Friday Song: “Allentown”
Once a song with really boring lyrics, a trip to the Rust Belt provided inspiration
Recently, Billy Joel appeared in an extended interview with Rick Beato from behind the piano in his home.
As one commenter correctly observed, “All musicians immediately stopped what they were doing.” The interview attracted 1.8 million views in just over one week.
In the interview, Joel discusses how his 1982 hit “Allentown” from The Nylon Curtain album came about. Like a lot of his “slice of life” songs, it was elevated by touring, observing, and constantly writing music and lyrics.
The original title of the song was that of his home town — Levittown, Long Island, NY — but that made the original filler lyrics bland, causing Joel to shelve the song:
Well we’re living here in Levittown.
And there’s really not much going down.
I don’t see much when I look around.
The grass is green, the trees are brown.
And we’re living here in Levittown.
Traveling through the Rust Belt of Ohio and Pennsylvania while on tour, he realized one city not only represented a much more interesting story but had a name that fit into the existing song structure perfectly. Writing quickly after being hit by these insights, “Allentown” was born.
The distinctive chord at the beginning was a mistake, but Joel understands and likes dissonance, so he left it in.
- Trivia: This is the highest-charting song in history to mention the state of Pennsylvania.
The steam whistle on the record required a long search for the right sound. After an arduous process, producer Phil Ramone and engineer Jim Boyer found a steam shovel working on a skyscraper near the studio. The natural echoes of the buildings around the construction zone gave the whistle a huge sound.
While some criticized the song as exploiting and degrading working-class stereotypes, when Joel returned to the area after the song had become a hit, he was awarded the key to the city by Allentown’s mayor, who praised it as “a gritty song about a gritty city.”
On December 27, 1982, Joel played before a sold-out crowd in neighboring Bethlehem. He opened and closed his set with “Allentown,” receiving a five-minute standing ovation at the end. He received even more sustained applause when, in an apparent defense of the song’s meaning, he pointedly told the Bethlehem crowd, “Don’t take any shit from anybody.”
Good advice.
Enjoy!
