Saturday, November 7, 2009

Arlo Guthrie - "Alice's Restaurant" Vinyl

Arlo Guthrie - "Alice's Restaurant" Vinyl (1967 Stereo)
RS-6267
Original Release - 1967

"Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is probably the best folk-rock protest song of the 60's. The biting social satire is exquisite, and the wisdom of the lyrics are somehow still applicable in the present day. This is one of the essential recordings of the 20th Century, and its wonderful 18 minute runtime takes up all of side A.

I have fond memories of listening to "Alice's Restaurant". Some of my earliest Thanksgiving day memories involve listening to it played on a local radio station (Cities 97 for you locals out there) as we drove to Wisconsin to my relatives house for Thanksgiving day. Although for many of those years, I never really knew what the song was about; figuring it was just an overlong folk song about two guys trying to dump some trash on Thanksgiving day. Little by little, every year I realized more and more what the true meaning of the song is, and to this day each time I listen to it I find something new I love about it. I can't wait to drop the needle on this 1967 original in about a month, because no Thanksgiving day is complete with out a trip to "Alice's Restaurant".

Side B features classic songs including "Chilling of the Evening", and "I'm Going Home". These folk songs made Arlo Guthrie a festival favorite in the late 60's, and I only wish we had some bands out there who would cover it to draw attention to the same issues Arlo did so many years ago.


Album - A

Vinyl - C (Note: this was a used pick up, and I wasn't about to leave an original out of my collection, "Alice's Restaurant" plays really well and thats all I'm concerned with).

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