPA and the guidelines to prevent environmental disasters are a good thing. How many more Love Canals do we need? The long term effects of shortsighted strategies will exist long after the pain of a temporary financial struggle has passed.
@stickball70 But the EPA makes things worse because the companys move overseas where there's no EPA guidelines whatsoever and the companys do 10 times more damage to the environment by open dumping and releasing toxins in to the air. When they were here they had some guidelines until the EPA moved in and stepped up the regulations to astronomical proportions where it was too inefficient to operate the company. We're all on the same tiny planet , either way the environment's gonna take a beating
I can remember when Youngstown Sheet and Tube shut down we workers should have unite to do something to force these places to stay open. It makes me sick to see what the bosses have been allowed to do to we the workers and this country.
I had a friend who's family moved to Youngstown in the mid 70's as his father was an accounted hired by one of the big steel companies that went under. My friend told me that his father figured out ways that the mills could have been saved but the steel mill's owners and investors profited more in the short term by shutting it all down and taking it all as a big write off. I'm not making this up.
This is one of the songs that take you across the borders, pushing you to become familiar even with the people from the country which has been proved as our enemy in the last 20 years. I know it's nothing personal, just business as usual - profit for your corporations and political points for your leaders, while ordinary people suffer under debts, credits and mass-media manipulations.
Greetings and best wishes for all honest and diligent Americans from Serbia.
I love your montage and I love this song. thank you for sharing your talent and sharing your heart and hometown. I have many hungarian relatives buried in youngstown. it makes me feel a little sad for leaving to move west as so many have- in 1978. So many of us left a piece of our hearts and our heritage behind, and I don't ever want to forget what once was. A whole way of life for generations has passed. I pray the mahoning valley has a brighter future for all.
Thank you so much. I was born in Youngstown on Cain Street. Grandfather worked at Campbell Works. So did my Dad. Uncle worked at Brier Hill. I appreciate the great images you put to this song.
@intswimming I think the point is that Carnegie, Mellon, etc. were both Republican and getting very wealthy from the underappreciated blood, sweat, and tears of people like my grandfather and great uncle, both of whom died nearly broke of lung cancer they picked up in the mills and couldn't afford to treat. Rather than being an indictment of contemporary Republican voters, the comic seems to me to be a statement about our city's past and the abuse it survived.
@intswimming Traditionally, Management, company owners and anybody who was not a laborer were thought to be Republicans, while most blue collar workers and people not in business for themselves were aligned with unions and the Democratic party. Perhaps this explains the symbology of the time.
In the words of Jon Stewart, when you hear Bruce Springsteen you are no a loser, you are a character in an epic poem...about losers. Great songwriter. I'd argue he has more in common with Woody Guthrie than Bob Dylan
Thank you so, so much for that. You've turned Youngstown ito one of my fvourite Springsteen songs. A superb video that showed rather than told. Sincerely, this is one of the finest thing I've seen on youtube.
both my folks were born at southside hospital, my ancestors came from hungary and lived and one died in one of the steel mills. Many of the Zuti family in the graveyards in Youngstown. My folks and I moved west in 1978, but I still have a special place in my heart for Youngstown and the people of the valley, Your montage really touched me. I thank you so much, Lux!!
just B/c Regan quadrupeled our deb t doesnt mean he increasd our deb more than bush did you Fucking Tard.,.....btw Regan was also a Republican...so ya....thanks for agreeing with me.... ALL REPUBLICANS ARE IDIOTS
I`m a Brit, and worked on trying to sort out the socie-economic mess left behind after big smelter pull-outs in the UK. All disasterous. Then I went to Sudbury, Ontario. "Smokestacks reaching like the arms of God" outside my motel window 24 hours a day... I`ll never forget it, and this track still makes me shiver.
"We sent our sons to korea and vietnam then were wondering what they were dying for" ... for some reason i think they will be thinking the same about iraq n afghanistan eventually!
That was the name of the blast furnace...of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company..it was named after the founder's daughter, Jenny....Steel workers always named the blast furnaces they worked at...my great uncle worked in it for many years...I never saw him cry until the day we all witnessed them implode that blast furnace.
Nice piece of work, but the political potshot at Republicans was manifestly unfair. My father and uncle were both Republicans and worked in those mills. The closing of these mills that started in the 70s had much more to do with cheap Japanese steel being tossed into the market in heaps by the admin in power at the time, and the continuation of the closings more to do with more of that, political greed, poor management and son on. Both parties did their share, politician and citizen alike.
I guess the "republican" pin most cert was to symbolise the rich.. Anyhow, the development with cheap steel coming in from abroad couldn't be stopped without commiting economical suicide in the long run. I think the point of this song and others like this one, is that when the depression comes, no one takes the resposibility for the ones who made them rich. Rich enough to forget their names. Capitalism is a tricky and bumby road for some.
@tjompus The "Republic" pin is kind of a stab. I don't see any "poor" Democrats in office... Both sides in the political game are both equally responsible for the mess we're in. I dont want to turn this into a political debate. We all know where Springsteen stands.
He now believes me when I talk about Youngstown - and I keep on telling him that it is a shame that he could not see it in its hey day
Thanks, Bruce Springsteen, for writing this song - and for sharing it with America - and letting America know the truth (as much as you can possibly state in a song)
God bless Youngstown - and all of its past citizens who have passed on and its current residents, who are toughing it out - as well as America - as many poster have stated: BUY AMERICAN!!!!
Despite Youngstown having lost more than half of its population (me being one, reluctantly, for, like others, I had to "move on" in order to earn a decent living), Youngstown has the Butler Art Institute, one of the premiere art institutes in America (I took my husband, who is from Miami) to the Butler and he was AMAZED - could NOT believe that little, tiny Youngstown had such a GREAT INSTITUTION!!!!
I also took him to Mill Creek Park - one of the most beautiful places on earth!!!!!
Youngstown was a magnificiently beautiful city when I was growing up - and, despite all of its horrendous struggles it is going through now, it is still a beautiful city - hopefully, the city and government will eliminate/eradicate all the despair and unsightly abandoned buildings and make green spaces/parks - and find ways to get its people back to decent-paid jobs (I suggest artisan/craftsmanship and organic farming)
My great-grandparents were immigrants and settled in the Youngstown area - they were upper-middle-class and merchants
My grandfather worked in the mills, as well as my uncle - and I remember the times (now, in a strange way, fondly) when they were on strike and money was tight
As many posters (who lived in Youngstown and experienced its greatness), I am very sad about its demise - though I am hopeful and optimistic - and, because Youngstowners ("Yowners") tend to be strong and optitimistic - as they had went through many hard and trying times (remember all the strikes) - but they still tend to "keep their chins" up and keeping on struggling to do better - and smile and be polite through it all, too
Daddy worked Copperweld, Y-town Sinter, Diamond, WCI, and made sure I grew up in Boardman instead of where he'd lived as a kid; the South Side isn't safe any more. The East Side isn't safe any more. Even St. Dom's church parking lot isn't safe any more. That's part of why I live in NY state. You've illustrated the lyrics perfectly. I've favorited this vid. Awesome job.
There's a museum in Y-town about the steel industry in the area, how steel was made, when the mills went up, etc.. Lock your doors downtown, and when you're on the south and east sides of the city especially. The neighborhoods my parents grew up in used to be safe; now you can be shot in your car for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or wearing the wrong color.
Look at a map of the US. Ohio is the sort of heart-shaped state under the Great Lakes, a little to the right of center. Youngstown is about half way down the eastern border with Pennsylvania. Climate's comprable to your southern states, economy's in the toilet.
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
bruces main problem is that in his songs he always blames the government instead of the incredible greed of the unions that destroyed the US manufacturing empire. anything to make a buck, right bruce? waiting on the next big disaster to un-retire again, bruce?
The deeper I delve into my family history, the more I find out about the remarkable McDonald men who lived (and died) as part of the steel industry in Youngstown.
I may be a "lesser scion of greater" sires...but I will always remember (and honor) the sacrifices they made to the town they loved. Ne Obliviscaris (forget not)
This story is echoed in many a city in the Rust Belt: Gary, Indiana, Flint, Michigan, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Buffalo, New York, Newark, New Jersey, Kenosha, Wisconsin, and so forth.
I'm a first generation Californian but my dad is from the Youngstown area, North Lima specifically. My dad got the hell out, went to Ohio State,got a degree in engineering and moved west. Many of my relatives still live in the Youngstown area. If America needs to look at the tragic story of lost industrial glory, it doesn't need to look further than Youngstown. It will never return.
I like the video. I grew up in Youngstown. I left in the early eighties and visit often. Most of my family is buried and lives in Ytown.
How can this city recover? Its been in a free-fall since September 1977. Change laws to attract business? Encourage young people to start new companies; not steel?
What can be done that would achieve positive results?
This is a beautiful and thoughtful video. My mother's family is from Youngstown. I visited frequently in the 70's & 80's and gradually observed the decline, which makes me sad. My grandparents lived on the West Side on Hillsdale Ave. ... I offer no political commentary. All I can say is that I have known some awfully good and solid people from this city. Thank you again !
This is one of BS's most moving songs. On first hearing, it made me hang on to his every word & made the hairs on my neck stand on end....still does! Although I know nothing about Youngstown, other than what is in the song, BS hits a nerve, with a common theme that has international appeal to the global working man. That of entire communities left devastated by the closure of the main employer, with little or no regard for invaluable work or products that they have produced for their nation.
So,how is that obama thing working for you? Do you realize that he was part of the senate that put the screws to the banks and got us into this crisis? Check his voting record if you're not a blind follower. Look at his friends; his first call to any head of state was to mahmoud abbas, leader of fatah party, his first one on one TV interview was AL ARABIA TV, he withdrew all charges against the masterminds of the USS Cole and the 9/11 attackers, $20.3 million to move Hamas supporters to America.
@NowhereMan47 Never under estimate the stupidity of people who live in Rust Belt of America, and ask "what happened to the jobs?" Ask your union leaders. Ask the EPA administration under Cater and Clinton.
Democrats raising taxes on businesses and on people along with the tree huggers are driving more industry and jobs out the U.S.A. every day. WAKE UP BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Democrats.....Republicans all want your money and freedom poor people relying on the goverment for everthing are no treat to it The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
Fucking Democrats.....Republicans cause this country to prosper and the Democrats spend the hard earned money of the working man and destroy the country.
His song is not just about Youngstown, where I grew up, but all of big industry in this country. Ownership sold out the little man for their own greed. There is a book about Youngstown called These 100 years. It's said to see the rise and fall of a community...anywhere. That town unfortunately is dead today. Hardly a sole out on the streets...families had to leave one another to search for a better life. People still there are struggling. Romanticizing? I dunno
Springsteen is the Western world's foremost troubadour of Romanticism. That is to say, he elevates often negative contexts in grand, and gripping poetry, in great rhymes and melody, only ultimately to keep us confused and take us nowhere.
I think you're 100% that he romanticizes the mundane to the outright oppressive scenarios that have been muse to blues, folk, (some)hip hop, and punk musicians for two centuries. But I think his music has a more haunting than lulling effect...Bob Dylan he is not. Neither does he inspire revolution, but as on of those opposed to the machine that the states are I appreciate his music.
Freaking Art. Don't mind the shrunken souls who tell you different. That Irishman, my President, will be in the Youngs'Town today. I pray he's absorbed the song and your effort. Heart Like a Wheel; Thanks.
Youngstown was one of the eariest places I've ever been. I interviewed for a job there in 1992. Driving in on a Friday afternoon it was completely deserted, as if the town had just packed up and moved away.
Parking lot with inch thick steel bars and guard demanding picture ID was the first time I had ever seen razor wire in an American city.
Company was excited by big growth in Emergency Medical Needs, especially Friday nights.
An entire city murdered by the greed of its corp owners.
yes, this song is a great song, i am from germany and I like the songs by bruce springsteen.When I hear the song, I'm still emotionally shaken. the following passage I like very much :From the Monongahela Valley
I live in a city 5 miles from Youngstown, my mom grew up there, and her grandfather painted the auditorium back when jenny was still standing. But evert time I drive trough I make an effort to drive pass the old mill. God bless all Ohio!
Sorry man, my grandma was like 82 or 3, she was actually my great grandma, im only 18, but maybe our grandfathers knew each other, ever hear the story of the one painter who fell from a scafolding while painting the roof around the flower petals n died?
I've only got a decade on you, but it's possible they did know each other. My grandfather actually fell from a scaffolding on a job, but he didn't die, just broke his spine and had to quit. Ended up in the mills and died of lung cancer b/c of them. No help from the Company in the end either. :(
@NeumeIndil Im sorry to hear that, i've listened to my him tell me those stories 100's of times all of them tragic but thats what happens when you let us italians bring bottles of vino to work lol, j/k ...any way... the italians really had made names for them selves by doing those kind of jobs in that city, as did the irish.
For me it is not so much that these things happened all over the East and Midwest, but after thirty years or so little is changed. Scars that never healed. We just call it the Rust Belt.---- "I made you rich enough to forget my name."
This comment has received too many negative votesshow
You are an idiot...Do you live in the US? People like me fight for your freedom and all you did is shit on it. So many have died for Democracy...to say it never exsist is treason. It is less today cause of Obama......Socialism is something you shoud be worried about.
YOU are an idiot. You make a blanket statement that people like you fought for my freedom without even knowing where I live or if I even served in the US Military myself. I certainly appreciate & support the efforts & sacrifices of our troops regardless of the governments reason they are fighting. Unfortunately your understanding of government (what is democracy, capitalism,socialism,fascism) is juvenile & naive at best & you buy into exactly what the gov't wants you to. Think about it.
Brillliant. I bought The Ghost of Tom Joad in 98 while living in Oz. and along with Nebraska is a great album. All my mates (not many like) if the album is not commercial it's useless. They have no taste at all . Bruce Springsteen is great, my favourite male artist
Papi01He 16 hours ago
This is a brutally beautiful video. Steelmaking is a brutally beautiful process.
Hagen823 2 weeks ago
"Why do you need Japanese steel?" Classic picture. Our country has been gutted by multinational corporations, and the US military is nothing more than their personal police force.
mike2tosu 3 weeks ago
ALways enjoyed this song, now this video. I grew up here and all my family, father, brothers, nephews, bother-in-laws, etc. work in the steel mills of Youngstown and Warren.
Retvet1996 1 month ago
One of Bruce's greatest songs....and he has written many, many great songs..
"Them smoke stacks reaching like the arms of God into a beautiful sky of soot and clay"..who else could come up with a lyric like that ?
johnnyM809 1 month ago
this is really good. I'm posting it on my facebook page. I'm in SF since 84, from Ohio. Back then I wrote a song called 'ghost town youngstown'...about how the country (both parties by the way) were destroying manufacturing and sending us into downward spiral. While still fighting their wars etc. anyway. not a big bruce fan....but this album has EXCELLENT lyrics all through it!. How strange for someone so rich and famous to be able to do that.
tommystrange 1 month ago
GREAT VIDEO MAN. I LOVE YOUR EFFORT ! thank you for posting it.
TheStellarBoy 1 month ago in playlist More videos from luxunsghost
good video!
gerben550 1 month ago
Your video is very good. Because of some comments on here I would like to add that Springsteen said this of the song Youngstown "This is about the men and women who lived in this town and who built this country. It's about who gave their sons and daughters to the wars that were fought ... and who were later declared expendable." Ironically the rockstar known as the Boss has always stood up for American workers and I think thats what he intended for this song.
nmeckle12 1 month ago
It is criminal what these Corporations have done to this country.
MrTrainman73 1 month ago
Should have made a song about the Mon Valley.
kate8771 1 month ago
A beautiful piece of music and history combined. But let's not spoil this with cries of how Washington brought down the industry. It was the people demanding cleaner air, that drove the EPA to enforce stricter standards. This required more money be spent cleaning the fumes dumping into the air. And the trade policies that first opened up China were started by favorite Republican son Richard Nixon, so please, do not try and rewrite history.
MikeBodin 1 month ago in playlist Favorite videos
@MikeBodin The U.S. was making the cheapest steel in the world. Your EPA rules did not bring the industry down. It was the heavy foreign subsidy we had to compete with. We chose not to subsidize our industry and we could not compete with the foreign subsidized steel industry. I think you are rewriting history mr. Bodin
thereare4lights17 1 month ago
@thereare4lights17 my dad said the same thing he haul nuggets form youngstown to chicago
cutandshoottx 1 month ago
On the same lines--check out John Stewart's "Survivors." What the hell have we allowed to happen?
celticgypsy11 3 weeks ago in playlist Favorite videos
Want a sad days drive? Start at the mouth of the Cuyuhoga River in downtown Cleveland, Ohio and then drive east and south through Warren, Youngstown, Struthers, Steubenville, Salem, to Wheeling, West Va. See the prosperity our federal government has wrought. It is a sad,sad trip. I used to travel that road in the 1960's and 70's buying steel for Ford. Now there isn't enough steel produced there to make a tin can. Thanks Washington, DC you sold us down the river to China and India.
BuckeyeJoe44 2 months ago
@BuckeyeJoe44 great post. It's almost as if America has become a victim of it's own success. Sad story.
MrRascasseman 2 months ago
@BuckeyeJoe44 Joe, I know it will never be as it once was but it is coming back a little. My father put in 28 years at USS Ohio Works and 2 in USS Homestead Pa. both of which are now long gone. I lived through the closings of the 70's in Youngstown. I am a fourth generation steelworker, I'm a Millwright at a new facility just outside of Youngstown. We are still under new construction and soon we will have a new EAF along with triple melt capabilities, VIM ESR VAR. V&M & Republic adiing jobs too
yayablu1970 3 weeks ago
Interesting video although misguided. It implies that the "fat cats" or "big money" (note the GOP logo one character was wearing) took them for all they were worth and then let them down. Fact is the EPA and federal government trade policies spelled doom for our steel industry. I personally know that the chairman of Bethlehem Steel and the president of the United Steel Workers worked hand in glove to lobby the government to help the industry, they work together but were unsuccessful. Sad!
BuckeyeJoe44 2 months ago
Rich man in a poor man's shirt...
MrRazorblade999 2 months ago
Great video. Very creative. Can't say enough good things. Thanks for putting in the work.
greenowl13 2 months ago
This is very awesome
clouddancerss 2 months ago
This might just be the only reason I'm proud to be from Youngstown. THIS SONG
11grapegatorade11 2 months ago
Just learned this tune. Will be doing it at the open mic tonight and at our Thunderboltz show on Friday. Always liked it, but was driven to revisit it when a friend turned me on to US Steel by Tom Russel- similar theme and story involving the city of Homestead PA. Didn't research yet which came first. Both are powerful each in their own right.
markzeusmusic 3 months ago
Give more tax breaks to the rich. They create the jobs. NOT.
TheDaisyraven 3 months ago
Still one of my favorite videos on YouTube. For my g-g-g-grandfather Thomas McDonald (the Village of McDonald, OH is named for him), who LOVED the mills and the men who worked those mills...I thank you.
Baelmyrrdn 3 months ago
Sad and beautiful in one...greetings from Croatia...
cudnistric 3 months ago
Will we ever learn?
celticgypsy11 3 months ago in playlist celticgypsy11's favorites
The pictures have a nice flow and creativity to them, good video!
amcd981 3 months ago
geat tune...and good job on the video...it's what the song is all about.
kylethompson4 4 months ago
Comment removed
StigJensen123 4 months ago
"Those wishing to post comments intended as political sniping will kindly take their diatribes and shove them up...some other forum. And thanks for viewing."
If you don't want 'political sniping' then don't single out one political party by putting their button on the big fat aloof politician. You dumb motherfucker.
dirtearth 4 months ago
@dirtearth i totally agreed!!
Hwright73 3 months ago
I am a teacher in a suburb of Youngstown (Austintown). I'm going to use this as we discuss the Industrial Revolution.
Thanks -
JohnDietz 4 months ago
This song gets me so mad that my teeth start crackin'. When are we gonna hang the traitors that did this?
jnlabrk6 4 months ago
This has been flagged as spam show
I live here in Williamson WV working on The JOBS Project! These communities should be respected!!
exotericeric 4 months ago
Comment removed
exotericeric 4 months ago
True Springsteen. Fantastic
waldogheadify 4 months ago
I live in the north east of France in a region where everyone worked in the steel industr. In 70' ,it was closed and destroyed the factories, putting thousands of people on unemployment, entire cities have been emptied. That is why this song affects me a lot.Babylon 9
Fontillon 5 months ago
90% of the problem is the dumb ass EPA enforcing rules and regulations on our factories and running our jobs out of the country to China where there are no EPA rules. FUCK THE EPA!!!! The EPA can stick that in their pipe and smoke it!
farfrompukin1974 5 months ago
@farfrompukin1974 Think about the long term. The EPA and the guidelines to prevent environmental disasters are a good thing. How many more Love Canals do we need? The long term effects of shortsighted strategies will exist long after the pain of a temporary financial struggle has passed.
stickball70 5 months ago
@stickball70 But the EPA makes things worse because the companys move overseas where there's no EPA guidelines whatsoever and the companys do 10 times more damage to the environment by open dumping and releasing toxins in to the air. When they were here they had some guidelines until the EPA moved in and stepped up the regulations to astronomical proportions where it was too inefficient to operate the company. We're all on the same tiny planet , either way the environment's gonna take a beating
farfrompukin1974 5 months ago
beautiful, moving song. powerful images too. great vid.
fringeailments 5 months ago
Quite possibly THE single greatest video on YouTube!
dokokai 5 months ago 9
@dokokai You are absolutely right! A great video for a magnificent song.
geraldfriedman71055 3 months ago
Wow! I worked at the WCI blast furnace in Warren, this made me homesick! Thanks and BlessedBE!
jredjr333 6 months ago 2
I can remember when Youngstown Sheet and Tube shut down we workers should have unite to do something to force these places to stay open. It makes me sick to see what the bosses have been allowed to do to we the workers and this country.
MrTrainman73 6 months ago
I had a friend who's family moved to Youngstown in the mid 70's as his father was an accounted hired by one of the big steel companies that went under. My friend told me that his father figured out ways that the mills could have been saved but the steel mill's owners and investors profited more in the short term by shutting it all down and taking it all as a big write off. I'm not making this up.
cnmrosko 6 months ago 3
great song and video
duksila 6 months ago
Great montage for a great song...
This is one of the songs that take you across the borders, pushing you to become familiar even with the people from the country which has been proved as our enemy in the last 20 years. I know it's nothing personal, just business as usual - profit for your corporations and political points for your leaders, while ordinary people suffer under debts, credits and mass-media manipulations.
Greetings and best wishes for all honest and diligent Americans from Serbia.
agmonser 8 months ago
Awesome video!!!
Darkina85 1 year ago
I love your montage and I love this song. thank you for sharing your talent and sharing your heart and hometown. I have many hungarian relatives buried in youngstown. it makes me feel a little sad for leaving to move west as so many have- in 1978. So many of us left a piece of our hearts and our heritage behind, and I don't ever want to forget what once was. A whole way of life for generations has passed. I pray the mahoning valley has a brighter future for all.
n2wishinn 1 year ago 8
Comment removed
n2wishinn 1 year ago
Thank you so much. I was born in Youngstown on Cain Street. Grandfather worked at Campbell Works. So did my Dad. Uncle worked at Brier Hill. I appreciate the great images you put to this song.
rockandroll4evermore 1 year ago
Enjoy the montage...and the words. Yet WTF, why show Republican badge on fat cat?
No one side is free and clear. In Youngstown......
intswimming 1 year ago 2
@intswimming I think the point is that Carnegie, Mellon, etc. were both Republican and getting very wealthy from the underappreciated blood, sweat, and tears of people like my grandfather and great uncle, both of whom died nearly broke of lung cancer they picked up in the mills and couldn't afford to treat. Rather than being an indictment of contemporary Republican voters, the comic seems to me to be a statement about our city's past and the abuse it survived.
NeumeIndil 1 year ago
@intswimming Traditionally, Management, company owners and anybody who was not a laborer were thought to be Republicans, while most blue collar workers and people not in business for themselves were aligned with unions and the Democratic party. Perhaps this explains the symbology of the time.
n2wishinn 1 year ago
A nice work and a beautiful song !!!
Greetings - GEO 66
sonymagellan 1 year ago
this is the greatest video on youtube this is the real America
jessicafischerqueen 1 year ago
In the words of Jon Stewart, when you hear Bruce Springsteen you are no a loser, you are a character in an epic poem...about losers. Great songwriter. I'd argue he has more in common with Woody Guthrie than Bob Dylan
bluesboy25000 1 year ago
Learned this in History. Civil War. i<3this Song!!!!! OMG Addictive. i <3 YOUNGSTOWN. Proud Ohioan!!!! Youngstown NATIVE [330]
cheyondeck 1 year ago
Excellent job my friend. From an old Millwright.
Cleve, Ohio
mojohand12 1 year ago
Thank you so, so much for that. You've turned Youngstown ito one of my fvourite Springsteen songs. A superb video that showed rather than told. Sincerely, this is one of the finest thing I've seen on youtube.
Mozzarina 1 year ago
both my folks were born at southside hospital, my ancestors came from hungary and lived and one died in one of the steel mills. Many of the Zuti family in the graveyards in Youngstown. My folks and I moved west in 1978, but I still have a special place in my heart for Youngstown and the people of the valley, Your montage really touched me. I thank you so much, Lux!!
n2wishinn 1 year ago 2
@luxunghost - thank you very much, this was just great....
damat81 1 year ago 2
wonderful video, really really thank you!!!
greyeyednick 1 year ago
Stuff Don Blankenship face first into that goddamn vent shaft!
smedleyB 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
what a well made video!!!
and of course the song is fantastic, too!
SarahSofiaGranborg 1 year ago
what a well made video!!!
and of course the song is fantastic, too!
SarahSofiaGranborg 1 year ago
Really well done luxunsghost. thanks for teaching us. Bruce would approve I'm sure.
smedleyB 1 year ago
My sweet Jenny I'm sinkin' down <3
Coffeeaddict3 1 year ago 2
Fitting video for such a good song! Good work!
ibitron1 1 year ago
just B/c Regan quadrupeled our deb t doesnt mean he increasd our deb more than bush did you Fucking Tard.,.....btw Regan was also a Republican...so ya....thanks for agreeing with me.... ALL REPUBLICANS ARE IDIOTS
LADodgersfan100 1 year ago
Good work; you brought this great song to life. Thanks for sharing.
Q.
QQQQQman 2 years ago
I`m a Brit, and worked on trying to sort out the socie-economic mess left behind after big smelter pull-outs in the UK. All disasterous. Then I went to Sudbury, Ontario. "Smokestacks reaching like the arms of God" outside my motel window 24 hours a day... I`ll never forget it, and this track still makes me shiver.
springtail100 2 years ago
well done. appreciate your use of history.
sheffieldstar 2 years ago
best bruce songs,, youngstown, ghost of tom joad, brothers under the bridge :)
nikesvvoosh 2 years ago
I was raised 15 miles from here my father died of lung cancer from the mill..
Most all are closednow as we sold out for cheaper made steel from China.
abanfour 2 years ago
Nice Video !
DANLEO5 2 years ago
Obviously, Bruce is the man, but the video complements the song perfectly. 5*
firebeforeice 2 years ago
I like this version, is this in audio also ?
Sulfadyn 2 years ago
"We sent our sons to korea and vietnam then were wondering what they were dying for" ... for some reason i think they will be thinking the same about iraq n afghanistan eventually!
nikesvvoosh 2 years ago 2
he is always singing about jenny who is jenny "???"
Jimx27 2 years ago
@Jimx27
'Jenny' or 'Jeannete' was the nickname that steel workers gave their blast furnace in Youngstown.
90265SE14 2 years ago
thx
Jimx27 2 years ago
That was the name of the blast furnace...of Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company..it was named after the founder's daughter, Jenny....Steel workers always named the blast furnaces they worked at...my great uncle worked in it for many years...I never saw him cry until the day we all witnessed them implode that blast furnace.
buckeyefan20012001 1 year ago
@Jimx27 jenny is the name of one of the first largest furnace in one of those mills
visual1677 1 year ago
Hands across the ocean to our steelworker brothers at Corus, Redcar UK. 1700 steel worker thrown to the wolves,
dogs1905 2 years ago
Nice piece of work, but the political potshot at Republicans was manifestly unfair. My father and uncle were both Republicans and worked in those mills. The closing of these mills that started in the 70s had much more to do with cheap Japanese steel being tossed into the market in heaps by the admin in power at the time, and the continuation of the closings more to do with more of that, political greed, poor management and son on. Both parties did their share, politician and citizen alike.
lmalcott 2 years ago
I guess the "republican" pin most cert was to symbolise the rich.. Anyhow, the development with cheap steel coming in from abroad couldn't be stopped without commiting economical suicide in the long run. I think the point of this song and others like this one, is that when the depression comes, no one takes the resposibility for the ones who made them rich. Rich enough to forget their names. Capitalism is a tricky and bumby road for some.
tjompus 2 years ago
@tjompus The "Republic" pin is kind of a stab. I don't see any "poor" Democrats in office... Both sides in the political game are both equally responsible for the mess we're in. I dont want to turn this into a political debate. We all know where Springsteen stands.
JoeyPNB 1 year ago 2
He now believes me when I talk about Youngstown - and I keep on telling him that it is a shame that he could not see it in its hey day
Thanks, Bruce Springsteen, for writing this song - and for sharing it with America - and letting America know the truth (as much as you can possibly state in a song)
God bless Youngstown - and all of its past citizens who have passed on and its current residents, who are toughing it out - as well as America - as many poster have stated: BUY AMERICAN!!!!
MIAMIPIRATA 2 years ago
Despite Youngstown having lost more than half of its population (me being one, reluctantly, for, like others, I had to "move on" in order to earn a decent living), Youngstown has the Butler Art Institute, one of the premiere art institutes in America (I took my husband, who is from Miami) to the Butler and he was AMAZED - could NOT believe that little, tiny Youngstown had such a GREAT INSTITUTION!!!!
I also took him to Mill Creek Park - one of the most beautiful places on earth!!!!!
MIAMIPIRATA 2 years ago
Youngstown was a magnificiently beautiful city when I was growing up - and, despite all of its horrendous struggles it is going through now, it is still a beautiful city - hopefully, the city and government will eliminate/eradicate all the despair and unsightly abandoned buildings and make green spaces/parks - and find ways to get its people back to decent-paid jobs (I suggest artisan/craftsmanship and organic farming)
MIAMIPIRATA 2 years ago
My great-grandparents were immigrants and settled in the Youngstown area - they were upper-middle-class and merchants
My grandfather worked in the mills, as well as my uncle - and I remember the times (now, in a strange way, fondly) when they were on strike and money was tight
MIAMIPIRATA 2 years ago
As many posters (who lived in Youngstown and experienced its greatness), I am very sad about its demise - though I am hopeful and optimistic - and, because Youngstowners ("Yowners") tend to be strong and optitimistic - as they had went through many hard and trying times (remember all the strikes) - but they still tend to "keep their chins" up and keeping on struggling to do better - and smile and be polite through it all, too
MIAMIPIRATA 2 years ago
Great song - I was born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio - and, by mere coincidence and the grace of God, I moved just before the mills closed!!!!!
I love the music and the lyrics - GREAT SONG!!!
MIAMIPIRATA 2 years ago
Nice piece of work, Thanks
America the Great, Lets keep it that way
romey5892 2 years ago
Daddy worked Copperweld, Y-town Sinter, Diamond, WCI, and made sure I grew up in Boardman instead of where he'd lived as a kid; the South Side isn't safe any more. The East Side isn't safe any more. Even St. Dom's church parking lot isn't safe any more. That's part of why I live in NY state. You've illustrated the lyrics perfectly. I've favorited this vid. Awesome job.
NeumeIndil 2 years ago
There's a museum in Y-town about the steel industry in the area, how steel was made, when the mills went up, etc.. Lock your doors downtown, and when you're on the south and east sides of the city especially. The neighborhoods my parents grew up in used to be safe; now you can be shot in your car for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or wearing the wrong color.
NeumeIndil 2 years ago
Downturn is perfectly safe, just say away from the bad looking, run-down neighborhoods and you'll be completely fine.
kfwahoo 2 years ago
Look at a map of the US. Ohio is the sort of heart-shaped state under the Great Lakes, a little to the right of center. Youngstown is about half way down the eastern border with Pennsylvania. Climate's comprable to your southern states, economy's in the toilet.
NeumeIndil 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
bruces main problem is that in his songs he always blames the government instead of the incredible greed of the unions that destroyed the US manufacturing empire. anything to make a buck, right bruce? waiting on the next big disaster to un-retire again, bruce?
bulletman100 2 years ago
Nothing like the Mahonihg valley. God I wish I could have been alive to see Youngstown and Akron in their glory days.
bobbrode314 2 years ago
Excellent. Great job!
I love and really enjoy it.
MarkLevasseur17 2 years ago
The deeper I delve into my family history, the more I find out about the remarkable McDonald men who lived (and died) as part of the steel industry in Youngstown.
I may be a "lesser scion of greater" sires...but I will always remember (and honor) the sacrifices they made to the town they loved. Ne Obliviscaris (forget not)
Baelmyrrdn 2 years ago
My blood runs deep in this city. I may not be there now but I am always there. Black Monday should always be remembered.
kettlewhistlepro 2 years ago
great bruce song and a nice video to go along with it
tmanxxxx 2 years ago
This story is echoed in many a city in the Rust Belt: Gary, Indiana, Flint, Michigan, Scranton, Pennsylvania, Buffalo, New York, Newark, New Jersey, Kenosha, Wisconsin, and so forth.
eribalsch 2 years ago
I'm a first generation Californian but my dad is from the Youngstown area, North Lima specifically. My dad got the hell out, went to Ohio State,got a degree in engineering and moved west. Many of my relatives still live in the Youngstown area. If America needs to look at the tragic story of lost industrial glory, it doesn't need to look further than Youngstown. It will never return.
eribalsch 2 years ago
this is one of burce's best an a fantastic video very good mate
luke250 2 years ago
I like the video. I grew up in Youngstown. I left in the early eighties and visit often. Most of my family is buried and lives in Ytown.
How can this city recover? Its been in a free-fall since September 1977. Change laws to attract business? Encourage young people to start new companies; not steel?
What can be done that would achieve positive results?
rhodesjazz 2 years ago
This is a beautiful and thoughtful video. My mother's family is from Youngstown. I visited frequently in the 70's & 80's and gradually observed the decline, which makes me sad. My grandparents lived on the West Side on Hillsdale Ave. ... I offer no political commentary. All I can say is that I have known some awfully good and solid people from this city. Thank you again !
PetranGavrosForever 2 years ago
Comment removed
zigzag2001420 2 years ago
Comment removed
zigzag2001420 2 years ago
This is one of BS's most moving songs. On first hearing, it made me hang on to his every word & made the hairs on my neck stand on end....still does! Although I know nothing about Youngstown, other than what is in the song, BS hits a nerve, with a common theme that has international appeal to the global working man. That of entire communities left devastated by the closure of the main employer, with little or no regard for invaluable work or products that they have produced for their nation.
Tokeballs 2 years ago
So,how is that obama thing working for you? Do you realize that he was part of the senate that put the screws to the banks and got us into this crisis? Check his voting record if you're not a blind follower. Look at his friends; his first call to any head of state was to mahmoud abbas, leader of fatah party, his first one on one TV interview was AL ARABIA TV, he withdrew all charges against the masterminds of the USS Cole and the 9/11 attackers, $20.3 million to move Hamas supporters to America.
buckeast1 2 years ago
@buckeast1 You're a crazy person.
somnolent49 2 years ago 3
@buckeast1
never underestimate the stupidity of Rush Limbaugh listeners.
NowhereMan47 1 year ago
@NowhereMan47 Never under estimate the stupidity of people who live in Rust Belt of America, and ask "what happened to the jobs?" Ask your union leaders. Ask the EPA administration under Cater and Clinton.
MrBigcarguy 5 months ago
Democrats raising taxes on businesses and on people along with the tree huggers are driving more industry and jobs out the U.S.A. every day. WAKE UP BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!
buckeast1 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Democrats.....Republicans all want your money and freedom poor people relying on the goverment for everthing are no treat to it The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants
natepayne2007 2 years ago
GREAT MUSIC
jolandasterbloem 2 years ago 3
This song made me cry.
johnyknine 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Fucking Democrats.....Republicans cause this country to prosper and the Democrats spend the hard earned money of the working man and destroy the country.
fridgewrestler 2 years ago
your an idiot.
haitianjack5 2 years ago 5
This comment has received too many negative votes show
The word is "you're" and you my friend can eat shit!
fridgewrestler 2 years ago
100% right gg
Hammer737 2 years ago
@fridgewrestler
Sure. The last 8 years in Iraq under Bush made us prosper real good...
SolitaryGray 2 years ago 15
fridgewrestler
Reagan quadrupled the debt, Bush doubled the debt. How fucking stupid can you be?
IronicKismet 2 years ago 20
Perhaps, but you have to understand that it's only half the Democratic Party that are corporate whores, but it's the whole Republican party!
rockandrollgirls 2 years ago
I'm sorry, I used to consider myself a democrat and hated republicans, now I hate both and support Ron Paul.
Ron Paul/Dennis Kucinich Two Thousand and Always!
admthrwn 2 years ago
Amazing song..
And h'es right
"The Storys always the same"
Same sh*t different era really.
Could any1 find the song "Old Timer" from the same album Ghost Of Tom Joad?
Thanks.
EssenceRecords 2 years ago
it,s the new timer and what a great song
pernodanzero 2 years ago
His song is not just about Youngstown, where I grew up, but all of big industry in this country. Ownership sold out the little man for their own greed. There is a book about Youngstown called These 100 years. It's said to see the rise and fall of a community...anywhere. That town unfortunately is dead today. Hardly a sole out on the streets...families had to leave one another to search for a better life. People still there are struggling. Romanticizing? I dunno
funtimes1966 2 years ago
This video kicks ass!!!
RochesterFICS 2 years ago 3
Springsteen is the Western world's foremost troubadour of Romanticism. That is to say, he elevates often negative contexts in grand, and gripping poetry, in great rhymes and melody, only ultimately to keep us confused and take us nowhere.
AlistairMcConnachie 2 years ago
I think you're 100% that he romanticizes the mundane to the outright oppressive scenarios that have been muse to blues, folk, (some)hip hop, and punk musicians for two centuries. But I think his music has a more haunting than lulling effect...Bob Dylan he is not. Neither does he inspire revolution, but as on of those opposed to the machine that the states are I appreciate his music.
moshkobra 2 years ago 2
this is a pretty cool song considering i live 2 minutes away from youngstwon in smalltown austintown
HxCUNstopABLE 2 years ago
Freaking Art. Don't mind the shrunken souls who tell you different. That Irishman, my President, will be in the Youngs'Town today. I pray he's absorbed the song and your effort. Heart Like a Wheel; Thanks.
612franklin 2 years ago
Good video but I think Youngstown is now known for its murders instead of the steel mills.
JawsJaws 2 years ago
Youngstown was one of the eariest places I've ever been. I interviewed for a job there in 1992. Driving in on a Friday afternoon it was completely deserted, as if the town had just packed up and moved away.
Parking lot with inch thick steel bars and guard demanding picture ID was the first time I had ever seen razor wire in an American city.
Company was excited by big growth in Emergency Medical Needs, especially Friday nights.
An entire city murdered by the greed of its corp owners.
RobynHarris 2 years ago 2
Uh.....thats the point of this song and video.
dokokai 2 years ago
Thank you for this very beautiful montage. It has helped me to understand the words of this song (I'm french),
Like what's happening in this song, I made some people rich enough to forget my name.
And thanks to Bruce Springsteen for singing for the poor people.
tomjoaddd 2 years ago 4
yes, this song is a great song, i am from germany and I like the songs by bruce springsteen.When I hear the song, I'm still emotionally shaken. the following passage I like very much :From the Monongahela Valley
To the Mesabi iron range
To the coal mines of Appalacchia
The story's always the same
Seven-hundred tons of metal a day
Now sir you tell me the world's changed
Once I made you rich enough
Rich enough to forget my name
FuNKyHotMix 2 years ago 5
I live in a city 5 miles from Youngstown, my mom grew up there, and her grandfather painted the auditorium back when jenny was still standing. But evert time I drive trough I make an effort to drive pass the old mill. God bless all Ohio!
xTOxADVENT 2 years ago 3
You might be one of my cousins. My grandfather painted the auditorium and was originally from Virginia. Grandma died at age 103. Sound familiar?
NeumeIndil 2 years ago
Sorry man, my grandma was like 82 or 3, she was actually my great grandma, im only 18, but maybe our grandfathers knew each other, ever hear the story of the one painter who fell from a scafolding while painting the roof around the flower petals n died?
xTOxADVENT 2 years ago
I've only got a decade on you, but it's possible they did know each other. My grandfather actually fell from a scaffolding on a job, but he didn't die, just broke his spine and had to quit. Ended up in the mills and died of lung cancer b/c of them. No help from the Company in the end either. :(
NeumeIndil 2 years ago
@NeumeIndil Im sorry to hear that, i've listened to my him tell me those stories 100's of times all of them tragic but thats what happens when you let us italians bring bottles of vino to work lol, j/k ...any way... the italians really had made names for them selves by doing those kind of jobs in that city, as did the irish.
xTOxADVENT 1 year ago
Thanks man for that great video!
Helps an not american unterstand the song even better (but I guess not only).
marketing210 2 years ago 2
For me it is not so much that these things happened all over the East and Midwest, but after thirty years or so little is changed. Scars that never healed. We just call it the Rust Belt.---- "I made you rich enough to forget my name."
DANLEO5 2 years ago 3
beautiful job, luxuns and you succeeded very well in personalizing this song for those of us who love it but do not know Youngstown as you do
RuthinTampa 2 years ago
Surely it's about greed and pride and all the things a supposed democracy has to offer
markeileneth 2 years ago
The United States was hardly ever about democracy. It's been about capitalism. Democracy was a lie sold to the public to disguise capitalist greed.
dokokai 2 years ago
I think we said the same thing, really
markeileneth 2 years ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
You are an idiot...Do you live in the US? People like me fight for your freedom and all you did is shit on it. So many have died for Democracy...to say it never exsist is treason. It is less today cause of Obama......Socialism is something you shoud be worried about.
Marinetank08 2 years ago
YOU are an idiot. You make a blanket statement that people like you fought for my freedom without even knowing where I live or if I even served in the US Military myself. I certainly appreciate & support the efforts & sacrifices of our troops regardless of the governments reason they are fighting. Unfortunately your understanding of government (what is democracy, capitalism,socialism,fascism) is juvenile & naive at best & you buy into exactly what the gov't wants you to. Think about it.
dokokai 2 years ago 7
This song brings me to my knees, i was in Iraq the 1st time I heard it.
sgtd69 2 years ago 5
Great song from a great album, he sang this when he played Dublin the other night. It was a real treat.
johnnyfoxy 2 years ago
that was my first taste of that song and my first concert. ablsolutly amazing! i wanna hear the rest of the album now
labhrash 2 years ago
The Ghost of Tom Joad is one of his best albums in my opinion. I like his more acoustic folky sound these days.
johnnyfoxy 2 years ago
yeah i'm startin to feel that way myself. hey are you on greasy lake by any chance?
labhrash 2 years ago
Youngstown was one of the leading steel producing cities in the world...sad...thanks china
Ytown08 2 years ago 7
no, thanks to the Fat Cats who wanted slaves instead of workers and thus moved their factories overseas
Ubermann88HH 2 years ago 7
Comment removed
markeileneth 2 years ago
just like Johnstown PA, there starting to make improvements
Tjsingle14 2 years ago
GRANDE BOSS !
E' sempre il migliore, anche quando non parla. Ciao da Roma.
italianjump 2 years ago
genius beyond belief, stole glastonbury for me