A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh)
1998 · Columbia CXK 69475 · Freehold, New Jersey
- Artist
- Bruce Springsteen
- Title
- A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh)
- Release
- Tracks
- Year
- 1998
- Label
- Columbia # CXK 69475
- Format
- CD · Archival
- Language
- English
- Country
- Freehold, New Jersey, USA
- Songwriter
- Bruce Springsteen
- Genre
- Rock · Americana
- Primary theme
- Post-War
Annotation — Bruce Springsteen Songs
The song "A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Pittsburgh)" featured on Tracks (Columbia Records # CXK 69475) - a compilation of archival, mainly never released songs, recorded during album sessions. The song told the story of widow, whose husband was killed in action (K.I.A.) in Vietnam: "it's raining in Saigon... she remembers how the world was the day he left and now how that world is dead". This was originally supposed to be on the album Born in the U.S.A. - and the inspiration for this was the same as that famous song - he discussed in Mojo Magazine in January 1999 - the description is almost identical to 2018's "Born in the U.S.A. (Introduction)" released on Springsteen on Broadway (discussed below):"The late '70s and early '80s was the first time when literature and films began to be made about Vietnam. There was a subtext on a few earlier things... It began with a strange experience when I was driving across the country and I stopped in Arizona at a chug store and I bought a book called 'Born On The Fourth Of July'. I drove on to Los Angeles, and was at this little motel sitting at the pool and a fella came up, started talking and introduced himself: Ron Kovic... So Ron took me…
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Annotation — Christmas Songs
Good Man Is Hard to Find, A (Springsteen, Bruce) It's cloudy out in Pittsburgh, it's raining in Saigon Snow's fallin' all across the Michigan line Well she sits by the lights of her Christmas tree With the radio softly on Thinkin' how a good man is so hard to find
Annotation by Justin A. Brummer
Notes
Columbia CXK 69475 (4-CD box "Tracks", 1998), disc 2 track 2, 3:18; an outtake written for Born in the U.S.A. [From Discogs]
About the artist
Born Freehold, New Jersey, USA (23 September 1949). Currently Rumson, New Jersey.