Tommy Finch

Cobra 1000
18967 – Street Without Joy pt. 1
18968 - Street Without Joy pt. 2

Cobra 1001
20657 – Spirit of 68
20658 - Blue Skies

Tommy Finch

Tommy Finch, a New Holland, Pa. resident had two releases on his own Cobra label in 1967 & 1968. According to Billboard (March, 30 1968), he died at this home the week before of a heart attack, the same week when his second single Cobra was released.

Lee Andresen in his book "Battle Notes: Music of the Vietnam War" devote a paragraph to Tommy Finch's first release :

[...] Another area of Vietnam that found its way into a song was the so-called « Street Without Joy », an area that was actually just north of the old imperial city of Hue, in the northern part of the country. According to Tommy Finch, in « Street Without Joy », this « street » or « highway » winds all the way from Hanoi to Saigon and is full of sad people whose lives have been ravaged by the war. Some of these sad cases are beggars, some are lovely and « coy » women but all share the status of victim. Finch proudly points out that there is not a « steet without joy » in America where freedom is firmly entrenched because of « men who were men » that « rang the libery bell ». Although its topic makes it one of the more interesting of the songs about the war, « Street Without Joy », can only give the briefest of glimpses into what the war did to the people of Vietnam.