A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND (PITTSBURGH)

Live 10 May 2005 version

[Spoken intro:] Nah, I ??? when I sing this next song (chuckles). Just joking (chuckles). Sorry. Got a uh, got a letter before I came in tonight, somebody sent to me. Uh, I want do a song for sergeant Gerald Vick. He was uh... (cheers) I just uh, I just knew when, when I read the letter certainly was very uh, uh, just a good man and an important presence in town. Like, like leaves the family behind and shot during the duty. Well, this is memory of sergeant Gerald Vick, this song.

It's cloudy out in Pittsburgh, it's raining in Saigon
Snow's fallin' all across the Michigan line
She sits by the lights 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
She gave all she had that one last time
Here's a little girl asleep in the back room
She's gonna have to tell about the meanness in this world
How a good man is so hard to find

Well there's pictures on the table by her bed
Him in his dress blues and her in her wedding white
She remembers how the world was the morning he left
And a good man is so hard to find

She got no time now for Casanovas
Those days are gone
She don't want that anymore, she's made up her mind
Yeah 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, without a word
And into bed she climbs
She thinks how it was all so wasted
How good the dreams all were
How a good man is so hard to find
How a good man is so hard to find

Info

The above lyrics are for the live 10 May 2005 performance of A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND (PITTSBURGH) at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, MN, during the Devils & Dust Solo Acoustic Tour. That was the one and only live performance of the song, and it was played solo on acoustic guitar.

Ticket stub for the 10 May 2005 show at Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, MN
(Taken from Brucebase)

That live 10 May 2005 performance of A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND (PITTSBURGH) was in honor of Sergeant Gerald Vick of the Saint Paul Police Department who was killed in the line earlier that week. A Backstreets reader wrote, "An unbelievably touching performance of 'A Hard Man is Hard to Find' was dedicated to Sgt. Vick, a police officer who was recently killed in the line of duty. During the 'solo spot', Bruce blew a note or two on his harmonica before immediately backing off from the harp -- he then 'whistled' a solo. A jaw-dropping, hand-me-a-tissue-moment."

Bruce Springsteen performing A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND (PITTSBURGH) on 10 May 2005 at Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, MN

The lines "Him in his dress blues and her in her wedding white", "She remembers how the world was the morning he left", and "How good the dreams all were" are the main lyrics differences from the official studio version.

Available Versions

List of available versions of A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND (PITTSBURGH) on this website:

Page last updated: 29 Jul 2010