Comments: 5

• David M from UkThe song also feels to me like a reflection on the economic and social change that had come about in America over the last twenty or so years, during which the country had experienced a loss of industry, had lost the Vietnam War and a consequence of both was economic decline. There had also been radical social change and less formality. Orchestra's are expensive and so would have been replaced in a cost cutting move, but that cheapened the experience of going to the theatre. I imagine that the narrator hadn't been to the Theatre for a long time and his experience reflects the social and economic change that had taken place. He senses the loss, similar to the loss experienced in the death of a loved one. However in the reprise of the song Allen Town there is a chance to reflect that although change and loss are sad it also ushers in the new, ie new growth, and sometimes, although painful, it is good to have to let go of the past and embrace the future as the past, although familiar, wasn't all good, and it's healthy to move on and to have hope and faith in the future. In other words after quite a sad and reflective Album, a lot of issues have hopefully been put to rest and we can embrace the future with cheerfulness and optimism.
• Brian from MilwaukeeI have no specific evidence to back this up but I'm convinced that the song is in part a tribute to Harry Nilsson. The phrasing, the style and the melodic and harmonic progression are so like Nilsson. I also think that it's placed at the end of the album as a statement. This album more than any other is so unlike Billy Joel's previous material I imagine this song a s way of recognizing (and maybe even satirizing people who bought the album, listened to it expecting something else and saying "Wait a minute, this isn't Billy Joel." Just my take.
• Richard from Stone Harbor, NjI forgot to mention how forgotten the song is under the piles of his other stuff. It's a friggin' great song.
• Richard from Somerdale , NjThis song kinda made The Nylon Curtain similar to The Stranger (album) because it revisits the main song in the end. It differs because at the end of Everybody Has a Dream, it is an almost direct copy of the intro to The Stranger (song), and in Where's the Orchestra?, it is a much slower and more peaceful version of Allentown and not a direct copy.
• Nikki from Ny, FlMy interpretation is, it's a sad outlook upon life in general at this moment in Billy's life, as many of us go through at least once.

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