Song 12 "Youngstown"

"Youngstown" was written by Bruce Springsteen in 1995.

This song is about a steel worker from Youngstown, Ohio. He is talking about how the factory used to be huge and employ many people, but then the steel industry in America began to dwindle. This caused the steelworker to lose his job and, ultimately, the city's decline.

This song is more of a story of the past, although the song is written in first person. The lyrics and the tune of the song almost reminds me of a factory in the way it is very rhythmic. It also is pretty sad. When he says "my sweet Jenny" he is actually talking about the blast furnace, which I thought was pretty interesting.

When I first heard this song, I had no clue of what it was about. I don't really like it that much, but that's my opinion. The song is really depressing. The last verse is what gets me the most. The whole song sounds hopeless. The city was on it's way to becoming an urban ghost town.

This song is really about the decline of the steel industry and unemployment for people. I never really thought of how devastating that was. The 1950s and early 1960s were when the city was at its peak, but foreign competition soon wiped the city out. Practically every person was out of a job. I'm sure there were plenty of other cities in the same situation.