OT: A Thanksgiving tradition Alice's Restaurant
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WMMR, 93.3 FM in Philly will play it in its entirety at 10am, 12 noon and 2pm
When I was in college in the early 70's there was a station iirc in Arkansas we could pick up that would play Alice's Restaurant once a week at midnight. Why once a week and why midnight I have no idea. We just figured the DJ was high.
Actually have been to the town in MA (Stockbridge?) where the whole "incident" occured. Supposedly Guthrie goes back there every Thanksgiving.
‘Alice’s Restaurant,’ an Undying Thanksgiving Protest Song
In the small canon of Thanksgiving-related popular music, Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice's Restaurant Massacree” stands out for a few reasons, one of which is that it’s only barely related to Thanksgiving. The other reasons include its 16-minute runtime, and that it’s politically minded art of the sort worth revisiting this particular holiday season.
https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...ee-arlo-guthrie-thanksgiving-trump-era/508214
In the small canon of Thanksgiving-related popular music, Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice's Restaurant Massacree” stands out for a few reasons, one of which is that it’s only barely related to Thanksgiving. The other reasons include its 16-minute runtime, and that it’s politically minded art of the sort worth revisiting this particular holiday season.
https://www.theatlantic.com/enterta...ee-arlo-guthrie-thanksgiving-trump-era/508214
lol......... I said to my wife last night: I wonder when they'll be an "Alice's Restaurant thread on the boards?",
She said: "what in the world does that mean?"
She said: "what in the world does that mean?"
I wonder what he thinks now......
By Brian Mackey
Posted Mar 10, 2011 at 12:01 AMUpdated Mar 10, 2011 at 10:17 AM
“My dad was a big union organizer and singer. The right to have a union should be, in my mind, a Republican platform. That should be part of who they are,” hippie-folk singer Arlo Guthrie said. “The fact that they’re not doesn’t dissuade me from calling myself one.”
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is, among other things, a hippie icon. Long before he started touring, he was on the bill at Woodstock. One of his best-known songs, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” is an 18-minute ballad that confronted the Vietnam-era draft with dark humor.
So the reaction was mixed, to say the least, when Guthrie began acknowledging he had registered as a Republican around 2003 or ’04.
“To have a successful democracy, you have to have at least two parties, and one of them was failing miserably,” Guthrie told The New York Times in 2009. “We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a loyal opposition.”
There was criticism online. At least one anonymous commenter called for a boycott. Washington Post humor columnist Gene Weingarten wrote — kidding and not — that Guthrie had “shredded the last remnants of my faith that our hippie principles had any lasting meaning.”
As is often the case, however, reality is more complex than labels allow. Guthrie has described himself as a “libertarian Republican.” In the 2008 presidential election, he endorsed U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the anti-war Republican from Texas.
Last month, amid attempts to strip government employees in Wisconsin of their collective bargaining rights, Guthrie took to his blog to proclaim support for “the union guys.”
“America is a union. You cannot be anti-union and pro-America at the same time,” Guthrie said in a telephone interview with the State Journal-Register in Illinois. “That leaves a lot of people wading in the water when you’re still on the boat.”
Guthrie said he’s still singing some of the old union songs. Woody Guthrie, Arlo’s father, was a rabble-rousing folk singer best known for writing “This Land Is Your Land” as a poor man’s realistic retort to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
“My dad was a big union organizer and singer. The right to have a union should be, in my mind, a Republican platform. That should be part of who they are,” Guthrie said. “The fact that they’re not doesn’t dissuade me from calling myself one; it just means that the rest of them are crazy.”
As Guthrie sees it, our political divides are not a matter of left and right; they’re a matter of corporate greed versus individual freedom and liberty.
“I don’t think it matters much what you call yourself. It matters what you do and what you say and how you feel about things. And I haven’t had to change a whole lot on any of those since I started out over 50 years ago,” Guthrie said.
http://www.patriotledger.com/x698039329/Hippie-folk-singer-Arlo-Guthrie-takes-a-Republican-stance
By Brian Mackey
Posted Mar 10, 2011 at 12:01 AMUpdated Mar 10, 2011 at 10:17 AM
“My dad was a big union organizer and singer. The right to have a union should be, in my mind, a Republican platform. That should be part of who they are,” hippie-folk singer Arlo Guthrie said. “The fact that they’re not doesn’t dissuade me from calling myself one.”
Folk singer Arlo Guthrie is, among other things, a hippie icon. Long before he started touring, he was on the bill at Woodstock. One of his best-known songs, “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” is an 18-minute ballad that confronted the Vietnam-era draft with dark humor.
So the reaction was mixed, to say the least, when Guthrie began acknowledging he had registered as a Republican around 2003 or ’04.
“To have a successful democracy, you have to have at least two parties, and one of them was failing miserably,” Guthrie told The New York Times in 2009. “We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a loyal opposition.”
There was criticism online. At least one anonymous commenter called for a boycott. Washington Post humor columnist Gene Weingarten wrote — kidding and not — that Guthrie had “shredded the last remnants of my faith that our hippie principles had any lasting meaning.”
As is often the case, however, reality is more complex than labels allow. Guthrie has described himself as a “libertarian Republican.” In the 2008 presidential election, he endorsed U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, the anti-war Republican from Texas.
Last month, amid attempts to strip government employees in Wisconsin of their collective bargaining rights, Guthrie took to his blog to proclaim support for “the union guys.”
“America is a union. You cannot be anti-union and pro-America at the same time,” Guthrie said in a telephone interview with the State Journal-Register in Illinois. “That leaves a lot of people wading in the water when you’re still on the boat.”
Guthrie said he’s still singing some of the old union songs. Woody Guthrie, Arlo’s father, was a rabble-rousing folk singer best known for writing “This Land Is Your Land” as a poor man’s realistic retort to Irving Berlin’s “God Bless America.”
“My dad was a big union organizer and singer. The right to have a union should be, in my mind, a Republican platform. That should be part of who they are,” Guthrie said. “The fact that they’re not doesn’t dissuade me from calling myself one; it just means that the rest of them are crazy.”
As Guthrie sees it, our political divides are not a matter of left and right; they’re a matter of corporate greed versus individual freedom and liberty.
“I don’t think it matters much what you call yourself. It matters what you do and what you say and how you feel about things. And I haven’t had to change a whole lot on any of those since I started out over 50 years ago,” Guthrie said.
http://www.patriotledger.com/x698039329/Hippie-folk-singer-Arlo-Guthrie-takes-a-Republican-stance
The church from the song is now the Guthrie Center and is not in Stockbridge but near by. There is a plaque on the wall in Stockbridge next to where "Alice's Restarant" used to be
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Can't stand that freaking song. Would rather listen to Matt Millen and Beth Mowins sing RU v. Penn State play by play.
I remember WNEW broadcasting it years ago too. I saw Arlo many times live. He used to play it then stopped for a long time, then came up with the "Multi Color Rainbow Roach" version to the same picking (mid or late 70s?). I used to play it but could never remember the words so a buddy would do the vocals. Good times. Seems like centuries ago...
You-know-who always tries to draw attention to himself by bumping these threads.
KAAY, the mighty 1090! In Little Rock.
Beaker Street ran from 1966 to 1972.
KAAY was originally 50,000 watts but I think went to 100,000 watts around that time. You could pick it up, when atmospheric conditions were right, from Canada to Central America.
GOOD memories!
It sorta helps one understand the song if one had been around for the Vietnam debacle.
At one point in the late ‘70’s, Arlo stopped performing it live.
In the early 80’s I saw him at the Garden State Arts Center where he was talking about Nicaragua and the possibility of the US sending troops there when he started to strum Alice on his guitar. The place went nuts and he sang it.
May have been the first or second time he sang it live in five or more years. One of the highlights of my concert goings!!!
In the early 80’s I saw him at the Garden State Arts Center where he was talking about Nicaragua and the possibility of the US sending troops there when he started to strum Alice on his guitar. The place went nuts and he sang it.
May have been the first or second time he sang it live in five or more years. One of the highlights of my concert goings!!!
