He reuses the verse melody from the previous album's "Dirty Little Religion", the topics of the verses are all over the place, and he packs too many words into one line (goes to show...) and too few in another (it's pretty hard to find), and rhymes "Henley Regatta" with "Persona non grata", but gets away with it all as only he could.
It's cloudy out in Pittsburgh
It's rainin' in Saigon
Snow's fallin' all across the Michigan line
Well she sits by the light of her Christmas tree
With the radio softly on
Thinkin' how a good man is so hard to find
Well once she had a fella
Once she was somebody's girl
And she gave all she had that one last time
Now there's a little girl asleep in the back room
She's gonna have to tell about the meanness in this world
And how a good man is so hard to find
Well there's pictures on the table by her bed
Him in his dress greens and her in her wedding white
She remembers how the world was the day he left
And now how that world is dead
And a good man is so hard to find
She got no time now for Casanovas
Yeah those days are gone
She don't want that anymore, she's made up her mind
Just somebody to hold her
As the night gets on
When a good man is so hard to find
Well she shuts off the TV
And without a word
Into bed she climbs
Well she thinks how it was all so wasted
And how expendable their dreams all were
When a good man was so hard to find
Well it's cloudy out in Pittsburgh...
It's rainin' in Saigon
Snow's fallin' all across the Michigan line
Well she sits by the light of her Christmas tree
With the radio softly on
Thinkin' how a good man is so hard to find
Well once she had a fella
Once she was somebody's girl
And she gave all she had that one last time
Now there's a little girl asleep in the back room
She's gonna have to tell about the meanness in this world
And how a good man is so hard to find
Well there's pictures on the table by her bed
Him in his dress greens and her in her wedding white
She remembers how the world was the day he left
And now how that world is dead
And a good man is so hard to find
She got no time now for Casanovas
Yeah those days are gone
She don't want that anymore, she's made up her mind
Just somebody to hold her
As the night gets on
When a good man is so hard to find
Well she shuts off the TV
And without a word
Into bed she climbs
Well she thinks how it was all so wasted
And how expendable their dreams all were
When a good man was so hard to find
Well it's cloudy out in Pittsburgh...
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Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
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Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
A hard man is good to find.
hmm, thought there may be some connection or parallels to the Flannery O'Connor short story by the same name... but I dont think so.
Is her soldier dead, or is she just missing him (maybe wondering if she should find someone else, because being with a soldier sucks--no disrespect)?
Actually, there is a connection. She influence him on his scaled-down songwriting on Nebraska. Springsteen, for instance, used that "meanness" concept. In some article I read that Springsteen said in an interview: <br /> <br /> "I was interested in writing kind of smaller than I had been, writing with just detail." And he connects a sudden transformation in his songwriting style at the time with "these stories I was reading by Flannery O'Connor," exclaiming to the interviewer, "she's just incredible". <br /> <br /> Springsteen also wrote in a letter to Will Percy: "Right prior to the record Nebraska, I was deep into O'Connor." and later on: <br /> <br /> "There was something in those stories of hers that I felt captured a certain part of the American character that I was interested in writing about. They were a big, big revelation. She got to the heart of some part of meaness that she never spelled out, because if she spelled it out you wouldn't be getting it. It was always at the core of every one of her stories - the way she left that hole there, that hole that's inside of everybody. There was some dark thing - component of spirituality - that I sensed in her stories, and thath set me off exploring characters of my own."<br /> <br /> I guess this song must be seen as some kind of 'homage' to Flannery O'Connor. Besides, see last lines in the second verse: "She's gonna have to tell about the meanness in this world / And how a good man is so hard to find". These are two direct references to O'Connor's work.
Sorry, meant to reply it to the one above ;)
As far as that Flannery O'Connor thought goes...I can't see a connection either, but I did hear a guy in a documentary on Bruce Springsteen say that Bruce used Flannery O'Connor's "meanness" concept. This guy was refering to Nebraska when the killer in the song said "I guess it's just a meanness in this world," but Bruce also used the concept of the "meanness in this world" in this song and Flannery O'Connor referred to "doing him a meanness" as in killing someone or burning down his house. I don't know if she used this phraseology anywhere else in her writing or wrote of it more in depth. I'm not sure of the meaning of all this, but there you go.
Actually, there is a connection. She influence him on his scaled-down songwriting on Nebraska. Springsteen, for instance, used that "meanness" concept. In some article I read that Springsteen said in an interview: <br /> <br /> "I was interested in writing kind of smaller than I had been, writing with just detail." And he connects a sudden transformation in his songwriting style at the time with "these stories I was reading by Flannery O'Connor," exclaiming to the interviewer, "she's just incredible". <br /> <br /> Springsteen also wrote in a letter to Will Percy: "Right prior to the record Nebraska, I was deep into O'Connor." and later on: <br /> <br /> "There was something in those stories of hers that I felt captured a certain part of the American character that I was interested in writing about. They were a big, big revelation. She got to the heart of some part of meaness that she never spelled out, because if she spelled it out you wouldn't be getting it. It was always at the core of every one of her stories - the way she left that hole there, that hole that's inside of everybody. There was some dark thing - component of spirituality - that I sensed in her stories, and thath set me off exploring characters of my own."<br /> <br /> I guess this song must be seen as some kind of 'homage' to Flannery O'Connor. Besides, see last lines in the second verse: "She's gonna have to tell about the meanness in this world / And how a good man is so hard to find". These are two direct references to O'Connor's work.
I saw Bruce sing this one live (I believe the one & only time he did it live) in St. Paul MN on the Devil's & Dust Tour. It was a great performance - real close to he recorded version on Tracks. But the coolest part was that Bruce dedicated to the family of Gerald Vick - a St. Paul police officer who had been killed in the line of duty two days prior to the concert.
I thought that was an incredibly classy move by Bruce considering all of the backlash he received in the couple years prior to that show after playing 41 Shots on the Rising tour.
It's also a great song (hard to believe that it didn't make on a record until Tracks) and a true statement - A Good Man Is Hard To Find!
I think this is about a young widow and daughter lamenting the loss of a husband/father killed in Vietnam. Unfortunately just as poignant decades after it Was written.