First of all, I have to admit that I did not experience the '60s; I was born long after they were over. My parents grew up in the '60s, so I've learned about that era from them, and from various other sources. But obviously, I can't truly understand what happened. "Alice's Restaurant" is one of the great records of the era. And a really funny one at that.
Arlo Guthrie plays himself trying to avoid getting drafted. The police arrest him for having long hair, and the army forces him into a recruiting center. In the recruiting center, they force him to walk around in his underwear. As an act of defiance, he declares: "I wanna see blood 'n' guts 'n' gore 'n' veins! I wanna kill, man!" Of course Arlo's favorite hang-out is Alice Brock's restaurant in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. That place could be the embodiment of the whole 1960s.
Anyway, "Alice's Restaurant" is nowadays a look back at when the country's youth were fighting for a better future (people who lived through the '60s would probably object to how I said that). And in the Bush era, we really long for that.
By the way, I saw Arlo Guthrie in concert when he came to Portland in 1998, and then again in 2004. Both concerts were great.
Arlo Guthrie plays himself trying to avoid getting drafted. The police arrest him for having long hair, and the army forces him into a recruiting center. In the recruiting center, they force him to walk around in his underwear. As an act of defiance, he declares: "I wanna see blood 'n' guts 'n' gore 'n' veins! I wanna kill, man!" Of course Arlo's favorite hang-out is Alice Brock's restaurant in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. That place could be the embodiment of the whole 1960s.
Anyway, "Alice's Restaurant" is nowadays a look back at when the country's youth were fighting for a better future (people who lived through the '60s would probably object to how I said that). And in the Bush era, we really long for that.
By the way, I saw Arlo Guthrie in concert when he came to Portland in 1998, and then again in 2004. Both concerts were great.