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"Alice's Restaurant Massacree", commonly known as "Alice's Restaurant", is a satirical talking blues song by singer-songwriter
Arlo Guthrie Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk music, folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing protest song, songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his fa ...
, released as the title track to his 1967 debut album ''Alice's Restaurant''. The song is a deadpan protest against the Vietnam War draft, in the form of a comically exaggerated but largely true story from Guthrie's own life: while visiting acquaintances in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridg ...
, he is arrested and convicted of dumping trash illegally, which later endangers his suitability for the
military draft Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it contin ...
. The title refers to a restaurant owned by one of Guthrie's friends, artist Alice Brock. Although Brock is a minor character in the story, the restaurant plays no role in it aside from being the subject of the chorus and the impetus for Guthrie's visit. The song inspired the 1969 film ''Alice's Restaurant'', which starred Guthrie and took numerous liberties with the story. The work has become Guthrie's
signature song A signature (; from , "to sign") is a depiction of someone's name, nickname, or even a simple "X" or other mark that a person writes on documents as a proof of identity and intent. Signatures are often, but not always, handwritten or styliz ...
and he has periodically re-released it with updated lyrics. In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the
National Recording Registry The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant, and inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation ...
by the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".


Characteristics

The song consists of a protracted spoken
monologue In theatre, a monologue (also known as monolog in North American English) (in , from μόνος ''mónos'', "alone, solitary" and λόγος ''lógos'', "speech") is a speech presented by a single character, most often to express their thoughts ...
, with a constantly repeated fingerstyle Piedmont blues ragtime guitar backing and light
brush A brush is a common tool with bristles, wire or other filaments. It generally consists of a handle or block to which filaments are affixed in either a parallel or perpendicular orientation, depending on the way the brush is to be gripped during u ...
-on-
snare drum The snare drum (or side drum) is a percussion instrument that produces a sharp staccato sound when the head is struck with a drum stick, due to the use of a series of stiff wires held under tension against the lower skin. Snare drums are often u ...
percussion (the drummer on the record is uncredited). This is bookended by a short chorus about the titular restaurant. Arlo Guthrie has used the brief "Alice's Restaurant" bookends and guitar backing for other monologues bearing the "Alice's Restaurant" name. The track lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds, occupying the entire A-side of the ''
Alice's Restaurant "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", commonly known as "Alice's Restaurant", is a satirical talking blues song by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie, released as the title track to his 1967 debut album Alice's Restaurant (album), ''Alice's Restaurant''. ...
'' album. Due to Guthrie's rambling and circuitous telling with unimportant details, it has been described as a
shaggy dog story In its original sense, a shaggy-dog story or yarn is an extremely long-winded anecdote characterized by extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents and terminated by an anticlimax. In other words, it is a long story that is intended ...
. Guthrie refers to the incident as a " massacree", a colloquialism originating in the
Ozark Mountains The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma, as well as a small area in the southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover ...
that describes "an event so wildly and improbably and baroquely messed up that the results are almost impossible to believe". It is a corruption of the word ''
massacre A massacre is an event of killing people who are not engaged in hostilities or are defenseless. It is generally used to describe a targeted killing of civilians Glossary of French words and expressions in English#En masse, en masse by an armed ...
'', but carries a much lighter and more sarcastic connotation, rather than describing anything involving actual death.


Story


Prologue

Guthrie introduces the song as "Alice's Restaurant," noting that the restaurant itself does not call itself Alice's Restaurant. He then sings the chorus, which is in the form of a
jingle A jingle is a short song or tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. Jingles are a form of sound branding. A jingle contains one or more hooks and meanings that explicitly promote the product or service being advertised, usually ...
for the restaurant, beginning with "You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant" twice, and continuing with directions to it before restating the slogan once more.


Part One

Guthrie recounts events that took place in 1965 (two years prior to the time of the original recording), when he and a friend spent
Thanksgiving Day Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil and Germany. It is also observed in the Australian territory ...
at a deconsecrated church on the outskirts of
Stockbridge, Massachusetts Stockbridge is a town in Berkshire County in Western Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,018 at the 2020 census. A year-round resort area, Stockbridg ...
, which their friends Alice and Ray had been using as a home. As a favor to them, Guthrie and the friend volunteered to take their large accumulation of garbage to the local dump in their VW Microbus, not realizing until they arrived there that the dump would be closed for the holiday. They eventually noticed another pile of trash that had previously been dumped off a cliff near a side road, and added theirs to the accumulation before returning to the church for Thanksgiving dinner. The next morning, the church received a phone call from the local police chief, " Officer Obie", saying that an envelope in the garbage pile had been traced back to them. Guthrie, stating " I cannot tell a lie" and with tongue in cheek, confessed that he "put that envelope underneath" the garbage. He and his friend drove to the police station, expecting a verbal reprimand and to be required to clean up the garbage, but they were instead arrested, handcuffed, and taken to the scene of the crime. There, Obie and a crew of police officers from the surrounding areas collected extensive forensic evidence of the litter, including "twenty-seven 8-by-10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was, to be used as evidence against us" amid a
media circus Media circus is a colloquial metaphor or idiom describing a news event for which the level of media coverage—measured by such factors as the number of reporters at the scene and the amount of material broadcast or published—is perceived to b ...
of local media trying to get news stories on the littering. The young men were briefly jailed, with Obie taking drastic precautions to prevent Guthrie from escaping or committing suicide. After a few hours, Alice
bail Bail is a set of pre-trial restrictions that are imposed on a suspect to ensure that they will not hamper the judicial process. Court bail may be offered to secure the conditional release of a defendant with the promise to appear in court when ...
ed them out and held another Thanksgiving dinner. Guthrie and his friend stood trial the next day. When Obie saw that the judge relied upon a seeing-eye dog, he realized that the officers' meticulous work had been foiled by a literal "case of American blind justice", as the judge would not be able to see the evidence. Guthrie and his friend paid a fine of to the court, and were ordered to pick up the garbage, in the snow.


Part Two

Guthrie then states that the littering incident was "not what I came to tell you about" and shifts to another story, this one based at the Army Building on
Whitehall Street Whitehall Street is a street in the South Ferry (Manhattan), South Ferry/Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City, near the southern tip of Manhattan Island. The street begins at Bowling ...
in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
as Guthrie appeared for a physical exam related to the Vietnam War draft. He tried various strategies to be found unfit for military service, including getting drunk the night before so he was hung over, and attempting to convince the psychiatrist that he was homicidal, which only earned him praise. After several hours, Guthrie was asked whether he had ever been convicted of a crime. He nodded, began to tell his story, and was sent to the "Group W" bench to file for a moral waiver. The other convicts ("mother-rapers... father-stabbers... father-rapers") were initially put off that his conviction had been for littering, but accepted him when he added "and creating a nuisance". When Guthrie noticed one of the questions on the paperwork asked whether he had rehabilitated himself since the crime, he noted the irony of having to prove himself reformed from a crime of littering when the realities of war were often far more brutal. The officer in charge of the induction process commented, "We don't like your kind", rejected Guthrie and sent his fingerprints to the federal government to be put on file.


Epilogue

In the final part of the song, Guthrie explains to the live audience that anyone finding themselves in a similar situation should walk into the military psychiatrist's office, sing the opening line from the chorus and walk out. He predicts that a single person doing it would be rejected as "sick" and that two people in harmony would be rejected as " faggots", but that once three people started doing it they would begin to suspect "an organization" and 50 people a day would be recognized as "the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement". As he continues fingerpicking, he invites the audience to sing the chorus along with him "the next time it comes around on the guitar". When they do so, Guthrie claims that their singing "was horrible", and challenges them to sing it with him "with
four-part harmony Four-part harmony is music written for four Human voice, voices, or for some other musical medium—four musical instruments or a single keyboard instrument, for example—for which the various musical parts can give a different note for each Cho ...
and feeling". Guthrie and the crowd then sing the chorus, and the song concludes.


Development

Guthrie cited the long-form monologues of
Lord Buckley Lord Richard Buckley (born Richard Myrle Buckley; April 5, 1906 – November 12, 1960) was an American stand-up comedian and recording artist, who in the 1940s and 1950s created a character that was, according to ''The New York Times'', "an unl ...
and
Bill Cosby William Henry Cosby Jr. ( ; born July 12, 1937) is an American retired comedian, actor, and media personality. Often cited as a trailblazer for African Americans in the entertainment industry, Cosby was a film, television, and stand-up comedy ...
, and the movies of
Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...
, as inspirations for the song's lyrics, and a number of different musicians (in particular
Mississippi John Hurt John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. Biography Early years John Hurt was born in Teoc,Cohen, Lawrence (1996). Liner notes to ''Av ...
) as inspirations for the Piedmont fingerstyle guitar accompaniment, noting that he took about "two seconds" to come up with the accompaniment because he wanted something easy to play mindlessly while narrating the story.Doyle, Patrick (November 26, 2014)
Arlo Guthrie looks back on 50 years of Alice's Restaurant
''Rolling Stone''. Retrieved November 22, 2018.
Phaneuf, Whitney (November 23, 2016)
Arlo Guthrie on Why ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ Has Endured: Listen to the Thanksgiving Classic
''Acoustic Guitar'' magazine. Retrieved November 21, 2022.
The song was written as the events happened over the course of approximately one year; it grew out of a simple joke riff Guthrie had been working on in 1965 and 1966 before he appeared before the draft board (the opening was originally written as "you can hide from Obanhein at Alice's restaurant", which is how the restaurant got tied into the original story), and he later added his experience before the draft board to create the song as it is known today. Additional portions of the song were written during one of Guthrie's many stays with the English songwriter and music journalist Karl Dallas and his family in London. Guthrie sent a demo recording of the song to his father
Woody Guthrie Woodrow Wilson Guthrie (; July 14, 1912 – October 3, 1967) was an American singer, songwriter, and composer widely considered to be one of the most significant figures in American folk music. His work focused on themes of American Left, A ...
on his deathbed; it was, according to a "family joke", the last thing Woody heard before he died in October 1967. Because of the song's length, Guthrie never expected it to be released, because such extended monologues were extremely rare in an era when singles were typically less than three minutes.


Response


1960s

"Alice's Restaurant" was first performed publicly with Guthrie singing live on ''Radio Unnameable'', the overnight program hosted by
Bob Fass Robert Morton Fass (June 29, 1933 – April 24, 2021) was an American radio personality and pioneer of free-form radio, who broadcast in the New York region for over 50 years. Fass's program, ''Radio Unnameable'', aired in some form from 1963 u ...
that aired on New York radio station
WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic musi ...
, one evening in February 1967, following a year of Guthrie honing the song at various small venues. (The exact date of the first recording has also been identified as 1966.)Fisher, Marc.
Something in the Air: Radio, Rock, and the Revolution That Shaped a Generation
'. Page 136.
The initial performance was part of an impromptu supergroup at the WBAI studios that included
David Bromberg David Bromberg (born September 19, 1945) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. David Bromberg biographyat Billboard.com An eclectic artist, Bromberg plays bluegrass rock, blues rock, folk rock, jazz rock, country rock, ...
,
Jerry Jeff Walker Jerry Jeff Walker (born Ronald Clyde Crosby; March 16, 1942 – October 23, 2020) was an American country and folk singer-songwriter. He was a leading figure in the progressive country and outlaw country music movement. He also wrote t ...
and Ramblin' Jack Elliot. Guthrie performed the song several times live on WBAI in 1967 before its commercial release. By May 1967, the song had proved so popular that at one point Fass (who was known for playing songs he liked over and over again in his
graveyard slot A graveyard slot (or death slot) is a time period in which a television audience is very small compared to other times of the day, and therefore broadcast programming is considered far less important. Graveyard slots are usually situated in the ea ...
) started playing a recording of one of Guthrie's live performances of the song repeatedly; eventually the non-commercial station rebroadcast it only when listeners pledged to donate a large amount of money. (Fass subverted it and occasionally asked for donations to get him to ''stop'' playing the recording.) "Alice's Restaurant" was performed on July 17, 1967, at the
Newport Folk Festival The Newport Folk Festival is an annual American folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the Newport Jazz Festival. The festival was founded by music promoter and Jazz Festival founder Geor ...
in a workshop or breakout section on "topical songs", where it was such a hit that he was called upon to perform it for the entire festival audience. The song's success at Newport and on WBAI led Guthrie to record it in front of a studio audience in New York City and release it as side one of the album ''Alice's Restaurant'' in October 1967. Guthrie noted that the studio recording combined some of the worst elements of both studio and live recording, in that the audience chosen for the record had already heard him perform the song repeatedly, but because of the audience, he had to record the song and album in one take. The original album spent 16 weeks on the ''
Billboard 200 The ''Billboard'' 200 is a record chart ranking the 200 most popular music albums and EPs in the United States. It is published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists. Sometimes, a rec ...
'' album chart, peaking at #29 during the week of March 2, 1968, then reentered the chart on December 27, 1969, after the film version was released, peaking that time at #63. In the wake of the film version, Guthrie recorded a more single-friendly edit of the chorus in 1969. Titled "Alice's Rock & Roll Restaurant", it included three verses, all of which advertise the restaurant, and a fiddle solo by
country A country is a distinct part of the world, such as a state, nation, or other political entity. When referring to a specific polity, the term "country" may refer to a sovereign state, state with limited recognition, constituent country, ...
singer
Doug Kershaw Douglas James Kershaw (born January 24, 1936) is an American fiddle player, singer, and songwriter from Louisiana. Active since 1948, he began his career as part of the duo Rusty and Doug, along with his brother, Rusty Kershaw. He had an exte ...
; to fit the song on a record, the monologue was removed, bringing the song's length to 4:43. This version, backed with "Ring Around the Rosy Rag" (a cut from the ''Alice's Restaurant'' album), peaked at #97 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100, and #64 in Canada. Because the single did not reach the popularity of the full version, which did not qualify for the Hot 100 because of its length, ''Billboard'' officially classifies Guthrie as a
one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music performers with ...
for his later hit " City of New Orleans". After the release of the original album, Guthrie continued to perform the song in concert, regularly revising and updating the lyrics. In 1969, for instance, he performed a 20-minute rendition of the song that, instead of the original narrative, told a fictional story of how Russian and Chinese military operatives attempted to weaponize "multicolored rainbow roaches" they had found at Alice's restaurant, and the Lyndon Johnson administration orchestrated a plan for the nation to defend itself. A recording of this version titled "Alice: Before Time Began" was released in 2009 on the album ''Tales of '69'' distributed by Guthrie's Rising Son Records label; another recording of this version, titled "The Alice's Restaurant Multicolored Rainbow Roach Affair", was also released on that label. In 1970, the song was used as an anthem for WBAI's sister station KPFT-FM in
Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...
, after that station had repeatedly been bombed by the
Ku Klux Klan The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to KKK or Klan, is an American Protestant-led Christian terrorism, Christian extremist, white supremacist, Right-wing terrorism, far-right hate group. It was founded in 1865 during Reconstruction era, ...
; Guthrie came and performed the song live after the station returned to the air following the second bombing.


Developing tradition

It has become a tradition for many
classic rock Classic rock is a radio format that developed from the album-oriented rock (AOR) format in the early 1980s. In the United States, it comprises rock music ranging generally from the mid-1960s through the early-1990s, primarily focusing on comm ...
and
adult album alternative Adult album alternative (also triple-A, AAA, or adult alternative) is a radio format. See pages 9 and 10Mills, Joshua. "A New Radio Music Format: Rock for Prosperous Adults" New York Times, Feb 28 1994, p. 2. ProQuest. Web. Accessed September 4, ...
radio stations to play the song each Thanksgiving. Despite its mention of the slur "faggots", radio stations generally present the song as originally recorded, and the
Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, internet, wi-fi, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains j ...
has never punished a station for playing it.51 things about Arlo Guthrie and Alice's Restaurant on its 51st Anniversary
''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...
'' (August 26, 2015). Retrieved November 7, 2017.
When performing the song in later years, Guthrie began to change the line to something less offensive and often topical: during the 1990s and 2000s, the song alluded to the ''
Seinfeld ''Seinfeld'' ( ) is an American television sitcom created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, with a total of nine seasons consisting of List of Seinfeld episodes, 180 episodes. It ...
'' 1993 fourth season episode " The Outing" by saying "They'll think you're gay—not that there's anything wrong with that," and in 2015, Guthrie used the line "They'll think they're trying to get married in some parts of Kentucky", a nod to the controversy of the time surrounding county clerk Kim Davis. By the late 1970s, Guthrie had removed the song from his regular concert repertoire. In 1984, Guthrie, who was supporting
George McGovern George Stanley McGovern (July 19, 1922 – October 21, 2012) was an American politician, diplomat, and historian who was a U.S. representative and three-term U.S. senator from South Dakota, and the Democratic Party (United States), Democ ...
's ultimately unsuccessful comeback bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, revived "Alice's Restaurant" to protest the
Reagan Administration Ronald Reagan's tenure as the 40th president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 1981, and ended on January 20, 1989. Reagan, a Republican from California, took office following his landslide victory over ...
's reactivation of the
Selective Service System The Selective Service System (SSS) is an Independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the United States government that maintains a database of registered male U.S. Citizenship of the United States, citizens and o ...
registrations. That version has not been released on a commercial recording; at least one bootleg of it from one of Guthrie's performances exists. It was this tour, which occurred near the 20th anniversary of the song (and continued as a general tour after McGovern dropped out of the race), that prompted Guthrie to return the song to his playlist every ten years, usually coinciding with the anniversary of either the song or the incident. The 30th anniversary version of the song includes a follow-up recounting how he learned that
Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...
had owned a copy of the song, and he jokingly suggested that this explained the famous 18½-minute gap in the
Watergate The Watergate scandal was a major political scandal in the United States involving the administration of President Richard Nixon. The scandal began in 1972 and ultimately led to Nixon's resignation in 1974, in August of that year. It revol ...
tapes. Guthrie rerecorded his entire debut album for his 1997 CD '' Alice's Restaurant: The Massacree Revisited'', on the Rising Son label, which includes this expanded version. The 40th anniversary edition, performed at and released as a recording by the Kerrville Folk Festival, made note of some parallels between the 1960s and the
Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
and
George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following his narrow electoral college vict ...
. Guthrie revived the song for the 50th anniversary edition in 2015, which he expected would be the last time he would do so. In 2018, at which point he decided he was too old to care about overplaying the song anymore, Guthrie began the Alice's Restaurant: Back by Popular Demand Tour, reuniting with members of his 1970s backing band Shenandoah. The tour, which features Guthrie's daughter Sarah Lee Guthrie as the opening act, was scheduled to wrap up in 2020. To justify bringing the song back out of its usual ten-year sequence, he stated that he was doing so to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the film version of the song. The tour ended in 2019 and was later confirmed to have been Guthrie's last; he suffered a career-ending stroke in November of that year and announced his retirement in October 2020.


Artist's reflections

In a 2014 interview with ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...
'', Guthrie said he believed there are such things as
just war The just war theory () is a doctrine, also referred to as a tradition, of military ethics that aims to ensure that a war is morally justifiable through a series of criteria, all of which must be met for a war to be considered just. It has bee ...
s, and that the message of this song was targeted at the Vietnam War in particular. Interviews with Ron Bennington in 2009 and
NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...
in 2005 describe the song not so much as anti-war but as "anti-stupidity".Arlo Guthrie, Remembering 'Alice's Restaurant'
''NPR Music'' (November 26, 2015). Retrieved October 24, 2015.
Guthrie considered the song as relevant in 2015 as it was in 1965, particularly in that
Millennials Millennials, also known as Generation Y or Gen Y, are the demographic cohort following Generation X and preceding Generation Z. Researchers and popular media use the early 1980s as starting birth years and the mid-1990s to early 2000s a ...
and
Generation Z Generation Z (often shortened to Gen Z), also known as zoomers, is the demographic cohort succeeding Millennials and preceding Generation Alpha. Researchers and popular media use the mid-to-late 1990s as starting birth years and the early 2 ...
were, much like the
Baby Boomers Baby boomers, often shortened to boomers, are the demographic cohort preceded by the Silent Generation and followed by Generation X. The generation is often defined as people born from 1946 to 1964 during the mid-20th century baby boom that ...
of his era, beginning to coalesce as a bloc in opposition to the "very sophisticated manipulation" from major authority figures and institutions of the era, something that Guthrie believed Baby Boomers would find familiar.


Historicity

Most of the events of the story are true; the littering incident was recorded in the local newspaper at the time it happened, and although Guthrie made some minor embellishments, the persons mentioned in the first half of the story all granted interviews on the subject, mostly verifying that part of the story.Saul Braun, "Alice & Ray & Yesterday's Flowers", in ''
Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...
's'' Music Scene, Chicago, IL, 1972, pp. 122–125
Online copy
The second half of the story does not have as much specific corroborating evidence to support it; the public exposure of
COINTELPRO COINTELPRO (a syllabic abbreviation derived from Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert and illegal projects conducted between 1956 and 1971 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltr ...
in 1971 confirmed that the federal government was collecting personal information on anti-war protesters as Guthrie alleged, and Guthrie's father was known to have been on the FBI watchlists due to his
Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...
sympathies.


Alice, Ray and the restaurant

The Alice in the song was restaurant-owner Alice May Brock (1941–2024). In 1963, shortly after dropping out of
Sarah Lawrence College Sarah Lawrence College (SLC) is a Private university, private liberal arts college in Yonkers, New York, United States. Founded as a Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in 1926, Sarah Lawrence College has been coeducational ...
, Alice used $2,000 supplied by her mother to purchase a deconsecrated church in
Great Barrington, Massachusetts Great Barrington is a New England town, town in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, United States. It is part of the Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 7,172 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. Bot ...
, where Alice and her husband, Ray Brock (1929–August 1, 1979), would live. Alice was a painter and designer, while Ray was an architect and woodworker who originally was from
Hartfield, Virginia Hartfield is an unincorporated community in Middlesex County, Virginia, United States. Hartfield is located at the southern junction of Virginia State Route 3 and Virginia State Route 33, east-southeast of Saluda. Hartfield has a post offic ...
; the two had met while in
Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...
in 1960. Both worked at a nearby private academy, the music and art-oriented Stockbridge School, from which Guthrie (then of
Howard Beach Howard Beach is a neighborhood in the southwestern portion of the New York City Borough (New York City), borough of Queens. It is bordered to the north by the Belt Parkway and Conduit Avenue in Ozone Park, Queens, Ozone Park, to the south by J ...
, a neighborhood in
Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...
,
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
) had graduated. Alice Brock operated a restaurant called "The Back Room" in 1966, at 40 Main Street in Stockbridge, located behind a grocery store and directly underneath the studios of
Norman Rockwell Norman Percevel Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works have a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of Culture of the United States, the country's culture. Roc ...
.William J. Obanhein; 'Alice's Restaurant' Lawman, 69
''The New York Times'' (September 14, 1994). Retrieved October 29, 2015.
The Back Room was already closed by the time the song was released; it ceased operations in April 1966. (Theresa's Stockbridge Café was last known to occupy the site; the café's sign makes note that the space was "formerly Alice's Restaurant". Theresa's was closed by 2022, but the sign pointing to the restaurant remained.Stanmeyer, Anastasia
"Breaking Bread with Alice"
''Berkshire Magazine'', Holiday 2022. Retrieved 2024-02-22.
) After a breakup and abortive reconciliation, Alice divorced Ray in 1968; she went on to launch two more restaurants (a take-out window in Housatonic in 1971 and a much larger establishment in Lenox in the late 1970s)Flint, Andrew (April 23, 2014)
Alice's Restaurant reborn at Dream Away Lodge
. ''Berkshire Eagle''. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
before leaving the restaurant business in 1979. Ray returned to Virginia after the divorce and took on various projects until his death in 1979.Arlo Guthrie's Alice is alive, glad to be here
''The Wall Street Journal'' via the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' (November 22, 2006). Retrieved September 8, 2017.
Alice owned an art studio and gallery in
Provincetown, Massachusetts Provincetown () is a New England town located at the extreme tip of Cape Cod in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, in the United States. A small coastal resort town with a year-round population of 3,664 as of the 2020 United States census, Provi ...
, until 2016. She illustrated the 2004 children's book ''Mooses Come Walking'', written by Guthrie, and authored and illustrated another, ''How to Massage Your Cat''.Giuliano, Charles (March 27, 2014)
Alice's Restaurant Returns to the Berkshires
''Berkshire Fine Arts''. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
In 1969,
Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...
published ''The Alice's Restaurant Cookbook'' () which featured recipes and hippie wisdom from Alice Brock, as well as photos of Alice and Guthrie, and publicity stills from the movie. A tear-out record was included in the book with Brock and Guthrie bantering on two tracks, "Italian-Type Meatballs" and "My Granma's Beet Jam". Brock, Guthrie and Rick Robbins reunited for Thanksgiving dinner in 2022, the first time all three of them had been together for Thanksgiving since the events depicted in the song (Guthrie has typically gone south for the winter but chose to stay in Massachusetts that year). Guthrie said of the experience: "We had a nice Thanksgiving (, but) once was enough." Brock died November 21, 2024 following years of declining health.


The church

The church, originally built as the St. James Chapel in 1829, was enlarged in 1866 and renamed Trinity Church. Ray and Alice Brock purchased the property in 1963 and made it their home. Alice sold the building shortly after the film adaptation was released, commenting that the song and film had brought a great deal of unwanted publicity. The building changed ownership several times in the 1970s and 1980s until Guthrie bought the facility in 1991 and converted it to the Guthrie Center, a nondenominational, interfaith meeting place. In the main chapel area is a stage on which Officer Obie's chair sits as a reminder of the arrest. A set of private rooms in which Alice and Ray once lived remains. In later years, the Guthrie Center became a
folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...
venue, hosting a Thursday evening
hootenanny A hootenanny is a freewheeling, improvisatory musical event in the United States, often incorporating audience members in performances. It is particularly associated with folk music. Etymology Meanings Hootenanny is an Appalachian colloquialism ...
as well as the Troubadour Concert series annually from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Musical guests have included
John Gorka John Gorka (born July 27, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. In 1991, ''Rolling Stone'' magazine called him "the preeminent male singer-songwriter of what has been dubbed the New Folk Movement." Personal life Gorka was raised in the Colon ...
,
Tom Paxton Thomas Richard Paxton (born October 31, 1937) is an American folk singer-songwriter whose career spans more than sixty years. In 2009, Paxton received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
, Ellis Paul,
Tom Rush Tom Rush (born February 8, 1941) is an American folk and blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter whose success helped launch the careers of other singer-songwriters in the 1960s and who has continued his own singing career for 60 years. Life ...
, The Highwaymen folk group and Arlo Guthrie. The Troubadour series helps to support the church's free community lunch program which is held at the church every Wednesday at noon. On Thanksgiving, the church hosts a "Thanksgiving dinner that can't be beat" for the local community. The annual "Garbage Trail Walk", retracing the steps of Arlo and folksinger Rick Robbins (as told in the song), raises money for
Huntington's disease Huntington's disease (HD), also known as Huntington's chorea, is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that is mostly Genetic disorder#Autosomal dominant, inherited. It typically presents as a triad of progressive psychiatric, cognitive, and ...
research. The folding table on which Guthrie had written the first lines of "Alice's Restaurant" remained in Alice Brock's possession, the only item she still held from her time in the area at the time she died.


The littering incident

The incident which Guthrie recounts in the first half of the song was reported in ''
The Berkshire Eagle ''The Berkshire Eagle'' is an American daily newspaper published in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and covering all of Berkshire County, as well as four New York communities near Pittsfield. It is considered a newspaper of record for Berkshire Coun ...
'' on November 29, 1965. It describes the conviction of Richard J. Robbins, age 19, and Arlo Guthrie, age 18, for illegally disposing of rubbish, and a fine of $25 each, plus an order to remove the trash. The arresting officer was Stockbridge police chief William J. Obanhein ("Officer Obie"), and the trial was presided over by Special Judge James E. Hannon. It identifies the incriminating evidence as an envelope addressed to a male resident of Great Barrington (presumably Ray Brock) rather than Guthrie. In a 1972 interview with '' Playboy's Music Scene'', Obanhein denied handcuffing Guthrie and Robbins. He also said the real reason there was no toilet seat in the jail cell was to prevent such items from being stolen, not as a suicide deterrent as Guthrie had joked. Guthrie also admitted in 2020 that the police photographs were in black-and-white, not in color. The Microbus that Guthrie and Robbins used to dispose of the garbage was eventually scrapped; the Guthrie Center later acquired a replica that Guthrie occasionally drives.


The draft

The Armed Forces Examination and Entrance Station was part of a large complex at 39 Whitehall Street in New York City from 1884 to 1969. By the late 1960s, the building had become a target for anti-war protesters, and two bombings left minor damage to the building, prompting the building to be vacated. The building has since been repurposed as a
mixed-use development Mixed use is a type of urban development, urban design, urban planning and/or a zoning classification that blends multiple uses, such as residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, or entertainment, into one space, where those functions ...
and its address changed (it is now 3 New York Plaza). The brief mention of "faggots" being rejected for military service in the song's epilogue was based on military policy at the time, which rejected all homosexuals and expelled anyone caught engaging in homosexual behavior with a section 8
dishonorable discharge A military discharge is given when a member of the armed forces is released from their obligation to serve. Each country's military has different types of discharge. They are generally based on whether the persons completed their training and the ...
. The policy was modified in 1993 and fully repealed in 2012. Guthrie acknowledged that he was never in danger of being drafted because he had been given a high draft number. A friend commented that he and Guthrie were "not going to get called unless there's a squirrel invasion in New Hampshire."


Legacy

Alice's Restaurant of Sky Londa, California, founded in the 1960s, was originally founded by Alice Taylor with no connection to Alice Brock. Subsequent owners of the restaurant kept the original name as a homage to the song, eventually adding a "Group W bench," because the name had made the restaurant a tourist attraction that was "good for business." The programming language
Smalltalk Smalltalk is a purely object oriented programming language (OOP) that was originally created in the 1970s for educational use, specifically for constructionist learning, but later found use in business. It was created at Xerox PARC by Learni ...
was written around the same time. The song played a minor role that lives on today. The choices to adopt some of the language in the song has spread to other languages that may not even know that Alice's Restaurant helped to inspire. The lyrics: "They got a building down New York City, it’s called Whitehall Street, Where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected." helped shape the programming methods #inject #inspect #detect, #select. The German singer-songwriter
Hannes Wader Hannes Wader (born Hans Eckard Wader on 23 June 1942) is a German singer-songwriter ("Liedermacher"). He has been an important figure in German leftist circles since the 1970s, with his songs covering such themes as socialist, communist resistanc ...
used the tune for his anarchistic song "Der Tankerkönig."


Feature film

The song was adapted into the 1969 movie ''Alice's Restaurant'', directed and co-written by
Arthur Penn Arthur Hiller Penn (September 27, 1922 – September 28, 2010) was an American filmmaker, theatre director, and producer. He was a three-time Academy Award nominee for Academy Award for Best Director, Best Director, and a Tony Awards, Tony Awa ...
, who had heard the song in 1967 while living in Stockbridge and immediately wanted to make the song into a movie.Cummings, Paula (November 21, 2017)
Interview: Arlo Guthrie Carries On Thanksgiving Traditions And Fulfills Family Legacy
. ''NYS Music''. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
Guthrie appears as himself, with Pat Quinn as Alice Brock and James Broderick as Ray Brock, William Obanhein and James Hannon appearing as themselves, and Alice Brock making a cameo appearance. The film was released in August 1969, a few days after Guthrie appeared at the
Woodstock Festival The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...
, and a soundtrack album was released by
United Artists Records United Artists Records was an American record label founded by Max E. Youngstein of United Artists in 1957 to issue movie soundtracks. The label expanded into other genres, such as easy listening, jazz, pop, and R&B. History Genres In 1958 ...
. The soundtrack includes a studio version of "Alice's Restaurant", which was originally divided into two parts (one for each album side). A compact disc reissue on the
Rykodisc Rykodisc is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group, operating as a unit of WMG's Independent Label Group and distributed through Alternative Distribution Alliance. History Claiming to be the first CD-only independent record label ...
label presents this version in full and adds several bonus tracks to the original LP.


See also

*
List of anti-war songs Some anti-war movement, anti-war songs lament aspects of wars, while others patronize war. Most promote peace in some form, while others sing out against specific armed conflicts. Still others depict the physical and psychological destruction that ...
*
Shaggy dog story In its original sense, a shaggy-dog story or yarn is an extremely long-winded anecdote characterized by extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents and terminated by an anticlimax. In other words, it is a long story that is intended ...


References

Notes Further reading *Lee, Laura. ''Arlo, Alice & Anglicans: The Lives of a New England Church''. Berkshire House Publishers, 2000; W.W. Norton, 2000 paperback. *Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities. ''Mass Moments''
"Arlo Guthrie Convicted of Littering, November 28, 1965"
*Wilson, John S.

, ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', July 18, 1967, p. 30 (also reprinted in the CD liner notes). *


External links

* All Music entry for "Alice's Restaurant" (1967)* All Music entry for "Alice's Restaurant" (1997)* *
The Guthrie Center
* {{authority control 1967 songs 1969 singles Reprise Records singles Grammy Hall of Fame Award recipients Stockbridge, Massachusetts Songs based on actual events Thanksgiving songs Arlo Guthrie songs Songs written by Arlo Guthrie Song recordings produced by Fred Hellerman United States National Recording Registry recordings Blues songs Songs about New York City Satirical songs LGBTQ-related songs American folk rock songs Songs about restaurants Anti-Vietnam War songs