In 1982, Billy Joel took on an ambitious project....a concept album.  He wanted to write an homage album of songs to his generation, the Baby Boom.  It was an undertaking that he hoped would be his greatest work...his "Sgt. Pepper" if you will.  The outcome was a collection he called, "The Nylon Curtain".

Indeed, many different aspects of life in the US during the Cold War and through the vast social changes of the 1960s and 1970s are touched on throughout the record.  The opening track is today's song...."Allentown".  

He wanted to write something that spoke to the difficulties boomers were having in towns where factories were shuttering, leaving empty shells where there once was booming industry.  In particular, this song is speaking of the closure of Bethlehem Steel, which at that point was the second largest steel company in the world.  But, in order to avoid confusion over whether the song had religious implications, he chose to title it after the nearby "Allentown", which as a bonus, was also much easier to rhyme words with.  

"Allentown" was the second single from the album, cracking the top 20 on the Billboard Hot 100, reaching a peak position of #17.  It features some sound effects that help make it instantly identifiable....the shift whistle at the beginning, and the sound of rolling mills converting steel ingots into i-beams during the song itself, and after its conclusion.

It has become one of his most enduring songs live, and has regularly been included in concert since it's release.  He included it in the very special short tour he did in the then Soviet Union, saying ahead of the performance, "This song is about young people living in the northeast of America.  Their lives are miserable because the steel factories are closing down.  They desperately want to leave, but they stay because they were brought up to believe that things were going to get better.  Maybe that sounds familiar."

I heard that performance, and his commentary that preceded it for the first time when I was 15 years old, and it was the beginning of a lifelong fascination with other cultures.  Mostly because I keep learning that as many interesting differences as we have....we are so much more the same than we are different.

Universally, people want love, security, opportunity, joy, fun, and meaning.  The pathways to find them and the form that they take is very different based on culture, geography, and awareness....but at the core, we all really want the same things.

I think that's why I love music, and making music so much....it's a universal emotional language that binds us together when we can't find other ways to connect or discover common purpose.  This song is a joy to perform and speaks brilliantly to a generation of people who were raised expecting something and finding that it was no longer available to them when they got older.  

Enjoy my cover of this song from a livestream show I did on July 22, 2020 during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and then check out Billy Joel performing it at Wembley Arena in London in 1984!

If you'd like to explore my piano method more deeply, my best students use my video courses and join me for conversation and twice monthly Q&A Livestreams in my private community...you can find it all HERE. Thanks.

If the video doesn't show above, use THIS LINK to see it on YouTube

If the video doesn't show above, use THIS LINK to see it on YouTube