Bruce Springsteen's haunting tribute to the grimy Ohio town reminisces of the "furnaces hotter than hell" and the end of an era as Big Steel turned its back on what one paper once called Crimetown USA.
Taconite, coke, and limestone
Fed my children and made my pay
Them beautiful smokestacks reachin' like the arms of God
Into a beautiful sky of soot and
clay
And Youngstown. And
Youngstown ...
In the 70s the town, once the epitome of industrial power, went into a decline from which it never recovered, its professional middle class deserting its bleak streets to redundant workers who couldn't afford to leave and the mafiosi who had always thrived there.
Now Congress too is turning its back on one of Youngstown's sons, James Traficant (61), the wild-haired, retro-styled son of a lorry driver, who this week became only the second member of Congress to be expelled since the Civil War. And Jimmy, true to form, did not go quietly.
Following a typically rambling and colourful speech - interrupted, as usual, by warnings not to use profanity - in which he blamed everyone from the FBI to the tax service and Clinton's Attorney General , Janet Reno, for his woes, Traficant, a Democrat, was expelled by 420 votes to one for corruption. His only supporter at the end was one Gary Condit, "friend" of the murdered intern Chandra Levy, whose personal disgrace has given him a sympathy for the underdog.
And so the man who is known for ending his speeches with the words "beam me up, Mr Speaker" heads off for what appears certain to be time in the clink. He is expected to be sentenced on Tuesday to between seven and 10 years.
A federal jury in Cleveland recently found him guilty of 10 counts of bribery, filing false tax returns and taking kickbacks from his own staff - he is reported to have levied one staffer $2,500 a month of his public service salary in return for his appointment, and to have required others, also on the public payroll, to labour on his farm. Not to mention the kickbacks extracted from local businessmen in return for federal contracts.
This time the nine-term congressman could not beat the rap, although, as he did 23 years ago successfully, he defended himself, turning the trial into high theatre. "I would have regretted spending half a million dollars on the same verdict," he said with a smile when asked if he regretted the decision not to hire a lawyer.
In 1983 Traficant had been charged with accepting Mafia money. The evidence against him was strong, a taped conversation between the then local sheriff and ex-football star Traficant and the head of the local Cleveland branch of the Mob, Charlie the Crab. On the tape Traficant acknowledged the $100,000 he had received from the Cleveland faction and promised that he would use his office to curb the influence of their Pittsburgh rivals who had bought up most of the town's politicians.
He assured his benefactors that he was "solid", i.e. truly bought, and that, if any of his deputies betrayed them, "they'll f***in' come up swimming in the Mahoning River". But Traficant claimed successfully at his trial, repudiating the confession the FBI said he had made, that he was engaged in "the most unorthodox sting in the history of Ohio politics" in a role he said deserved "an Academy Award".
"What I did, and what I set out to do very carefully," he said, "was to design a plan whereby I would destroy and disrupt the political influence and the Mob control over in Mahoning County." The jury believed him and Traficant moved on up the slippery pole of political office, representing a town where such activities appeared not to perturb voters. Certainly his successful prosecution by the Revenue in 1987 for not paying tax on bribes did him no harm.
More recently as the noose closed in on him Traficant broke with his party in Congress in voting for the Republican leader of the House, Denis Hastert, and has had to rely on Republican assistance to get his parliamentary work done. He further alienated his Democratic colleagues by attempting to buy favours from the Republicans for his constituency in return for his vote.
Although he has a virtually barren legislative record, Traficant had become one of the House characters, turning up most mornings to give one-minute speeches at the opening of business on a huge range of topics and all in the same colourful style, peppered with references to Star Wars. He became familiar to TV viewers, partly because of his mass of spiky grey hair and the polyester 1970s suits with flairs that were his hallmark.
To the end he has insisted he is innocent, a victim of a massive frame-up conspiracy by federal officials. With his expulsion, he joins Michael Myers, a Pennsylvania Democrat who in 1980 was also found guilty of taking bribes, as the only two members kicked out of the House since 1861, when three members were voted out for taking up arms for the Confederacy.
The end of the road for Jimmy Traficant? Not yet. He has vowed to run again for Congress, from jail if necessary, probably as an independent.
And Youngstown has shown it is very forgiving.