It's appropriate that I'm thinking of Billy Joel's song, "Allentown," on Labor Day. It isn't usually played on the radio these days, but I think it's one of Joel's strongest hits. Shining a light on the closing of factories forces the listener to think about the labor that goes into products we all use--and how automation compromises and sometimes ends workers' livelihoods. That's not conventional subject matter for most pop songs, but it netted a respectable hit for Joel in late 1982 and early '83.
On another labor-related note, my father made sure that the record pressing plant didn't get away with slipshod work. When I played the 45 at home and found that it skipped, Dad drove me back to the record store and explained the situation to a clerk. The clerk put another copy of "Allentown" on the store's turntable, played it all the way through, and exchanged my defective copy for it.
As I listened to the new skip-free record, another thought occurred to me: You don't usually hear pop singers admit in their lyrics that a lot of education's benefits are delayed or indirect. When you learn a trade, you typically learn one or more skills that make you employable right away. The benefits of interpreting poems, reading about the Renaissance, and learning that hydrogen and helium are core components of stars, however, don't usually translate as directly into gainful employment. Nevertheless, you become more well-rounded as a result--and can shape that realization into a blog post nearly 40 years later.
