I don’t know if Billy Joel‘s ‘Allentown’ can really be considered a working song, but it sure hits home for.me. I grew up in a mill town, and those lyrics were spot-on. Folks (including my brothers and me) were working in the mills one day, and out of a job the next.
The song almost makes me cry. And yeah, my father was a WW 2 vet.
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
But the restlessness was handed down
And it’s getting very hard to stay...