The last time unemployment hit double digits, the Billy Joel song “Allentown” was a surprise early ’80s hit. As Joel later told the Allentown Morning Call, it was a “song about being out of work.”

The song’s message of lost jobs and lost hope resonated with American workers down on their luck. “And it's hard to keep a good man down. But I won't be getting up today,” went the final verse.
President Obama tried to recapture that sentiment as a way of tapping into the emotion of...












And We're Living Here in Allentown