After the River Tour, Bruce Springsteen rented a house in New Jersey and began writing about Vietnam veterans, inspired by Ron Kovic's autobiography Born on the Fourth of July. The director Paul Schrader then asked him to write music for a planned film called Born in the U.S.A., so Springsteen reworked his song Vietnam and used that title. The film was abandoned, and Schrader eventually made it as Light of Day, released in 1987. Springsteen recorded the demos on a four-track tape recorder in his bedroom in winter 1981 and early 1982.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.