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Music | Balboa Park

Did You Know?

By Frank Sabatini Jr.

…that Balboa Park landed on Bruce Springsteen’s radar when he wrote the namesake song for his 1995 album, The Ghost of Tom Joad?

The song Balboa Park paints a bleak narrative of a young man who comes to San Diego from Mexico chasing a dream but finds himself sleeping in the park amid male hustlers and cruising johns. The lyrics were written at a time when prostitution did indeed thrive in the park.

Soon after Springsteen’s concert performance in 1996 at the San Diego Civic Theatre, he donated $27,500 to The Storefront, a non-profit shelter for at-risk homeless youth located downtown and run by San Diego Youth Services.