Billy Joel may not play the Lehigh Valley these days. But he still sings about Allentown.

It’s no surprise. The Piano Man’s documented ties to the region run deep. A late 1973 show at The Roxy in Northampton helped launch his solo career at a time when “Piano Man” itself was still a brand-new single. After several return trips, he penned an homage.

“Allentown” hit airwaves in September 1982, the lead track on the album “The Nylon Curtain.” Despite its title, the song about Bethlehem memorialized the national plight of laborers at a time when manufacturing was in decline. It cemented for some a lasting image of depressed industrial Pennsylvania cities.

“You guys were my bread and butter for a long time,” Joel told an appreciative audience at Bethlehem’s Stabler Arena that December. He played “Allentown” twice that show.

The song peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Hot 100 and continues to get play on radio stations and in Joel’s concerts.

For its 40th anniversary, we asked folks still livin’ here about their impressions of the Bethlehem ballad, then and now. “Allentown” has become a bane of image-conscious community organizers, a somber recollection of struggle for steelworkers, a moment of wistful memory for fans, and a sort of local oddity for those too young to remember and who only discovered it later. (Joel himself declined an interview.)

Despite the mixed feelings, “Allentown” remains perhaps the Lehigh Valley’s premiere pop-culture moment. After all, as one person noted, not every town gets a song written about it.

The following quotes come from separate interviews. They have been edited for clarity.

‘Well, we’re living here in Allentown’

Andria Zaia, curator at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem: “We were on the driveway at our family home. I was with some of the neighborhood kids playing basketball and it actually was a big deal. We were listening to one of the local radio stations, maybe even the Philly channel. The DJ was announcing, ‘It’s the first time we’re going to play this song.’ So everyone kind of stopped what they were doing and we all went over to the radio. We were just there sitting on the driveway and listened to it.”

Jerry Green, president of United Steelworkers Local 2599: “I was on the unemployment line with other brothers of mine [from Bethlehem Steel]. Bunch of us were laid off. … All of a sudden, you hear this song being played. And, you know, those radio stations, they get something that they’re hot on, they play it over and over again. It was appropriate for what was going on in the Lehigh Valley at that time.”

Tony Iannelli, president and CEO of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce: “I was heading up a downtown Allentown organization which was really focused on [revitalization] … . The first time I heard it, I thought it was a local radio station messing around. I didn’t believe that it was actually Billy Joel, who was hugely popular at that time.”

Jill Youngken, assistant director and chief curator at the Lehigh Valley Heritage Museum: “I think I was about 27 and I was planning for upcoming my upcoming wedding and just kind of being young, having pretty much a good time. … I probably heard it for the first time on the radio. I always liked Billy Joel. I’m sure my ears would have perked up right away when I heard this is a Billy Joel song.”

Matt Tuerk, mayor of Allentown: “As a kid [in East Stroudsburg] — I was seven — we heard this song on the radio. Another kid that was around the corner had cable so we saw the video. I didn’t know what Allentown was. … I don’t even know if I knew who Billy Joel was before that.”

J. William Reynolds, mayor of Bethlehem: “I was 1 year old in 1982. … I would say Billy Joel is the music that my friend’s parents would be listening to when we were going to go out when we were teenagers in high school. I think probably somewhere along the way I knew that that song existed.”

Joe Mayer, president of the Steelworkers’ Archives: “In the fall of 1982, I was still an employee of Bethlehem Steel as a supervisor in the Bethlehem plant. I don’t exactly remember the first time [I heard the song], but I’m certainly a big fan of Billy Joel.”

Don Cunningham, president and CEO of Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp.: “I was a senior in high school at Freedom in Bethlehem. My father was a steelworker at the time. I came from a family of steelworkers. … At that time, I think people in Allentown and Bethlehem were kind of excited that a nationally known musician was mentioning the region in a song in the title. … I think quickly people came to understand that the imagery in the song was we would have been better off not being mentioned.”

‘And they’re closing all the factories down’

Jerry Green, USW: “He was correct. Standing, filling out forms, waiting in line. That was us. We were there. Some of us guys were there three to four hours waiting in line to get called to get their application for unemployment.”

Tony Iannelli, Lehigh Valley Chamber: “That was about the toughest time for us [in the Lehigh Valley]. … The industrial revolution that built this Valley — textile was basically nonexistent and Bethlehem Steel was struggling and so it felt like you’re getting piled on. You had enough to deal with.”

(Can’t see the chart? Click here.)

Andria Zaia, NMIH curator: “One of the kids had mentioned this is a song about us. We all had parents who were steelworkers. … I think it kind of took us a little while to process what the message was that was being conveyed in the song. And of course, we’re kids. We’re really young. But we’re experiencing what was happening in the steel industry through parents coming home and talking about it.”

Jill Youngken, Heritage Museum: “Keeping in mind that it was just a song — it’s not a history book, it was not a news broadcast — it probably was a little bit hyperbolic, I guess. [That said] in 1982 we were going through a period in in all of America [where] prices were high. I seem to remember inflation was high. There were concerns. There were a lot of industries closing. … I recall that my father, he was a chemist at Bethlehem Steel, was nearing retirement age. He retired early because they were giving certain employees buyouts.”

Don Cunningham, LVEDC: “[Billy Joel] was trying to write a slice of economic life in the United States at that time, the decline of heavy industry. There were elements of it that were exaggerated. … It wasn’t so much that it was wrong or inaccurate at the time. It was just that nobody could have foreseen the level of branding that came with the sustained life of the song. And that’s really what became a challenge.”

Mike Piersa, historian at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem: “I enjoy listening to it. I think it really paints a good picture of the culture at the time, what was going on, what people were thinking, what they were feeling. … I look at the song not just as a piece of history, but it’s something that’s evaluating what’s going on to this very day. How is the world reacting to what’s happening in the Lehigh Valley right now? Is it some place you want to come back to or is it some place you want to stay? Everybody’s going to have a different answer for that.”

‘Out in Bethlehem, they’re killing time … standing in line’

Two whistle notes, a pause. Drums sound and the now-familiar four-note percussive blend of piano, acoustic guitar and bass drown as 6,500 fans in Lehigh University’s Stabler Arena begin screaming their recognition and approval. After four months of occasionally dizzying hype, Billy Joel, bringing his song “Allentown,” had returned to the Lehigh Valley to perform live.

… [Joel] accepted … an unusually high number of roses. … Two simulated upright I-beams with simulated rust were placed on either side of the front part of the stage, the drum riser and steps were supported by green girders, and one member of the group knocked a pipe with a hammer to duplicate the sound of the hammer and anvil in the song. Steam pipes, a simulation of smokestacks, completed the industrial effect. … Joel started tinkering with a straight-forward rendition of “O Little Town of Bethlehem” on his hydraulic baby grand. He played about eight measures before he and his group slammed into “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song).”

… A gracious performer who knows how to cater to an audience, Joel bowed and waved to every corner of Stabler throughout the night. It was his way of thanking the Lehigh Valley for supporting him before he became popular with the rest of the world. — The Bethlehem Globe-Times, Dec. 28, 1982

Mike Piersa, NMIH historian: “One person I know who actually did attend the concert was really excited about it. I think it reflects a lot of hometown pride and the fact that he was singing about the area and raising it to national status, even if wasn’t the message that the locals desired — just the fact that we were worth singing about meant something to us.”

Tony Iannelli, Lehigh Valley Chamber: “When Billy Joel came here … I’ll never forget his parting comment was, ‘Go get ‘em, Allentown. Don’t let ‘em keep you down.’ And I thought it was so condescending. … Allentown didn’t have a venue big enough [for his concert], so he had to go to Stabler in Bethlehem, which was another sort of kick in the ass, frankly. … I remember scurrying for tickets for the concert when he got here. We almost were begging for tickets and it was just a tough, tough time.”

Don Cunningham, LVEDC: “I remember very well he played Bethlehem. The irony is at the time [the late, then-Allentown mayor] Joe Daddona was giving him the key to the city and people were championing it, not really focusing on the message as much as just the recognition.”

Matt Tuerk, Allentown mayor: “If he wants to bring [the key to the city] back, we’ll take it. I imagine that if Billy Joel came back to Allentown, if he was interested — I don’t know what we’d do for him now. I don’t know if we give him the key to the city.”

Jerry Green, USW: “[Daddona], like a dumbass, [a month later] goes out and says Allentown should get some royalties from that song. I guess Billy Joel took offense to that and said he’d never come back to Allentown.”

‘The Pennsylvania we never found’

Matt Tuerk, Allentown mayor: “I don’t know how many current Allentownians [are] going to know the song ‘Allentown.’ It’s not relevant to their lives today. … I think it’s just an unfortunate vexation and preoccupation with the past as opposed to looking forward to what we have or the way that we can build civic life in the future. I would just assume people focus on future Allentown than worry about righting the wrongs of the past.”

Jerry Green, USW: “It’s a song in the past … I mean, it’s a good song. Naturally, somewhere down the line I think about what it was like when that song first came out and where I was, what I was doing. I was laid off and I remember being over here in Bethlehem they had the unemployment office at that time. There were lines outside up the street. And a lot of us, we’d be reading the newspaper. We were able to read it cover to cover.”

Jill Youngken, Heritage Museum: “I think that it doesn’t disparage [the Lehigh Valley]. I’m not sure if it ever did because it did bring attention to this area. In Bethlehem and Allentown and the Lehigh Valley, this was something that was going on all across the nation. So instead of being disparaging, it was almost like, this is what we’re all going through — this song is kind of an anthem of what is happening in all the United States at the time.”

Mike Piersa, NMIH historian: “We’re thinking this is some special event singling us out. But there are a number of songs, like in the ‘80s and ‘90s, some of them by Billy Joel … several by Bruce Springsteen. My family is from Cleveland, so we knew the [1972 Randy Newman] song ‘Burn On’ about the Cuyahoga River. It wasn’t just Allentown that these songs were about, it was a whole region and time period in America. … I wish there were more of them because they really make you wonder what life is like in different places and really opening doors and exploring things that you wouldn’t have otherwise even thought about.”

Don Cunningham, LVEDC: “[For] people who aren’t familiar with the Lehigh Valley or who haven’t been here, there’s an element of that imagery that is still conjured up when they hear the names Allentown or Bethlehem. … There’s still some residuals out there of people who think the area is still coal mining or steel or in a depressed economic state. The reality is today it’s an economy of clean industries and very low unemployment. It’s kind of the exact opposite of what’s in the song. It’s taken some time but I think it’s starting to diminish.”

Joe Mayer, Steelworkers’ Archives: “[The song] invokes feelings like, we showed them. Because people thought everything was going to just disintegrate and not be the same. We’re a very resilient community in the Lehigh Valley. … I think what it means is that the human spirit, it can survive. No matter how much doom and gloom, I think it can survive. That it can take a negative and make it positive and I think the Lehigh Valley did that.”

J. William Reynolds, Bethlehem mayor: “I don’t really associate that song with my experience living in the City of Bethlehem when I was a kid. You don’t think about those things when you’re a kid. I was thinking about playing baseball or playing basketball or riding bikes with my friends. And then by the time I became a teenager and into my 20s, the idea of economic decline was not something that we really had any knowledge of. We were here for the revitalization. We were here for the vibrancy.”

And we’re (still) living here in Allentown

Jill Youngken, Heritage Museum: “I think there’s almost a little pride that goes along with this with having a song written about Allentown. People who are from outside of the area, they know the song, too. Some people [see the record on display in the museum] and start singing the song a little bit.”

Tony Iannelli, Lehigh Valley Chamber: “As far as that song, I’m so over it. I don’t even acknowledge that it exists. If I hear it, I turn station. … That song kicked us while we were down, and now we’re not down. And that song means nothing to me.”

Matt Tuerk, Allentown mayor: “It’s fine — I think that’s my general reaction [to the song]. It’s not the best Billy Joel song. … When I think about the last time I heard it, I was at a conference in D.C. and we were doing karaoke and I was like, fine, I’ll just, I will do karaoke to ‘Allentown.’ So I tried singing it and I was terrible at it.”

J. William Reynolds, Bethlehem mayor: “I think Bethlehem’s spot in American history and American culture is pretty clear with Bethlehem Steel and what the City of Bethlehem did for America in the 20th century. The fact that it was in a song that Billy Joel put on an album 40 years ago — it does probably capture a moment of what we were for a brief time. … That image, we defeated a long time ago.”

Don Cunningham, LVEDC: “Personally, I hate hearing it because I’ve spent my whole life here. … I’m very proud of the area and I’m proud of the area’s heritage. I don’t want people thinking of the region as that flashpoint in time. On a personal level, I’d be glad if it was never heard again.”

Kara Mohsinger, president at the National Museum of Industrial History in Bethlehem: “A lot of it is interpreted at the personal level, so each individual is going to have a different take on how they hear the song and what it means to them. But I also think it raises the awareness, especially now at a time where we’re seeing so many people that are moving out of New York/New Jersey region where Billy Joel, is from and probably gets a little more play time, and they’re moving to Lehigh Valley. … I think that that song can only raise the awareness about the deep history and the importance that the Valley had for the nation and then hopefully bring them to the area to see how much we’ve grown since the early ‘80s and what a bright future we have.”

Joe Mayer, Steelworkers’ Archives: “I think it’s a good thing to have as part of the culture. I can see it as a steppingstone — we survived something really dramatic and made the best out of it.”

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Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com.