Alice’s Restaurant Massacree (Happy Thanksgiving)

[Tx4obama]

Arlo Guthrie live - newer version with clips from the film added
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8DtpdXZi0M

[annabanana]

1. strange days indeed . . . . . .n/t

[ixion]

2. A Thanksgiving tradition. Thanks for posting.

:toast:

[pleah]

3. Happy Thanksgiving! :)

:toast: :hi:

[riverbendviewgal]

4. thank you for putting this up.

My first Thanksgiving in Canada was spent watching this movie....and eating Yorkshire pudding for the first time in my life. I came to Canada as a refugee in 1969 from America. I actually met Arlo Guthrie 24 years later in Toronto... I sat on his tour bus after a show and even have a picture with him.


.Guthrie endorsed Texas Congressman Ron Paul for the 2008 Republican Party nomination. He said, "I love this guy. Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of the United States had he been there. I'm with him, because he seems to be the only candidate who actually believes it has as much relevance today as it did a couple of hundred years ago. I look forward to the day when we can work out the differences we have with the same revolutionary vision and enthusiasm that is our American legacy." <6> He told the New York Times Magazine that he is a Republican because, "We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a loyal opposition."

<7>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlo_Guthrie

[TheKentuckian]

5. Happy Thanksgiving!

[no_hypocrisy]

6. I went to hear Arlo and his family play about ten years ago.

He told us the story about how he was in the middle of "Alice's Restaurant" when he had a blank and whispered to his son "Where am I in the song?" His son didn't know and Arlo whispered back, "When I was your age, I knew all the words to MY father's songs . . . . " That got the biggest laugh of the evening.

[Iggo]

7. Ah, that was good.

Been a while.

[ohheckyeah]

8. How and why did this become a

Thanksgiving thing?

[pinboy3niner]

9. The story begins with Guthrie's arrest for littering on Thanksgiving '65

On that Thanksgiving, November 25, 1965, the 18-year-old Guthrie and his friend Richard Robbins, 19, were arrested by Stockbridge police officer William "Obie" Obanhein for illegally dumping some of Alice's garbage after discovering that the town dump was closed for the holiday. Two days later, they pled guilty in court before a blind judge, James E. Hannon; the song describes to ironic effect the arresting officer's frustration at this "typical case of American blind justice," where the judge would not review the "27 8×10 color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us." In the end, Guthrie and Robbins were fined $50 and told to pick up their garbage.

The song goes on to describe Guthrie's being called up for the draft, and the surreal bureaucracy at the New York City induction center at 39 Whitehall Street.<2> Because of Guthrie's criminal record for littering, he is first sent to the Group W Bench, where those draftees wait who cannot be inducted except under a "moral waiver", then outright rejected as unfit for military service. The ironic punch line of the story's denouement is that, in the words of Guthrie, "I'm sittin' here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice's_Restaurant

[ohheckyeah]

10. Thanks...

I couldn't remember and I haven't heard it from the beginning for a long time. I heard the last couple of minutes of it today on the radio.

[Major Hogwash]

11. Excellent. Party on Wayne. Party on Garth.

That was one of the best songs Arlo ever sang.
You got to admit, he was a great singer, songwriter, protester.

One of my favorite people still on the sphere we call earth.

[pinboy3niner]

12. Party on, Brother!

The spirit lives on... :thumbsup: