for your Labor Day reflection - Billy Joel "Allentown"

[rurallib]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4qzwmeXNQA

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. My dear rurallib!

Ah, thank you!

Not only do I love Billy Joel, but this is one of my all-time favorite songs by him!

It's perfect for Labor Day...

:hi:

[Roon]

2. I have been to allentown pa.

Interesting town. I had a load of textiles that i delivered there.

[WinkyDink]

3. Live next door. The song was really about Bethlehem Steel, but the rhyme was impossible. TRUE:

"The song's theme is of the resolve of those coping with the demise of the American manufacturing industry in the later part of the 20th century. More specifically, it depicts the depressed, blue-collar livelihood of Allentown and Bethlehem, Pennsylvania's residents in the wake of Bethlehem Steel's decline and eventual closure.<1> Joel witnessed this first-hand while performing at the Lehigh Valley's numerous music venues at the start of his career in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The introductory rhythm of the song is reminiscent of the sound of a rolling mill converting steel ingots into I-beams or other shapes. Such a sound was commonly heard throughout South Bethlehem when the Bethlehem Steel plant was in operation from 1857 through 1995."
wikipedia

My father worked there.

[baldguy]

4. Youngstown

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Smddcs5n0H0

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Thank you, my dear baldguy...

I had not heard that song before...and it's wonderful, so poignant...

[femmocrat]

5. I love that song. Thanks.

:hi: