From country and rock to folk and bluegrass, references pop up in a number of songs.
Len Righi
The Morning Call
20 Nowember 2005The Lehigh Valley has provided inspiration for a number of songs and albums. Among them:
''200 Years Old''
This Frank Zappa composition from his 1975 ''Bongo Fury'' album opens with the lines: ''I was sittin' in a breakfast room in Allentown, Pennsylvania/Six o'clock in the morning, got up too early, it was a terrible mistake -'' Local folklore has it that the breakfast took place in the City View Diner in Whitehall Township.
''Allentown''
The best-known song about the city was written by pop-rock singer (and frequent visitor to the area) Billy Joel for his 1982 album ''The Nylon Curtain.'' Critics harp on inaccuracies in the lyrics - mythical mines and steel factories in Allentown, for example - but Joel's composite portrait of eastern Pennsylvania captured how the post-World War II American dream had died.
''Allentown''
Three decades into its career, British avant-garde jazz improv group AMM did a 1994 recording ''Live in Allentown USA.'' It had six tracks, all titled ''Allentown,'' from a concert given at Muhlenberg College's Arts Center Recital Hall on April 24, 1994.
''Allentown Jail''
Written by Grammy winner Irving Gordon (1915-1996), whose ''Unforgettable'' was a major hit for Nat King Cole. The song tells the sorry tale of a man incarcerated for stealing a diamond for his girlfriend and unable to raise bail. Published in 1951, it was recorded by folk group The Kingston Trio in 1962. The track was intended as a single but never released. It was included on the 1995 Kingston Trio retrospective ''The Capitol Years.'' The Lettermen and Dusty Springfield also recorded the song.
''Allentown Polka''
It's one of the most widely played bluegrass tunes. The instrumental was written by fiddle player Kenny Baker, aka ''Mr. Velvet,'' whose credits also include the standards ''High Country'' and ''Washington County.'' The song first appeared on the 1972 ''Kenny Baker Country'' LP.
Baker, who early in his career played with country singer Don Gibson before spending a quarter-century with bluegrass great Bill Monroe, has performed with Josh Graves, who has plays an acoustic steel guitar known as a dobro, for the last 23 years. He explained the genesis of the ''Allentown Polka'' during a recent telephone interview.
''I was in the Navy during World War II with an Allentown boy, George Baust, and me and that boy got along exceptionally well,'' said Baker, a Kentucky native who now lives in Nashville.
''We went from boot camp in Great Lakes, Ill., to putting a ship in commission down in Orange, Texas, a destroyer escort called the USS Rolf, to the South Pacific. Me and this guy was together 80 percent of the time.''
The two served from 1943 to 1946, but after they were discharged they did not keep in touch. ''I don't know whatever happened to him,'' said Baker. ''But he was a fine boy, and I thought the world of him and I never forgot him. So when I wrote this piece of music, I thought I'd call it the 'Allentown Polka,' so if he heard it he'd probably think I was writing it for him.
''He was a pleasant fellow to be around,'' Baker added. ''Me being from Kentucky and being a damn hillbilly, it was hard to communicate with some of them guys from up north. But he never tried to be a smart aleck. He reminded me of the boys I was used to being around. He was as good a friend as I ever had. I always thought we'd get together after.''
''Bethlehem''
The Lehigh Valley has never produced a better or more critically acclaimed rock 'n' roll band than The Original Sins, and 1996's ''Bethlehem'' disc — the penultimate of the group's 10-year career — is among its best. On the title track, singer-songwriter-guitarist J.T. (John Terlesky of West Easton) muses bitingly through a psychedelic haze about living in a class-schism town where ''Everybody's waiting for something.''
''Bethlehem, Pa.''
Derrick Procell co-wrote this tune in the 1990s about a trucker who needs — and receives — a miracle as he tries to get home to the Christmas City to be with his pregnant wife. It was recorded by Atlanta-based performer Logan Daniels for a 1998 collection, ''Trucker's Christmas,'' and also by Deerfield, Ill.-based Procell, whose voice has drawn comparisons to Travis Tritt and Marc Cohn.
''Do the Dutch''
It's an affectionate, tongue-in-cheek homage to the area and its Pennsylvania-German heritage, sung in a ''Dutch'' accent. The song was written by local musicians Steve Brosky, Mike Krisukas and Paul August Willistein and recorded by Lehigh Valley rock band The BBC in the mid-1980s. It received national radio play, and Village Voice critic Robert Christgau and the then-influential ''Rock & Roll Confidential'' newsletter took notice.
