Well, we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem, they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
Well, our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we're living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it's getting very hard to stay
Well, we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No, they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
Chromium steel
And we're waiting here in Allentown
But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away
Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face
Well, I'm living here in Allentown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting up today
And it's getting very hard to stay
And we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem, they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
Well, our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers at the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we're living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it's getting very hard to stay
Well, we're waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No, they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
Chromium steel
And we're waiting here in Allentown
But they've taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away
Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face
Well, I'm living here in Allentown
And it's hard to keep a good man down
But I won't be getting up today
And it's getting very hard to stay
And we're living here in Allentown
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The first verse talks about how people of Billy Joel's parents' age typically grew up in the Lehigh Valley. "Out in Bethlehem they're killing time / Filling out forms / Standing in line" describes the mass of people applying for unemployment benefits after the layoffs. The typical man who lives around there who are Billy Joel's parents' age, the men of the Great Generation, participated in World War 2, may have met their future wife through the USO (an organization who entertains the troops when they're on duty), then were employed by the steel mills of the Valley after the war.
The second verse talks about the assumption that good times would continue for ordinary folk and later generations of Allentown. Teachers would encourage kids to get degrees and even those who didn't get one could rely on the steel mill economy to provide for their needs, or so people assumed. But after the closings, with the layoff of union employees and the unavailability of coal in the area, young people couldn't rely on that anymore.
The last lines of the song say that those of the Great Generation could take for granted all this economic opportunity, but younger people could not. And when the young people were drafted into the Vietnam War ("Threw an American Flag in Our Face"), it wasn't the same as with their parent's generation. Not only was the war unpopular, but many young people felt dispirited already because of the unemployment and the events of the 1960s, so for them it was an insult not an opportunity.
The following lines describe just how the situation in the Lehigh Valley can destroy the spirit of even the best people living there:
"Well I'm living here in Allentown / And it's hard to keep a good man down / But I won't be getting up today"
He doesn't feel he has a good reason to get up in the morning. What's actually really ingenious about this song is just how Billy Joel can take something as ordinary, unhappy and newspaperish as unemployment in a mill city metro area and turn it into a story and flowing song which many people can relate to. Billy Joel is a great songwriter and storyteller.
I really don't understand why somebody would flag this comment.
This song strikes me as lyrically one of Bill's Joel's very best and a true contemporary folk song. The fact that it's set to a cleverly pumping mechanical rhythm that belies entirely the very potent message of the lyrics seemed at first incongruous, but can you imagine the drunken dirge it would be if the meter matched the message? Leave it to Roger Waters to write stuff like that. :D I like Allentown plenty fine the way it is.
Thank you, Billy Joel!
I grew up in the LV Area, graduated from a local high school in the late 70's (Thank you Jimmy Carter for ruining my adolescence) and literally lived the sentiments conveyed. My friends' parents worked at "the Steel" or Western Electric or Mack Truck or any number of apparel factories and small manufacturing operations that made up the local economy. We all were raised to believe that if we worked hard, studied in school and kept our noses clean, we could expect the same middle class, suburban, affluent lifestyle that these companies afforded our parents. Then the roof fell in. And the best our leaders could offer were WIN buttons, recommendations to turn our thermostats to 58 degrees and be patient waiting in gas lines for rationed gas. That was the 70s in Allentown and the LV.
As for the line about throwing an American Flag in our face: someone said something about Reagan. The decline started long before RR. By the time of the 80s these businesses were in long, fifteen and twenty year declines. I think the line is a reference to the sentiment of the region at the time, as stated at the Bethlehem Plant and the Martin Tower complex, "Buy American". The unions and the management used to threaten, protest and even vandalize any non-Detroit vehicles in the company lots. So here was a company that was cutting and outsourcing jobs out from under the employees and appealing to the workers patriotism. And telling the workers that they had a responsibility to buy substandard products like Pintos and Vegas and other shabbily built American cars, cast out of good old BSC steel, because we are all in it together.
And the Allentown of today: wear kevlar. It will give you a fighting chance.
The correct lyrics create an impression that is 180 degrees from the incorrect ones posted and it's hugely important to the context of the story.
The author isn't optimistic and anxious to continue his struggle. Instead, he's resigned to defeat and, potentially, is hinting at taking his life.