Den snart 60-årige amerikanske singer-songwriter William Joseph Martin Joel, kaldet Billy Joel, har været så længe på banen, at et af hans karrieres højdepunkter, albummet “The Stranger” (1977) nu udgives i en jubilæumsudgave med alskens tilbehør i form af videooptagelser af koncerter og tv-optrædener og fanden og hans pumpestok. Det oprindelige album indeholdt klassikere som “Just The Way You Are”, “Only The Good Die Young” og “She’s Always A Woman” og blev produceret af den kendte pladeproducer Phil Ramone. Joel havde på det tidspunkt allerede en lille håndfuld fremragende albums bag sig og stod for at lave endnu flere plader som fx “52nd Street”, “Glass Houses”, “An Innocent Man” og det album, der for alvor fik åbnet capacs ører for mandens talenter: The Nylon Curtain (1982).
The Nylon Curtain blev et kæmpehit for Joel, blandt andet i kraft af den mesterlige sang “Allentown” om byen af samme navn, dens brave indbyggere og deres kamp for et anstændigt liv. Andre prægtige sange på pladen er “Goodnight Saigon” om Vietnam-krigen og “Pressure” om hverdagslivets stress…
Albummet, der igen havde Phil Ramone bag knapperne, er et ambitiøst værk, der også afslører Billy Joels forkærlighed for Lennons og Mccartneys sangskrivning.

Allentown
Goodnight Saigon
Pressure

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 at 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 staaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
aaaaaaah aaahhhhh ooooooooh ooooooh ohhhhhhh.

Well we’re waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
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 awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaah.

Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got.
Something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our faaaaaaaace, oh oh oh.

Well I’m living here in Allentown
And it’s hard to keep a good man down.
But I won’t be getting up todaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyy
aaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaaaah aaaaaaaaah.
aaaaaaah aaaaaaah aaaaaaah oh oh oh.
And it’s getting very hard to staaaaaaaaaaaaaay.
And we’re living here in Allentown.