“Allentown” Sheet Music (pdf).
“Allentown” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Billy Joel.
Tune: Billy Joel.
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 the 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.
But the restlessness was handed down.
And it’s getting very hard to stay, hey.
Hey, hey, hey, o-whoa-ho.
Well, we’re waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found,
For the promises our teachers made
If we worked hard, if we behaved.
So, the graduations hang on the wall.
But they never really helped us at all.
No, they never taught us what was real:
Iron and coke, chromium steel.
And we’re waiting here in Allentown.
But they’ve taken all the coal from the ground.
And the union people crawled away, hey, hey.
Hey, hey, hey.
Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got.
But something happened on the way to that place.
They threw an American flag in our fa-a-ace. O-whoa-ho.
Well, I’m living here in Allentown.
And it’s hard to keep a good man down.
But I won’t be getting up today, hey, hey, hey, hey.
Hey, hey.
Hey, hey, hey, o-whoa-ho.
And it’s getting very hard to stay, hey, hey, hey, hey.
And we’re living here in Allentown.