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Allentown

Billy Joel

RockMedium for beginners7 chords

How to play it

Fingering diagrams for the shapes in this song. × = don't play, ○ = open string.

C×
D××
G
Em
A×
F
A#Diagram coming soon

Chords & lyrics

Chord names sit directly above the word where you change.

Text size
 
              C D G 3x 
        G    Em    D 
Well we're living here in Allentown 
        C        D    G 
And they're closing all the factories down 
    Em            A    D 
Out in Bethlehem they're killing time 
  A          Em    A    D 
Filling out forms - Standing in line 
         G            Em        D 
Well our fathers fought the Second World War 
        C            D    G 
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore 
         Em        A   D 
Met our mothers in the USO 
    A        D        A        D 
Asked them to dance, Danced with them slow 
    G        Em        D 
And we're living here in Allentown 
 
    F        G        C 
But the restlessness was handed down 
    Em        C    G    D  Em  D 
And it's getting very hard to stay 
 
C D G ? C D G 
        G    Em    D 
Well we're waiting here in Allentown 
        C        D    G 
For the Pennsylvania we never found 
    Em        A    D 
For the promises our teachers gave 
  A          Em    A    D 
If we worked hard , If we behaved 
     G            Em        D 
So the graduations hang on the wall 
    C            D       G 
But they never really helped us at all 
         Em            A       D 
No they never taught us what was real 
    A        D    A         D 
Iron and coke - And chromium steel 
 
    G        Em        D 
And we're waiting here in Allentown 
 
    F        G        C 
But they've taken all the coal from the ground 
    Em        C    G    D  Em  D 
And the union people crawled away 
 
C D G 
 
F        G        A# 
Every child had a pretty good shot 
F        G        A# 
To get at least as far as their old man got 
F        G        A# 
But something happened on the way to that  
 
Place 
F        G        A# 
They threw an American flag in our face 
 
C D G 
    G        Em        D 
Well I'm living here in Allentown 
        C        D    G 
And it's hard to keep a good man down 
    Em        C    G    D  Em  D 
But I won't be getting up today   -  ay  -  ay 
 
C D G 
 
SOLO>  F G A#  (4x) 
 
    Em        C    G    D  Em  D 
And it's getting very hard to stay 
        C    D    G 
And we're living here in Allentown 
 
 
 
          
 

Details

Rating

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Chord set

C · D · G · Em · A · F · A#

Practice tip

Loop the first two chords slowly until the change is clean, then add the rest.