Billy Joel - Allentown

[QC]

Run time: 03:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHnJp0oyOxs   Posted on YouTube: October 03, 2009 By YouTube Member: billyjoelVEVO Views on YouTube: 945151   Posted on DU: September 04, 2011 By DU Member: QC Views on DU: 650

 
Another video for Labor Day.

A little sad this time.

[chill_wind]

1. Thanks QC.

Poignantly fitting for the times(and sad). Billy Joel one of my favorites, always. (This one all the more so as a born and raised (western) Pennsylvanian.)

K & R.

[QC]

2. So glad you enjoyed it!

[Marie Marie]

3. I live right outside of Allentown.

And yes, much of the city has deteriorated but like most cities, there is still some nice sections of beautiful homes. Billy Joel pretty much nailed it. He wrote the song because Allentown was very kind to him in terms of attendance at his concerts when he was just getting started and as he got bigger and returned, he saw the change. Thanks for the post - been a while since I've seen this.

[izquierdista]

4. My favorite live performance of it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQVC2Ja3GUI

[chill_wind]

5. Another outstanding live performance of it- in Allentown concert/audience.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZotVViy0C0w&NR=1

The second song in the vid- right after Leningrad.

Excellent audio. Great pans of HUGE Allentown audience. 1994.

[OutNow]

6. I was born in Allentown

and graduated from William Allen High in 1968. A blue collar job was easy to find. A good paying factory job was harder but just about anyone I knew could and did land one of those. A super union job at Bethlehem Steel or Mack Trucks or Western Electric or Ingersoll Rand GE, etc. paid great wages: enough to buy a house, go on vacation to the Poconos and maybe send your kids to college. My dad, several of his brothers, and most of our neighbors were union members. Of course they were, that was expected.

That was then. All the companies I listed are long gone from Allentown and the Lehigh Valley and so are the jobs. And they're not coming back - ever. And on the grounds of Bethlehem Steel now there is a casino. And all the local elected officials were so delighted to get that casino because it meant hundreds of jobs. Pitiful, just pitiful.