Forty years after singer Billy Joel’s music “Allentown” put Allentown, Pa., on each pop station, metropolis leaders say they’re prepared to maneuver on.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Forty years in the past, Billy Joel’s hit music “Allentown” fell off the charts after virtually 5 months on the Billboard 100, and it left a legacy. Town of Allentown, Pa., turned a logo of the Rust Belt and financial hardship. And but a variety of the individuals who stay there say Billy Joel’s music didn’t precisely assist. Julian Abraham experiences.
JULIAN ABRAHAM, BYLINE: It is a type of songs that you would be able to acknowledge straight away. It begins with a steam whistle.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEAM WHISTLE BLOWING)
ABRAHAM: Then come the sounds of a tough day’s work at a metal mill.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILLY JOEL SONG, “ALLENTOWN”)
ABRAHAM: It tells the story of Allentown, Pa., a logo of the American Rust Belt.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALLENTOWN”)
BILLY JOEL: (Singing) Nicely, we’re dwelling right here Allentown. And so they’re closing all of the factories down. Out in Bethlehem, they’re killing time, filling out varieties, standing in line.
ABRAHAM: The growth and bust of the world’s steelwork that made a lot of the nation’s greatest landmarks till its sudden collapse within the ’80s and the lives that have been by no means the identical when their steady jobs have been taken away.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALLENTOWN”)
JOEL: (Singing) And we’re dwelling right here in Allentown.
ABRAHAM: The music is principally about Bethlehem Metal, a close-by metal manufacturing facility that was one of many greatest on this planet. At its peak, it employed over 30,000 individuals. Guillermo Lopez labored there for nearly 30 years. Then, like everybody else at Bethlehem Metal, he was laid off, however he nonetheless likes the music.
GUILLERMO LOPEZ: The temper, the sounds of steam, of the clanging and the equipment.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, “ALLENTOWN”)
JOEL: (Singing) Hey. Hey. Hey. Oh, oh, oh.
LOPEZ: It simply places you proper again within the metal mill if you happen to labored right here.
ABRAHAM: Allentown’s mayor, Matt Tuerk, was solely 7 when the music got here out. He lately had a birthday. His employees serenaded him with a sing-along to a music he hates.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Nicely, we’re dwelling right here in Allentown.
ABRAHAM: Whereas singing, Mayor Tuerk could not assist however throw in some advert libs defending his metropolis.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) And it is getting fairly laborious to remain.
MATT TUERK: No, it isn’t. All proper (laughter).
It is so improper. It is like – I do not know the way it felt in 1982, however it would not really feel like that now. Like, I truthfully have a tough time saying, it is getting laborious to remain. Like, it isn’t laborious to remain. It is laborious to depart.
ABRAHAM: The mayor’s most important criticism – he says the music paints the town in a unfavorable mild and made it a logo of business decay.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
LAURA BALLEK COLE: Oh, wait. This my favourite half.
UNIDENTIFIED GROUP: (Singing) Each little one had a fairly good shot.
ABRAHAM: The girl you heard on the piano, Laura Ballek Cole, is the supervisor of Civic Innovation for the Metropolis of Allentown.
BALLEK COLE: The music itself is righteous. It is an excellent music. It is a banger. However, you realize, it would not truly – it isn’t about Allentown.
ABRAHAM: Even Billy Joel agreed when the music got here out again in 1982 it isn’t about Allentown particularly however a frame of mind. We’re not transferring out or giving up, he stated. We will strive.
(SOUNDBITE OF STEAM WHISTLE BLOWING)
ABRAHAM: For NPR Information, I am Julian Abraham in Allentown.
(SOUNDBITE OF BILLY JOEL SONG, “ALLENTOWN”)
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