N2NH
11-12-2012, 03:26 AM
For some reason, with Thanksgiving Day coming up in a few days, Alice's Restaurant (Massacree) came to mind...
"Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is a musical monologue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monologue) by singer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer)-songwriter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songwriter) Arlo Guthrie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlo_Guthrie) released on his 1967 album Alice's Restaurant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_%28album%29). The song is one of Guthrie's most prominent works, based on a true incident in his life that began on Thanksgiving Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28United_States%29) 1965, and which inspired a 1969 movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_%28film%29) of the same name. Apart from the chorus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrain) which begins and ends it, the "song" is in fact a spoken monologue, with a repetitive but catchy ragtime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragtime) guitar backing. Though the song's official title, as printed on the album, is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (pronounced "mass-a-cree," not massacre (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/massacre)), Guthrie states in the opening line of the song that "This song's called 'Alice's Restaurant'" and that "'Alice's Restaurant'... is just the name of the song;" as such, the shortened title is the one most commonly used for the song today.
In an interview for All Things Considered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Things_Considered), Guthrie said the song points out that any American citizen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_citizen) who was convicted of a crime, no matter how minor (in his case, it was littering (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littering)), could avoid being conscripted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription) to fight in the Vietnam War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant#cite_note-0)
The Alice in the song was restaurant-owner Alice M. Brock, who in 1964 used $2,000 supplied by her mother to purchase a deconsecrated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconsecration) church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_%28building%29) in Great Barrington (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrington,_Massachusetts), Massachusetts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts), where Alice and her husband Ray would live. It was here rather than at the restaurant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant)—which came later—where the song's Thanksgiving dinners were actually held.
The song lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds, occupying the entire A-side (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-side_and_B-side) of Guthrie's 1967 debut record album (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_album), also titled Alice's Restaurant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_%28album%29). It is notable as a satirical, first-person account of 1960s counterculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture), in addition to being a hit song in its own right. The final part of the song is an encouragement for the listeners to sing along, to resist the U.S. draft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_States), and to end war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifism).
It has become a tradition for many classic rock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_rock) radio stations to play the song each Thanksgiving...
Guthrie later wrote a follow-up recounting how he learned that Richard Nixon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon) had owned a copy of the song, and he jokingly suggested that this explained the famous 18½ minute gap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18%C2%BD_minute_gap) in the Watergate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal) tapes.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8f/Alice%27s_Restaurant.jpg/220px-Alice%27s_Restaurant.jpg
The Alice's Restaurant Massacree. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant)
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant,
Walk right in it's around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track...
http://youtu.be/m57gzA2JCcM
"Alice's Restaurant Massacree" is a musical monologue (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monologue) by singer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singer)-songwriter (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songwriter) Arlo Guthrie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlo_Guthrie) released on his 1967 album Alice's Restaurant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_%28album%29). The song is one of Guthrie's most prominent works, based on a true incident in his life that began on Thanksgiving Day (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thanksgiving_%28United_States%29) 1965, and which inspired a 1969 movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_%28film%29) of the same name. Apart from the chorus (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refrain) which begins and ends it, the "song" is in fact a spoken monologue, with a repetitive but catchy ragtime (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ragtime) guitar backing. Though the song's official title, as printed on the album, is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" (pronounced "mass-a-cree," not massacre (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/massacre)), Guthrie states in the opening line of the song that "This song's called 'Alice's Restaurant'" and that "'Alice's Restaurant'... is just the name of the song;" as such, the shortened title is the one most commonly used for the song today.
In an interview for All Things Considered (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Things_Considered), Guthrie said the song points out that any American citizen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_citizen) who was convicted of a crime, no matter how minor (in his case, it was littering (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Littering)), could avoid being conscripted (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription) to fight in the Vietnam War (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War).[1] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant#cite_note-0)
The Alice in the song was restaurant-owner Alice M. Brock, who in 1964 used $2,000 supplied by her mother to purchase a deconsecrated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deconsecration) church (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_%28building%29) in Great Barrington (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Barrington,_Massachusetts), Massachusetts (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts), where Alice and her husband Ray would live. It was here rather than at the restaurant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restaurant)—which came later—where the song's Thanksgiving dinners were actually held.
The song lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds, occupying the entire A-side (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-side_and_B-side) of Guthrie's 1967 debut record album (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Record_album), also titled Alice's Restaurant (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant_%28album%29). It is notable as a satirical, first-person account of 1960s counterculture (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterculture), in addition to being a hit song in its own right. The final part of the song is an encouragement for the listeners to sing along, to resist the U.S. draft (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conscription_in_the_United_States), and to end war (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifism).
It has become a tradition for many classic rock (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_rock) radio stations to play the song each Thanksgiving...
Guthrie later wrote a follow-up recounting how he learned that Richard Nixon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Nixon) had owned a copy of the song, and he jokingly suggested that this explained the famous 18½ minute gap (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18%C2%BD_minute_gap) in the Watergate (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate_scandal) tapes.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/8/8f/Alice%27s_Restaurant.jpg/220px-Alice%27s_Restaurant.jpg
The Alice's Restaurant Massacree. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice%27s_Restaurant)
You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant,
Walk right in it's around the back, just a half a mile from the railroad track...
http://youtu.be/m57gzA2JCcM