This is an easy song to explain. This song is a story about the ordinary folk of Allentown, Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley (Bethlehem is next to or near Allentown) and the steel mills many of them worked at. The Lehigh Valley's economy was based upon the steel mills that were there, and when they closed lots of people became unemployed.
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.
This is an easy song to explain. This song is a story about the ordinary folk of Allentown, Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley (Bethlehem is next to or near Allentown) and the steel mills many of them worked at. The Lehigh Valley's economy was based upon the steel mills that were there, and when they closed lots of people became unemployed.
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.