🎵 Billy Joel - Allentown REACTION
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- Опубліковано 4 січ 2023
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BG Music:
Great song by Billy Joel. This is mainly about the loss of jobs in the industrial intensive Pennsylvania because of industries being gutted. Allentown is a town in Eastern Pennsylvania. An industrial town, many of the once-thriving factories and mills had fallen on hard times when Joel wrote the song,
Also mentioned in the song is nearby Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, whose main employer, Bethlehem Steel, had been closing operations. Joel sings about the unemployed workers in the line, "Out in Bethlehem they're killing time, filling out forms, standing in line."
Billy Joel did not grow up in Allentown - he grew up in Levittown, on Long Island. In an interview with James Lipton on Inside the Actors Studio, he compared Allentown with his hometown while he was growing up, noting the similarities.
Most of my family worked at Bethlehem Steel. They closed the doors without any warning and most people lost their pensions.
The unfortunate is there are so many Allentown's across America 😮💨
Excellent analysis. One quibble, though: Allentown is not northeastern, Pa; it's only about an hour north of me here in Philadelphia (I was just there for work on Wednesday), and sits on the eastern and southern sides of the Allegheny mountains.
@@richarddefortuna2252 wrong. It's the Appalachian Mountains and the Lehigh Valley IS part of Northeast PA.
@@Whats-It-To-Ya my bad. I guess Southeastern Pennsylvania is limited to Philadelphia County now. Oh, and the Alleghenies are that part of the Appalachians that pass through that part of Pennsylvania.
This song makes me sad. I'm 55 and I can still remember when America thrived on industry. I'm from Baltimore MD and I can still recall all the men and women who went to work at Bethlehem Steel, Exxon, Allied Chemical, General Motors and so many more. Its all gone now. Great song and great reaction to a song that tells it like it is. Pink Houses by John Mellencamp is another great working class song.
America is lost
This song hits home I worked in a factory building transit buses for 27 years and they closed down over 500 people lost their jobs
America only thrived after WW2 because all the factories in Europe and Asia were destroyed and the USA was the only industrial nation untouched.once European factories were all replaced, around 1970, then American products took a tumble as locals support their own. We will never be in that position again unless another catastrophe happens. I wasn’t hippies, it wasn’t unions…it was history.
@@hmpz36911 I hate to agree .. But I kind of agree.
It's interesting you mention Baltimore. I remember watching a random youtube video on baltimore from the 1950's and seeing large crowds of workers going to work at the factories. I was surprised. It looked prosperous
Billy Joel is from Long Island, NY and Allentown is in Pennsylvania. The nearby city of Bethlehem is mentioned in the song. The song is about the difference between the promise of America and the reality of it for many people. We were told growing up that
"Every child had a pretty good shot, to get at least as far as their old man got" but it wasn't necessarily true.
I think it was about the loss of jobs and high inflation in the 1970's, I remember as a kid seeing a lot of that on the news every night. Steel mills took a heavy hit in the 70's and it really hit Pennsylvania & Ohio hard.
The line that always jumps out and me is “the graduations hang on the wall, but they never really helped us at all, never told us what was real, iron and coke, chromium steel”.
The promise that America gave to the working class than reneged on when it became inconvenient to the wealthy to give up a cut of the profit.
@@utcnc7mm For sure it was about the decline of steel and heavy industry in general as well, but that's a part of the overall "loss of the American dream" theme. I'm PA born and raised; my family worked in heavy industry - railroads and steel/metal mills mainly - and witnessed first hand how hard PA and OH were hit.
@@Guildofarcanelore Yeah, I think it's a bit more complicated than that.
The song is actually about neighboring Bethlehem, where the steel factories were declining (and ultimately shut down, recently replaced by a casino). Allentown, the county seat, is where things get tied up in red tape and they are “filling out forms, standing in line”. Billy Joel reversed the names of the cities in the song because the name “Allentown” had more of an all-American working class sound to it.
My father worked at Bethlehem steel in the coke works. He made very good wage. Any high-school graduate was almost guaranteed a job. He got laid-off in the '70's and I stood in the unemployment line with him. We also vacationed at the Jersey shore and yes, it got very hard to make it as far as my father got. Billy nailed it.
Man, if you ever get to one of Joel's Q&As, it'd be terrific if you could tell him this.
My grandpa was an immigrant from Portugal and went to New Jersey to work at a steel mill in the early 70s. It was awful when he got laid off.
You should check out Goodnight Saigon from the iconic Billy Joel! Its about Vietnam and it's so raw and brilliant! He always has war vets on stage singing the chorus. So POWERFUL!
Allentown is PA and Billy is from NY.
An amazing song! Leningrad too!
Fun fact: Allentown is really about the nearby town named Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. Everything discussed in the song happened in Bethlehem, but he couldn't get the song to sound right, so he named the song Allentown because it sounded better. Of course, it did not hurt that the two towns are not that far apart in location.
I thought it was Levittown
Nothing rhymes with Bethlehem.
@@andrewyoung2796 Billy writes the music first and then adds lyrics, so this song started off being about Levittown where he grew up, but he said nothing really happened there, so:
Well we're living here in Levittown
Nothing happens here in Levittown
did not really inspire him and so he put the song away for a while.
Then during the Reagan early 80s era when many of the heavy industry jobs were being lost, it became:
Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
@@seanscanlon9067 Having lived in Levittown for a lot of my life .. I agree.. lol
Today, Bethlehem is quite beautiful, at least in parts. Steelstacks now an entertainment venue. Where the actual steel mill was there are artsy shops and a couple of good colleges.
Now you have to do “Good Night Saigon.” If you do the live version, bring tissues. “Allentown” really captures Pennsylvania in the 80’s when the mines and steel mills closed. Another good one is “The River” by Bruce Springsteen. My parents struggled through this when the mines closed. The early 80’s were tough in PA.
yes!
Yesss-I remember! Thank you 🙏
Goodnight Saigon live is always a tearjerker. Man oh man, what a SONG!
As I recall, Joel was hospitalized in or near Allentown after a motorcycle accident and wrote this song after watching several days of local news about plant closures. The flag in the face was the youth being pulled to the Vietnam war.
Billy Joel is one of those special singer songwriters who can take you to modern day Americana! I have seen him 6 times I'm concert each was different from the others! He is truly an iconic singer!
I live near Allentown. The song is actually about its sister city, Bethlehem and Bethlehem Steel shutting down. He just had problems rhyming Bethlehem.
Greetings and best wishes from Germany to the people of Allentown. This is one of Billy Joel's best songs, in my opinion. Perfect text and melody.
I'm 45 minutes north of Allentown in Schuylkill County.
Pffftttt....muhahaha...okay son, sure.
I grew up in NJ, but my grandfather and his father mined coal in Reynoldsville, PA. The life of a miner of any type is a hard life, especially in the early 1900s. When the factories closed, so many miners lost their livelihoods. It was a sad situation.
I’m inAllentown!
This song is always a gut punch. People felt sold out to globalism.
Conservatives would now label Billy Joel and Bruce Springsteen anti American.
@@dabearcub no. Just Springsteen.
@@mikebetts2046 I love how miserable you anti American snowflakes are nowadays!
@@dabearcub who's miserable? And who is anti American? I think I smell some projection.
@@mikebetts2046 Orange man lost, but I hope you feel better!
One of my favourite Billy Joel songs and really on-point about how the American worker got sold a bill of goods then had the rug yanked out from under them.
Much like any other worker anywhere else in this world.
Allentown is in Pennsylvania. It is part of the Tri-City area of "A.B.E." or Allentown Bethlehem and Easton. It's a long the Delaware River about 65 or so miles north of Philadelphia and about the same amount West of New York City it used to be a steel City just like Pittsburgh on the other end of the state.
Billy Joel just rocks!! Love this guy! Those lyrics are vicious!
The Downeaster Alexa is another song Billy did about the fishing industry. It's good as well.
And it was so meaningful to him that he later named is daughter Alexa!
This is about PA during the Rust Belt downturn of the early 80's, which affected them and most of the interior states. I grew up in a Mississippi River factory town a bit north of you. It was hell. Ours and a zillion other small towns just died. My county alone have lost 5K jobs since then, over 10K in population. Sometimes it makes you weep at everything we've lost.
Allentown, Pennsylvania. A steel-town where a large percentage of the population were employed in the local steel mill, which ended up closing down and largely affecting the town.
'Only the good die young' is my favorite from Billy Joel. Mostly for the story and perspective. Great artist!
Very happy to report, from the site, that Allentown and Bethlehem are doing pretty well, thank you. Many of the closed factories in Allentown have been converted into desirable loft style apartments, and Bethlehem, where I live, is doing even better. The Bethlehem Steel Industrial site has been transformed into an area called Steel Stacks, with outdoor performance venues and new buildings to house indoor concerts and movies, as well as, wait for it, a Casino. Allentown has two high-level minor league affiliates of Philadelphia pro sports teams, The Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs AAA Baseball team and the Lehigh Valley Phantoms of the American Hockey League. And we are in PENNSYLVANIA, not Virginia, Billy even says Pennsylvania in the song. Billy is from Levittown, New York, on Long Island, one of the first "planned" communities, built after World War II.
Ok that's. Great but where do the People work ?
@@djt8518 Financial services, food industry, commercial real estate, medical services (Five or six major hospitals), education, there are many Colleges and Universities in the area (Lehigh, Muhlenberg, Lafayette in Easton, Moravian, DeSales, Cedar Crest, NCC, LCCC), and as kleman6 points out, many warehouse and distribution centers including Amazon, ULine, Mack Trucks (manufacturing), Yuengling Brewery, and good old retail and hospitality. Lots of jobs here if you want one.
Seven great years at Muhlenberg and Lehigh for college and grad school. Loved the Lehigh valley.
Brad & Lex, you’ll love his "Movin' Out", "All About Soul" and "Just The Way You Are"!!!! Allentown big steel producing area.
This came out in 1982. I was 8 years old and had no idea what the song was about, but I liked it. It was one of two 45s I remember having (that's the vinyl singles... the small ones). I had this and Africa by Toto. And then cassettes started taking over.
I was a senior in high school. Remember this song very well.
Living in New Jersey this song it hits home the message. So many small town got destroyed from companies going over seas.
Billy Joel - It's Still Rock and Roll to Me was one of the first songs I loved as a little kid.
You two are always so insightful. I think the throwing the American flag in their face is that many men of Billy Joel's generation got sidelined due to Vietnam War. You should react to Goodbye, Saigon. Super poignant song about that war.
"Goodnight, Saigon" IS a great song... but the flag reference was about politicians who use fake mindless patriotism as an answer to REAL issues. Saying "America is the greatest country on Earth!" doesn't put food on your table.
@@johnmavroudis2054 It is also far from being true too.
@@seanscanlon9067 We're #1 in nuclear weapons... I wish we were #1 in healthcare, living standards, low poverty rate, preventing gun deaths, education, etc.
HAPPY 81ST BIRTHDAY ART GARFUNKEL!! 🎂
allentown pa. the steel industry died and put a generation in the street. billy's from long island, ny. love your channel. ciao!!
Brad my grandfather came from Calabria Italy in the early 1900's and worked in the coal mines in West Virginia and moved to Pennsylvania for a better life for his kids. Just about all my Uncle's worked in mills and I grew up thinking that is what I will do, but all the mills started to close down so I had to make different decisions.
I live in Allentown. Didn’t grow up here, but did go to college here and I remember Billy Joel actually played here at the fair. Returned here years later when my daughter was a year old and have been here ever since. The song is about the steel mills in Bethlehem.
My wife and myself live in Allentown,Pennsylvania the same Allentown that this song is about! I also grew up in Allentown.
My husband has worked in a "hidden" industry for over 30 years. He is First Mate on a river barge on the Ohio River. His boat pushes coal, gravel, & chemicals from North of Pittsburgh on the Monongahela River to the mouth of the Ohio on the Mississippi River. I have had family & friends who were coal miners. Not one of them wanted their children to work in the same industry. My family sent their children to college & many became teachers which was also a popular occupation. BTW, Allentown is in PA which is mentioned in the song, too.
This song is about the decline of the manufacturing industry in what is commonly called the Rust Belt in states like Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio, etc
Still struggling today
Probably my favorite song of his. It's one of the best written songs of all time in my opinion. It really captures the feel of the blue collar towns in PA.
Un gioiello di Billy ... Ma forse nemmeno tra le prime 30-40
Simply put this is about the baby boom generation. Their father served in world war II came back and created a great nation. That is why they are called the greatest generation. Their children were the baby boom generation. They fought the Vietnam war and came home to an entirely different situation. Loss of jobs and hard economic times.
One of my fave Billy Joel songs! ♥
I graduated high school around the time this song was released, and where I live we were going through our own southern version of this. The steel mills and mines that had been the backbone of the city for nearly a hundred years were suddenly shut down, leaving thousands out of work. Unfortunately it was going on in many areas, and if you were a high school grad looking for work it was really hard trying to compete with the far more experienced and numberous candidates out there. I don't want to talk about the struggling of that time, but I will say that this song touched me back then, and it takes me back to a time when somehow we made it through
Billy Joel is one of those singer songwriters I consider a genuine talent. Any artist who can write their own music and/or lyrics seems to be able to paint the picture in my mind when performing their songs. Joel is loved around the world for his music and concerts. I have all of his albums because I can shut my eyes pick a song, and know it will be great!
Love the way Billy tells the stories
It was a huge steel producing area, in Pennsylvania, from after WWII. Everyone was connected to the steel industry (Pittsburg Steelers) in some way. Like Detroit is known as the auto capital of the world. Then American companies began buying their steel to make cars Boats, ships, from other countries at a lower price, and it put hundreds of thousands of people out of work. It then became known as "The Rust Belt," because when they shut down all of the steel plants, over the decades, they literally turned to rust. Very sad era of the 1970s for families back then in Pennsylvania, and also Clevland Ohio as well.
This is the story of a lot of manufacturing towns, areas that boomed from the industrial revolution through the 50s/60s, then went cold, plants shut down, jobs shipped overseas, thriving towns turning into depressed areas in a matter of a decade or less. I was about 10 or 11 when this song came out. It's the first time I remember hearing a song that made me think, a lot. Yes on the Goodnight Saigon recommendations, I suggest a concert version as well. All the best.
This whole album is gold. I just love it. Pressure is fantastic....
"Something happened on the way to that place, they threw and American flag in our face" - that line refers to the 60's and 70's when the children of the WW2 veterans were drafted and sent to Viet Nam
I always took the song like this: the steel and coal towns had the misery in the 70s of losing business and jobs at almost the same time that thousands of young men were dying in Vietnam (thus "the American flag being thrown in our face" line) - and then the 70s ended in a bad recession. So, he's saying that previously there was an American dream/expectation of doing as well or better as the previous generations but the reality was far grimmer, especially in certain towns where there was only one main business (coal, steel, cars, etc).
I remember when this song came out, Billy Joel had to explain the meaning of the song as the citizens of Allentown werent pleased with the way they thought they were being portrayed. It was just meant to bring the reality of the current times to a struggling former mining town and it put the town and the situation on the map in the mid 80s but not everyone took too it that way.
Billy Joel is one of the best singer/songwriters ever. I really love his lesser known songs like "Prelude/Angry Young Man" and "Until the Night".
I had relatives near Allentown. I visited there in the 80s. It was so weird, a big town that was nearly a ghost town.
Yay Billy Joel! Check out PRELUDE/ANGRY YOUNG MAN by Billy Joel. Crazy good piano skills!
The "they threw an American flag in our face" line refers to the Vietnam War, where many young men were drafted and sent to war without volunteering.
I'm from Wheeling WV. About 35 minutes west of Pittsburgh PA and an hour or so east of Columbus OH, grew up in the 70s and 80s and just about everyone owed their good living and security to raise a family to the Steel Mills, the Coal Mines and all the business surrounding that were instrumental in keeping America the greatest nation ever. The line Lex is asking about basically means every child had a good shot to work at a good paying job that was honorable and raise a family just like their fathers had done but Vietnam was the flag that was thrown into their face! They did their duty and went to serve their country and were treated badly by the country they fought to protect and in the following years American leadership sold away almost all the industry that made our country so independent and strong and essentially killed all those towns, city's and states that were solely dependent on the industry that was so essential to this country and the people who worked their asses off for decades without batting an eye knowing their country needed them only to be dropped flat on their asses in the late 70s early 80s!
This song is great storytelling by one of the best
I live only minutes from the Lehigh Valley, Allentown & Bethlehem. Over the last 20 years the area has rebounded quite well. I saw Tom Petty, The Lynyrd Skynyrd Band and others at the Allentown Fair.
This song was basically a synopsis and observation of the downturn and outsourcing of manufacturing that began in earnest in the 1980s.
Have always loved this song.
Lex, they had the name of the state where Allentown is in, which is in Pennsylvanian. This is my favorite song from Billy Joel.
In the late 70s and early 80s they packed up all the factories and sent them over seas. Where there were once thriving towns and businesses that relied on these industries there ware out of business signs and plywood on all the windows and doors. And a whole way of life was suddenly gone. And where one person worked to provide for a family of 7+ now took two people working sometimes two jobs each at half the pay.
This is one of my favorites. Another song with a similar theme is Downeaster Alexa; he wrote it about all the fisherman losing jobs in Long Island.
Allentown PA is a town in the Pennsylvania rust belt where all the factories closed and moved off shore to Asia and Mexico. Companies searching for cheap labor or could compete with Japanese steel.
Allentown is a great song because I grew up in Allentown and only live 15 minutes from Allentown Pa!! 👍🏻
I live about an hour from Allentown and Bethlehem. Steelton is 15 minutes from me, where Bethlehem Steel once had a plant. I remember steel workers not only losing their jobs, but also their pensions when the company used bankruptcy law to weasel out of paying them.
I live in allentown. I lost my shit when he played this live in Philly. Song hits different when he plays it locally.
Ever eat at The Burger Joint? Good food!
I'm 45 minutes north in Tamaqua
thats how i felt seeing him in concert at Madison Square Garden NY because Billy an people i went with all from LI New York than i saw him again in Orlando,Fl because im down here now & it just wasnt the same at all
I live at the Jersey shore(ocean county) have plans to go see my friend in Allentown PA this Saturday. Awesome timing..its a nice peaceful ride, Allentown is a gritty beautiful town. Nice reaction
this song is about Allentown Pennsylvania, and also mentions Bethlehem Pennsylvania, two huge coal mining and steel producing parts of the country, it went downhill after we sent all of our steel manufacturing to Japan in Asia. After the steel mills closed, these towns were left with nothing
He was thinking about it used to be a fact that you could get at least as far as your old man did, but now that they’ve closed down all the factories and sent them abroad, that no longer is always possible and for the people of Allentown in Bethlehem life was very very tough when all of the industry disappeared. The sounds that you heard in the background with the sounds of the steel mills that no longer exist they only exist as memories.
The song was for all.
Specific to Allentown PA but also for whomever could relate which was Legion at the time.
PA. A girlfriend lived in Allentown, now Bethlehem, PA. Fun to hear this song.
Definitely not a Billy Joel fan here, but he does get it partly right here. Yes, Bethlehem Steel, but around the same time Mack Trucks was moving south from Allentown. Two huge employers, just to name a couple. Billy Joel often played at a venue just north of Allentown in his early years, which gave him some of his knowledge of the area. The local rock radio station used to play that song incessantly, lol. My first 53 years in Allentown saw the tri-city area do a complete 180 in terms of a manufacturing region to a professional one. Didn't even mention Hess's Department Store leaving which started the ghosting of downtown Allentown.
I like seeing Billy play guitar in this song
I soooo wish you’d react to Billy Joel, Goodnight Saigon. Great emotional song about our warriors.
Allentown along w/ Bethlehem (both towns mentioned in the song) are in Pennsylvania.
Billy Joel, son of a German Jewish immigrant is born/raised in NYC.
I remember as a kid a lot of big factories that are no longer in existence. I even worked part time in a HUGE steel foundry for some extra income a while back. A lot of those steel workers came from places 2 hours away for jobs because the mills there had shut down. They stay in a flop house all week and drive home on the weekends. But now even that place is completely gone, and it had been there since the late 1800's.
Just try and find any steel at the hardware store that still made in America...
Pennsylvania references and war draft. WWII was supposed to be the war to end all wars. Along came the Korean conflict and Viet Nam. Both used the Draft. Bethlehem reference was Bethlehem PA steel that went out in the 80s and jobs were pushed overseas. The ability to get injured in the coal mine or steel foundries are beyond amazing. Black lung from the mine and fainting from the heat or having something fall on you and harm you aren't glamorous. I was always amazed by the melting pot of workers both attracted.
There was a lot of blowback when the song came out from people who thought it trashed Allentown, and the Mayor was pitching a fit, but many of his constituents understood it perfectly. When Billy did a concert there, he started cold with "Allentown," and the whole arena exploded with delight.
Great tune that captures the beginning of the end for the blue collar jobs and one's ability to enter into the middle class
I'm an Allentown native & curretly a resident of Bethlehem. I love the Lehigh Valley & wouldn't want to live anywhere else.
can't touch billy on vocal range and changing his vocal style from song to song. He also writes incredible lyrics !
Lex, this IS a song about every city.
One of my favorite Billy Joel songs but I am from Pennsylvania
I haven't heard that song for a very long time, thanks for that.
Allentown is a city in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania. It and nearby Bethlehem were big steel towns, and many of the people living in those cities worked in the steel industry. Bethlehem Steel was at one point one of the largest steel producers in the world. When the steel industry in the US collapsed in the '70s and the plants closed, it crippled the economies of Allentown, Bethlehem, and many other steel towns in Pennsylvania, and loads of people lost their jobs. This lead to skyrocketing rates of poverty and crime. Some of those old steel towns still haven't recovered.
The song is, in essence, about the loss of the American dream for a generation of blue collar workers due to deindustrialization and manufacturing jobs moving over seas.
This was my dads favorite song by him because he worked in the steel mills as a kid. Billy has a lot of songs he write for the people, some about himself some about other’s’ struggles.
The song is about the "Greatest Generation" who as kids lived through the worst economic depression in our history and then fought and won World War II when they were teenagers. However, they did have the mill and factory jobs to come home to (for the most part) and those jobs paid a living wage to live to raise a family and in a comfortable home. But industrial work was not AS available for subsequent generations.
He's singing about a Pennsylvania area. Billy grew up in Long Island NY.
The nights went out on Broadway.
Billy is from NY. Long island. Down Eastern Alexa. Etc... Billy rights what he knows and feels. Piano man comes from his life. Every person he sings about was a real person.
Listen to live version of this song from Bridge To Russia concert. Best version of Allentown.
Billy!🤟🤟
He's from Long Island, NY. Allentown is in Pennsylvania. About 45 minutes away from me
The maritime version of this song is Billy's "The Downeaster 'Alexa'" ... A day in the life of a commercial fisherman.
One of my favorite Billy Joel songs. True about industry and jobs in Pennsylvania...
“They’ve taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away”
Hard times for an honest man.
Do a day in a life, the beatles . Billy Joel is awesome. The hangover version is so funny. Like as always dropped
I was 12 when this song came out, living in the suburbs of Allentown ( which was only 5 minutes away). I was rough anywhere really. Allentown is a rough city but it's slowly getting better. I only go there when I really have to. The area is thriving with opportunities right now. Knowed as The Lehigh Valley, born and raised here, still live here. It's a great place to live and raise a family, there are nice parts of Allentown and areas around it. So I say come to the Lehigh Valley to visit and see for yourself.
It actually said Pennsylvania in the song.🤣 Bethlehem (also mentioned in the song) is another Pennsylvania town near Allentown and where a huge steel mill used to be until it was shut down many years ago. They also mentioned the Jersey Shore (New Jersey) where people would go in the summer to hit the beach on vacation.
I love this song, so glad you two reviewed it!
Brilliant !
No one better then Billy
Love love LOVE that yall are from STL!
I live about 45 minutes from Allentown, PA. 🙂
Yeah, this one always gets to me.. I was young, but I was there and I remember that era and how it ended..
You guys just get music. This channel is so much fun
How can you not Love Billy Joel?
Allentown is in pennsylvania, near ti Cold Spring Harbor New York where Billy Joel grew up. The positive part was that the coal mines were busy after WWII and you could grasp the American Dream of having a home and family. T H en they threw the Flag in their face and got into Viet Nam war.
Great points ya,ll brought up!
Sad, yet one of my favorites of his. Just love the way they did the beat,etc.. ✨✨