Well We're Living Here in Manorville...

At first listen, Billy Joel's classic song "Allentown" may not seem to have anything to do with Long Island. Steel factories closing down? Sounds like a problem for Pittsburgh rather than Manorville. However, upon closer examination, Billy Joel was not just singing about a small region of Pennsylvania, but the majority of America. The first verse is as follows: 

Well we're living here in Allentown
And they're closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we're living here in Allentown

The workers of Allentown are experiencing a loss of their jobs and livelihood, forcing them to "Fill out forms and stand in line" waiting for their unemployment benefits. Perhaps the next few lines are unfamiliar to us, however the idea of injustice is still present. Sure our fathers didn't fight to defend the country from a rampant threat to democracy, but our grandparents may have, and our parents still fight every day to keep providing for us, only to be served with an even greater challenge from our own country as the cost of living consistently increases and salaries decrease. 

The second verse and bridge are also powerful today as they were in 1982. With the loss of jobs, competition in the market increased, as did the quality of education necessary to maintain a simple job. "The graduations hang on the wall" both from high school and college, as the job market is still suffering from the recession of the late 2000's, and mechanization of human labor opportunities and outsourcing conquer American job opportunities. All the expectations endowed on students that doing well in school would lead them successfully into society unraveled before the eyes of those who could not pursue higher education, or find jobs out of high school. 

Even today, over 30 years after the song was composed, each child is still suffering, and their "shot at getting just about as far as their old man got" has been severely diminished. This problem is hardly limited to America though. In 1987 when Billy Joel toured the Soviet Union, he played "Allentown" with a specific dedication to the younger generations of Soviets who saw their dreams disappearing before their eyes under the increasingly controlling Communist regime. 

We may not be able to do anything about poverty in Russia, but in the United States, a free nation, we can make our voices heard and speak out against the rich getting richer, and the politicians lining their pockets at the expense of the public they serve. To conclude, and perhaps cheer you up, here is "Allentown."

Billy Joel - "Allentown"