The Ghost of Tom Joad guitar work and the lyrics on many of the tracks are a somber reflection of life in the mid-1990s in America and Mexico. The character of Tom Joad entered the American consciousness in John Steinbeck’s 1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "The Grapes of Wrath", set against the economic hardships of the Great Depression. This spawned a film version starring Henry Fonda, which in turn inspired folk singer Woody Guthrie to pen "The Ballad of Tom Joad". The album's release was followed by Springsteen's solo acoustic Ghost of Tom Joad Tour, which ran from 1995 to 1997 and consisted of mostly small
A Decayed Family 1890 Volume 6 came out in the alternative version, "A Decayed Family" included. A Decayed Family A Decayed Family () is an unfinished novel by Nikolai Leskov, subtitled "The Family Chronicles of Princes Protazanov" (Семейная хроника князей Протозановых). Parts one and two of it were first published in the 1874 Nos. 7,8 and 10 of "The Russian Messenger" as part of a trilogy which also included "Old Years in Plodomasovo" (1869) and "The Cathedral Clergy" (1872). The publication of the novel has led to Leskov's severing all ties with "The Russian Messenger". The main issue was the magazine's editor-in-chief Mikhail