Wow - bumping an old thread, but really got to know this song over the past few car rides with a CD of Billy's best songs repeating. Couldn't agree more with Stoolhardy on everything except the American Flag line, and agree with Ivokent about the rah-rah patriotism we were all supposed to feel when times were pretty sh*tty for the common man when common work was disappearing like trees from the rain forest.
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.
@Zort Allentown is one of my all time favorite Billy Joel songs and to me it sounds more like a folk song telling about the plight of unemployment in the Lehigh Valley.
@Zort Allentown is one of my all time favorite Billy Joel songs and to me it sounds more like a folk song telling about the plight of unemployment in the Lehigh Valley.
Wow - bumping an old thread, but really got to know this song over the past few car rides with a CD of Billy's best songs repeating. Couldn't agree more with Stoolhardy on everything except the American Flag line, and agree with Ivokent about the rah-rah patriotism we were all supposed to feel when times were pretty sh*tty for the common man when common work was disappearing like trees from the rain forest.
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!
@Zort Allentown is one of my all time favorite Billy Joel songs and to me it sounds more like a folk song telling about the plight of unemployment in the Lehigh Valley.
@Zort Allentown is one of my all time favorite Billy Joel songs and to me it sounds more like a folk song telling about the plight of unemployment in the Lehigh Valley.