You'd have to be old enough to remember the war in Viet Nam to appreciate that the draft *is* the point of the song. The war was ubiquitous. It came into every home through the nightly news, every day, with footage of the fighting, body bags, demonstrations. You couldn't *not* have feelings and opinions about it. Now we've had nearly twenty years of nonstop war in the middle east and Afganastan, and most Americans seem barely aware of it.
Exactly what I came here to say. You asked WHY did Arlo write this. He was trying to help stop the massacre happening in Vietnam. The Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement. Stopping the war was the focus.
I am 66 years old and can recite this entire performance from memory. I consider this one of the great accomplishments of my life and a lasting source of pride. Thank you.
The style here is called 'talking blues.' It goes back to the 19th century. Dylan had a few talking blues songs at the start of his career, as did Woody Guthrie...
So glad you found this story. A movie was made about this with Arlo starring in it. You can usually find it around Thanksgiving on broadcast channels. Arlo's most played song is probably "City of New Orleans". (train song) His father was Woody Guthrie, a famous folk/ western singer songwriter. (This land is your land) Arlo was a real Hippie at the time he wrote this.
"City of New Orleans" was written by Chicago's Steve Goodman, who was also a huge Cubs fan, and died young of leukemia. Arlo's song was a key moment for everyone of us who faced the draft. I served in Iran in the Peace Corps instead.
Came to nothing??? I know you live in a different time but fresh faced boys just like you had to register for the draft when I was in high school. Many were sent overseas at 18 years of age to serve in a cruel war in Vietnam. Some who lived through it have still not recovered from it emotionally 50 years later & now live on the streets. Rather than a comedy song it is irony and pain filled; an anti-war epic delivered lightly to surprise, engage & touch. I usually love your sensitive reactions and I think when you listen again, from time to time, and when you have sons of your own you will feel it more deeply. You felt deeply for the 29 souls who died on the Edmund Fitzgerald so I know you may someday understand & shed a tear for the 1,353,000 deaths that resulted from the war including 627,000 civilians. Arlo’s father Woody was a singer/songwriter who wrote to help right injustices for the poor & oppressed working class.
I guess you had to be there. Everybody was in mortal fear of being drafted, put into the infantry and sent off to Vietnam. The point of the song was to illustrate how pointless it all was. And how arbitrary. It was also an illustration of how those in authority were often clueless. My brother joined the Army only because that made it less likely that he would be put in the infantry. He ended up in Vietnam anyway but not in the infantry. He has told me about his induction physical which was pretty much as Arlo describes it here. I was spared all of that because the lottery was instituted and I luckily got a very high number.
I was notified by the draft board (before the lottery was created) to go get a physical (to save time) because they had just missed me that month and I would be at the top of the list for the next month. And yes, I and a couple hundred other guys had to strip nude at 0800 hours (8 a.m.) and went from one examination station to another inside a huge federal building in Houston, standing in line with no clothes on until 1700 hours (5 p.m.). After that, I didn't wait until the next month, but joined the Navy in the meantime. They sent me to New Orleans, where I had to do it all over again because they did not have any record of my physical exam. To make matters worse, I had a few drinks the night before because it was my first time in New Orleans, and that caused me to fail the urine test (too much sugar or something). So I had to stay in the nude a few more hours to retake that test. I passed, they swore me in, gave me a little Bible and a service number to memorize and off I went to boot camp.
@@woodysthoughts4032 Similar story for me. I got my notice to report for a pre-induction physical for the draft. I went down the next day and enlisted in the Navy. I didn't mind serving my country, but I wanted to minimize my chances of being shipped off to Vietnam. Went for my Navy physical, passed, and signed up on what they called a 120-day cache program. It meant I was in the Navy, but I didn't have to report for active duty for 120 days. Meanwhile, I had to go down for my Army physical - and they made me go through the WHOLE THING. At the very end they asked "Is there any reason you can't go in the Army?" and I finally got to say "I can't go into the Army because I've already enlisted in the Navy."
arlo guthrie was NOT a comedy act. he was a folk singer like his dad, woody guthrie. in this piece he was using his story telling skills to humorously demonstrate the INSANITY of the military and of war in general.
@Charlie Bryant I was sitting in the day room of my barracks when they did the lottery, I got 285. Oh well the Air Force actually was a good place for me. I spent 23 months out of my 48 in one training program or another and went to Italy and Turkey instead of Nam...
One of many anti Vietnam war songs of the 60s and the most unique. He got a dig about small town police in there too. I was 14 when the song came out. 52 years later I still find myself singing the chorus from time to time, usually at Thanksgiving. Once you've heard it you can never unhear it LOL.
For as long as I can remember this song has been a must-listen on Thanksgiving day. I am now in my 50's and now my children and grandchildren carry on the tradition. On another note, I am new to watching reaction videos but find watching your videos truly wonderful. It is incredible to me to see someone listen to something for the first time that has touched my heart for a lifetime. Keep discovering, keep feeling, keep doing you, you are appreciated.
In 2017 there is an updated version - He oddly noted that 18 minutes and 34 seconds of the song length happens to be the same amount missing from the "missing" Nixon Tapes.
Yes, I saw Arlo in Madison WI many many years ago and he used that to proven Nixon loved Alice's Restaurant, "How many songs do you know that are 25 minutes long?" referring to the erased part of the Watergate tapes.
that's funny. damned nixon. he wanted this song all to himself! arlo guthrie was NOT a comedy act. he was a folk singer like his dad, woody guthrie. in this piece he was using his story telling skills to humorously demonstrate the INSANITY of the military and of war in general.
Another interesting fact is that in the movie, Officer Obei was played by Chief Obanhein himself. During the making of the movie "Alice's Restaurant" Chief Obanhein and Arlo became good friends and remained good friends for the rest of his life.
I like Officer Obie. He said, "If I'm gonna be represented in a movie, it might as well be me doing it". Though Officer Obie disagreed with some details of the story, for example, he said he never handcuffed Arlo & co. Great anecdote, nevertheless.
That part about the draft was very real to those of us who could be drafted (forced) to fight in a war we didn’t believe in. The draft is gone and only us old farts remember what it felt like.
I joined the Navy in June of 1964. Two weeks into Boot Camp My mail was forwarded to me. In it was my draft notice. I missed going to Nam by two weeks. 4 of my friends died over there.
I'm 66, and though I couldn't be drafted (girl), I had friends who lived in fear, and friends who either didn't come back or didn't come back mentally.
@@lisavalentine8877 I'm so glad that you couldn't be drafted! This government is way to close to forcing women/girls be drafted and I don:t think that's right. Leave that shit to the men! Not sure the newer generations feei the same way, but back when men were men, we all felt this way! Keep Smiling...
@@shineon7641 That's nice but 50 years plus of propaganda about how women can do anything a man can do only better, about how comes the only reason that women don't have all the good jobs (They don't care about garbageman) is discrimination and the forced destruction of largely male spaces (never the other way around) has left the majority of men in Generation X and later generations either blase about the chances of women being drafted or downright supportive of it, and your Generation is mostly to blame as most of the radical feminists that make domestic family law and military policies originated back in the 1960's. You probably don't know this but 'egalitarian' feminists lost pretty much all of their societal and political power back in the early 90's and ever since radicals have been in charge and pretty much everything they do is based on ideas of male privilege and its made the lives of your grandsons and the current boys in the current generation much harder due to things like easy divorce, female only programs and scholarships, reduction of Due Process on places like College Campuses. And the Boomers who have run most of the political apparatus of the American government since the 90's have went along with all of this. So let women be drafted. It will be one of the few lessons about power or rights (say, to vote) coming with responsibility that they get in this society.
This song is the type of story my Gramps would tell. He'd lull you into thinking you knew where the story was going, then he'd take a hard left turn. And you'd think to yourself, "Well, I didn't see that coming." Then, at the 17 min. and 30 sec. mark in his story, Gramps would say, "Well, to make a long story short ..." And everyone would think to themselves, "That horse left the barn a while ago." Then Gramps would wrap up the story exactly where he started, just like the song.
Not comedy. Satire. There's a fine distinction. Arlo was explaining all along how twisted are war and American justice. Honestly, this is what earned you the privilege of not having to be drafted and to think this was really minimal. It was very important at the time, and the fact it's no longer that important shows just how important this was.
A Thanksgiving tradition at my house! Now that you have heard this, you may run across references to it all around you. "Implements of destruction", "8 x10 color glossies with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one "splainin' what each one was", "getting good and drunk the night before so I'd look and feel my best", "veins between my teeth", "I mean... I mean...." and of course "Kid" - all said like Arlo - may pop up from time to time. Then you can seem really wise for your age by singing a few bars of Alice's Restaurant and walking out.
Daniel, if I may offer a few insights from someone who was a teenager when the song came out in 1967: First: Arlo's father was Woody Guthrie, a famous American folk singer-songwriter who was born in rural Oklahoma in 1912. Although Arlo grew up in New York City, his accent was like his daddy's - pure Okie. I'm an old Central Texas country boy, and I can tell you that his story-telling style comes straight out of the old Southwest, complete with repetitions for comic effect and a good bit of irony, if not out-right sarcasm. The story may seem repetitive and slow to modern ears, but back then the purpose of a comic story wasn't just to say the punchline and get out, but to take one's time and build an atmosphere that one could enjoy along with the story. Second: I'm a finger-picking acoustic guitar player like Arlo (though not nearly as good), and I can tell you from personal experience that the guitar music isn't nearly as simple as it sounds. Quite frankly, it's a bitch to play well at all, much less repeatedly over a period of 18 minutes (while telling a convoluted story, no less). I have always loved it. I recommend that you check out some of Arlo's other songs, as well as the songs of his father, Woody. BTW, I enjoyed the video and watching your ambivalent reactions to it. Good luck.
The Reactor clearly does not understand satire. I grew up in the 80-90’s with tv shows like Married with Children. He is listening to this song like someone reading a script for and episode or South Park believing it is a documentary script. He’s reading/thinking way too much into it, to get the humor.
That song is from a time gone by. The Vietnam War was in full gear and the draft was in place. As a young man still in high school, I was summoned to my local draft board to register for the draft. It was a very scary time for us. Your life was basically on the line based upon numbers drawn from a bowl! I was lucky in that my number was 327 out of 365 (your birthday day determined your number). At the time, anyone with a number under 100 was pretty much headed to Vietnam. I have a vivid memory of sitting on my parent’s porch watching the drawing. When my number came up, it was like the weight of the world was lifted. My mom cried and my dad’s eyes teared up a bit. He was a World War 2 veteran so crying wasn’t something he did. I graduated from high school and went off to college with a student deferment which placed me even further down the line in being selected. I can’t imagine how my life would have evolved if I would have been drafted. As I said, it was a much different time. Arlo’s voice added greatly to the anti-war movement at the time which is why it means so much to those of us who lived through it.
I learned to play this entire song when I was about 17 and the chord picking progression is quite intricate. It is not especially hard, but it is when you are playing this while talking through this whole 17 minute story. I used to play this in college for my friends and we would go through the whole thing. Such memories.
This anti-draft "song" was a group signifier. You knew this song, often to the point of knowing all the words, or you didn't. Anti-establishment vs the establishment. Not sure it transcends its time and place. You had a lot of patience. I saw George Carlin late in his career. For the first half of the show, he tore into the conservatives. For the second half, he tore into the liberals. He always makes you think. I suggest you go back to Carlin's 1981's A Place for My Stuff (some use of the word sh*t) or even better, in the Covid days, Germs and Immune System. ( more swearing)
Folk music is generally telling stories. And this is a story! Yeah, it is a little absurd but so was the Vietnam War and so was the draft and so was the processes by which the US government found soldiers to fight the war. And this folk song is an allegory of all this absurdity. It is anti war and anti draft song. It is a classic. I actually saw Arlo play this live with Pete Seager listening at his feet. It was amazing! Glad to hear you play this. You have a much better selection of song choices than other reviewers. Keep up the good work!
City of New Orleans is a GREAT song, Arlo made it famous, but Steve Goodman did write it. I saw Goodman in 1978 and he spent considerable time comparing that Arlo Guthrie got famous on his song.
how about "coming into los angeles." his woodstock song. arlo guthrie was NOT a comedy act. he was a folk singer like his dad, woody guthrie. in this piece he was using his story telling skills to humorously demonstrate the INSANITY of the military and of war in general.
“The song is a deadpan protest against the Vietnam War draft, in the form of a comically exaggerated but essentially true story from Guthrie's own life: he is arrested and convicted of dumping trash illegally, which later leads to him being rejected by the draft board due to his criminal record of littering (and the way he reacted when the induction personnel brought it up). “ Wikipedia
I know this song by heart as it was from my "peace, love, groovy, stop the war in Vietnam" days. Arlo is an amazing storyteller....funny but often with social commentaries, as was his father. Haven't started your video but will click play, close my eyes and delve back into my 16 year old self :-)
I've seen Arlo Guthrie live twice. Once was with several members of his family; his daughter is an equally capable storyteller. The second time was in western Massachusetts (not terribly far from Stockbridge) the week before Thanksgiving. He prefaced "Coming into Los Angeles" with a HILARIOUS story that he claimed was the True Facts Lead-Up to the song's story. You've heard... well, the first verse of one of his father's songs, almost certainly. Woody Guthrie is the folk legend/bitter socialist behind "This Land Is Your Land," which makes its way in part into a lot of grade-school music curriculum. (Schools do tend to skip the 'bitter socialist' verses.) He died young of Huntington's Disease, so he didn't have time to put most of his lyrics to music. Arlo has picked up the slack on some of those rather than let the songs be entirely lost, but apparently his father was the type to write on *anything* handy, including walls and tables.
That's highly debatable. It wasn't the street protests. It was going to end, anyway, after all the news reports showing the war and death, and military defections, public opinion turned the government off to the war. Nixon was a dick, and should have stopped it, and pulled out the troops when he came into office.
@@kentclark6420 I shouldn't be, but am frequently, surprised to be reminded that there is always someone willing to debate anything. If you choose to believe that self-annointed youth counter-culture was not influential in moving public opinion against the war, you certainly are free to do so. Remember though, that your right to an opinion is not packaged with a right to be right. Edit: maybe you missed the point that I was talking about the music and not the demonstrations... This is a forum about music, no?
All the radio stations used to play this on Thanksgiving back in the day. I grew up in Mass. He used to play the fair in a town not far from me so I saw him about once a year at the fair. Great guy! His father was a big folk star in the 50's.
I listened to this on the radio every Thanksgiving for at least 20 years. I hadn't heard it in awhile until last Thanksgiving. I decided to pull it up on youtube, and was instantly transported back to when I was a kid. Arlo's a great story teller. Listen to "City of New Orleans".
Pretty much what others have said about the song but a point most have missed is this was era when FM radio was just taking off. AM radio wouldn't play any song over 4 minutes because it cut into advertising air time. FM radio came along and would play anything the longer the better and the kids (me) loved it and there was far less advertising. So Arlo made this really long song that no AM station would play and it became very popular and pulled more young folks from AM radio to FM and that was the beginning of the end of AM pop radio as it had been for a decade. More artists began making longer and longer songs and albums. I haven't listened to AM radio in 50 years.
Arlo Guthrie adapted this song with the changing times. When I saw him in 1975, he made it about Nixon's resignation. Always funny and quirky, he also had a song called The Motorcycle Song that would make you smile. Peace.
You do a wonderful Arlo! I've loved your reaction. I have the original album of this. I love it. Not really sure if you get it, but thank you for your reaction. It's hilarious.
Half way through the song he tells you what the song is about, "it's about the draft." I was about 13 when this was released, started listening to it as I was falling asleep one night, and loved it instantly. Do you remember Kent State? I do, classic but heartbreaking picture on the front page of the newspapers I was supposed to deliver. Those were the times, you had to live them to "feel" them. I was there.
This whole story didn't come to nothing. It was a MAJOR swipe at the draft and the Viet Nam war and sort of became an anthem for a generation of young people that did NOT want to go to Viet Nam, me included.
@@jb888888888 27 8x10 color glossy photos 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. Obie looked at the seeing eye dog,....
You actually made it through and did a great analysis reaction. Hearing you adopt Arlos speaking style made me smile because that’s the lasting impression of this song. Whenever telling a story I would occasionally go into an Alices Restaurant accent and everyone knows that song from thanksgiving radio tradition. It’s fun to see you do the same thing. The song can be tedious to listen to as intently as you do but in a more casual setting like thanksgiving afternoon with family and friends it’s fun. Great reaction.
It was a humorous anti-war song. That era had a lot of protest songs, but this was unique. I'm so glad you discovered this and reviewed ir. It's a classic for my generation.
This was fun and kept me smiling. Listening to this song is like watching the movie in song form. Made me want to watch the movie again, been awhile. it's about anti protest, and how a peace loving hippie avoided the draft because of his criminal record of being a liter bug. Tks been watching these reaction videos on you tube for a little while now and this has been my first comment on any of them. Thanks for hanging in there.
This song is a Thanksgiving tradition at my house - we must listen to this, before dinner and football. Wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it. Love your reactions - thank you!
Greetings from the Group W bench. I "beat" the draft by enlisting for twice the hitch in the Coast Guard. Got to spend the 70's making sure Charlie never got as far as Sausalito. I went looking for Woody and ran into Arlo along the way. No, I meant literally both times. pssst...Alice's Restaurant was also a password for soldiers who might be wanting to go AWOL while waiting at their last disembarkation sites in California before they got sent on their way to war. You remember the war. It was in all the papers. A war resisters underground would help them get up the west coast to the Canada border. "Do you know where Alice's Restaurant is? ...walk right in, it's around the back..."
Did you run into Otis Redding in Sausalito? I understand he wrote his "Dock of the Bay" song on a houseboat there. Oh, and when my Navy ship docked in New York City, I went down to Greenwich Village (in uniform) just to look around. Some members of the Weather Underground there tried to get me to go to Canada, but I declined.
This is a song that you understand as you age... the way the south tells stories, express love of home and people, share experiences. It describes who they are. Not stupid, smart as hell because he got you to listen to an 18 minute story, confuse you, made you laugh, wonder and yet left you feeling up because it was great! And he made you think about what people do, how they are, and their thought processes. Amazing. This is the way older folks talks. All the way round Robin Hood’s barn before getting to the point. And all of a sudden, we are getting to know each other, how we think and feel, and most importantly, imagine! That is why I am a caregiver. I hear this all day. And I feel blessed. People share who they are, how they process and get a reaction. Priceless....
I always admired Arlo for his sense of humor and social justice. Peter, Paul and Mary sang "and if you really say it the radio won't play it unless you lay it between the lines" regarding social commentary in the 60's and 70's. Much of the anti-war sentiment had to be implied or satirized in order to get played and find an audience on the radio. Obviously the length of this song precluded AM radio from playing it, but its message inspired other songwriters to speak out against the Vietnam War. On another note (😁) it's not easy playing the same 16 bars for 18 minutes even if it may be boring. Try concentrating on doing that, then add a story. At 18. You have the accent already! 👏
The point of the story is if you were convicted of a felony during the days of the draft when the Vietnam war was going on the selective service would reject you . So when he got a ticket for littering he was also became exempt from the draft . Thus allowing him not to worry about having his ass shot off in Vietnam .
The irony is that the army wanted to draft him when he said he wanted to kill kill kill, but after finding out he was arrested for littering he wasn't good enough to kill kill kill. So the comment about the group W is that they must be even worse than someone who would has no problem killing during war, he's imagining, what could have these men in group W done that is even worse than war? They obviously aren't mother-killers etc, it's just a social commentary. You got there.
A true "holiday" song for me, as this is played without fail on Thanksgiving. The Motorcycle Song is classic stuff. City of New Orleans, Riding into Los Angeles, and Ring around the Rosy Rag are some other favorites. The Latter Was introduced to me by my College roommate as he sang it relentlessly, and it was killer every time. He sang that song like his own, and his voice was as real as the day is long without fail. He uploaded it for me on FB at the start of the covid lock down in March, and I play it even today, I miss him. He is a true brother.
Can't imagine how you'd react to The Story of Reuben Clamzo and His Strange Daughter in the Key of A! Arlo's characteristic rambling style is very much in the tradition of the court jester, the wise fool. He delivers it in a rambling, almost childlike (or perhaps "too high to be fully coherent") tone, as a sort of cover for the truth he's telling -- in this case about the senseless nature of the Vietnam war, and the draft. Remember Dagonet, the court jester in the Idylls of the King? Playing the part of a madman, or a fool, he's the only one who speaks truth to power. In the end, with the kingdom crumbling around him, Arthur meets him in the darkness and demands to know who is there. The jester replies, "I am thy fool, and I shall never make thee smile again." You have to look beneath the surface with Arlo's stories to see what power he's speaking truth to, and what truth he's speaking to power.
You may find some interesting comedy done by The Firesign Theater. They did the best studio comedy productions ever made. This was not stand-up comedy, but, umm, hard to decribe actually, as they varied from genre to genre. From the early seventies, their best work was media parodies. Sometimes they did fake ads, sometimes they did the most intense wordplay you will ever hear. One album (How can You Be Two Places at Once, When you're Not Anywhere at All) had a 20 minute parody of an old-time detective radio show -- "Nick Danger Third Eye" that just flowed like poetry. "Then it hit me, like a hot kiss on the end of a cold fist." The four guys do voices for each character -- Rocky Rococco, for example, is a dead on Peter Lorre imitation. Another album, "Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" (my favorite) is basically an old man flipping through various movies, game shows and TV ads late at night. All fun and games until the movies start blending together, this being a rather psychodelic Seventies production. The title makes sense when you learn that a dwarf is slang for the end of a reefer, and pliers were the clamps (roach clips) to get the last puffs. These guys could be from another planet. "Let's talk about your car. It's screaming Wash Me Please. Now, if you're a Mister Common Sense, you won't believe me when I tell you that I've got an envelope that'll clean your car while you're driving it home to work... " It's all about turning your mind into scrambled eggs trying to figure out what is nonsense, what is wordplay, and what advances the little narrative there may be. "We're about to engage in the Story of the Missing... (yes?) ... Plot!" (from "The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra" a takeoff on a Sherlock Holmes movie, which turns into a Chicago gangland mystery halfway through.) On second thought, forget it. Too complex for on-camera listening. Not ha ha humor. Four brillant comic minds, doing mental and verbal calisthenics. A number of drug jokes (A can of Uncle Sigmond's Peruvian Marching Powder!), and some sexual references of course, ("Boy, that Louise Wong's got a balcony you could do Shakespeare from!") But no meaness, violence or cheap jabs at religion... well, maybe one or two. Quite a few cultural references that might fly right over people's heads. (Adameus Mudheadski's Magic Bowl Movement) Firesign Theater -- I think you might enjoy them. There is a double CD with, I think 23 different bits on it edited down to digestable chunks. Sample that and perhaps share the bits you like? I enjoy "The Chinchilla Show" or perhaps "Freezing Mr Foster". One thing - some sketches get better upon repeated listenings. Many of them are just too much to catch on the first exposure. I hope I have at least intrigued you a bit in this long essay. Thanks for the amiable personality, and the work you are putting into this project. "In these days of Modern Times, when you can't tell the ACs from the DCs, don't you think it's time we turned on a little Stopping Power?"
Holy Cow...you are the first reActor I know to react to this! What a time capsule this is! It’s an anti-war song of course....but it also came to be associated with Thanksgiving and was played on FM radio on Thanksgiving Day for at least a decade or more...a real holiday tradition.
I was doing genealogy research and about 10 years ago I found out that he was married to a 2nd cousin of mine. I never got a chance to meet her in person, but we talked quite often and shared family tree info. After she passed away, her sister invited our family to the memorial service that was held at the old Trinity Church, so we made the journey from Texas to Massachusetts to attend. We were honored to have been invited and it was the first time that these two sides of the family had been reunited in over 70 years.
Before internet you had to wait to hear songs on the radio. Every Thanksgiving I couldn’t wait to hear his this song! The film came out when I was in high school and I believe it was the same year as Easy Rider. Have you ever seen it? These films have a lot of meaning for people who went through the days of Vietnam, police brutality (they killed 3 students at Kent State university for protesting.
While slightly exaggerated, this song is a true story from Arlo's life. He got arrested for littering on Thanksgiving and later got rejected by the draft board during Vietnam because of his conviction.
It’s the best song about getting out of, hopefully, the last military draft in American history. The process of drafting a hippie musta produced countless sad but absolutely hysterical stories we’ll never know.
I can't remember the date I first heard this song. A live version was broadcast late night on the Seattle PBS station and I live in Victoria BC across the border and happened to catch it. I bought the album, and still have it, and watched the movie when it came out. Amazing song, I still love it.
I don't know where you are. But growing up in the Boston area, this song is a Thanksgiving tradition! Most of the stations played in, I think one still does! Its just a fun folk style song! Not everyone will understand it,especially the younger generation!
My brother and I listen to this on WEBN radio in Cincinnati every thanksgiving at noon. It's a great way to get the day going. Thank you for taking this one on. I love it.
This has been a classic Thanksgiving Day theme song for over 50 years. It helps to have a sense of humor and fun when listening. The draft was still in effect and a war going on.
To truly appreciate the essence and humor of this song you would have had to lived through this period in our country. I did and this really nails it!!!
You were a great sport on this one! So, yes, I'll subscribe! Why? It was the 60's...it was the Viet Nam era...and Arlo was one of the most unique story writers ever! His father was the amazing Woodie Guthrie.
I'm glad you found this kind of quaint little song that we all loved back in those days. Some of us could quote it word for word, and to this day, much of it still rings around in my head. Especially the 8x10 photographs with circles and arrows. It's all pretty much self-explanatory and not just a little autobiographical. Of course, his father was the great Woodie Guthrie who wrote the song that really should be our national anthem, "This Land Is Your Land". Fortunately Arlo escaped the dreaded family disease.
Just don’t READ the lyrics LISTEN to them These are the stuff and stories of a younger generation that was trying to deal with civil rights for everyone the Vietnam war Woman trying to work for equal opportunities and pay or basically all the stuff you guys have today while we now are older ignored or hidden away from sight So just don’t read the lyrics Listen to all they have to say.... even between the lines and of All the things you Can be Be Kind 😏😉😏
for you older people..."I don't want a pickle, I just want to ride on my Motor.......cycle". if you recognize this quote, you are really an Arlo Guthrie fan.
most people dont realize that Lake Superior id essentially a land locked ocean she has tides and huge waves during the severe storms that plague her seas and iron ore isnt in bar form it looks like ball bearings anything that sinks below her icy waters is quickly frozen the wreck site is now a sanctuary and is considered a cemetery there is no diving or fishing allowed the bodies were never recovered they lay there still in the icy depths
This is the Alices Restaurant comment thread. You were probably commenting on the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald when the video changed. I’m sure some of her crew were familiar with Alices Resturant, Rest in a peace.
Had to watch this one to see how you'd react, this is a little different than what you're probably used to. There was a whole movie written around this song, and Arlo was a performer at Woodstock (he didn't do this bit though). "City of New Orleans" would be a better one for you to react to, I imagine.
Then there's Clamzo. Reuben Clamzo is the world-renown clampooneer. He would hunt the giant clams with his clampoon! Freakin' hilarious! ua-cam.com/video/1YFSLnK_Z4Q/v-deo.html
Why? You ask me why did I sit through not only an 18 minute plus song I've heard countless times before, but to the very end of your video? I'll tell you why. With feeling. Just gotta wait a bit. For it to come around again. I sat around because of that accent you affected on your voice for the final minutes. That's why. It amused me. That's reason enough, for me. Between your laughter and impatience of the totality of the song, I found joy. This may be the first time in over 20 years that I've broken tradition, and listened to this song NOT on Thanksgiving. So thank you for this reaction. Consider it a right of passage of sorts. For everybody should at least once sit down and hear the story of the 8x10 color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, at least once.
Thank you very much, this comment may be appreciated more than you even know:) It seems as though my treatment of this song made some people think I was being disrespectful (which in hindsight, I certainly was making jokes throughout it so). I'm glad someone did enjoy my attempt at humor, and yes this song is awesome:) I have sang this at people now, and one person got it heheh:) You can get anything you want...
@@DiconDissectionalReactions I, for one, am certainly glad that you reacted to this song and I don't think you deserved any bashing from anyone. Obviously they haven't considered your age and lack of context on the draft and Vietnam (not to mention all the violent and peaceful protests back then). I'm tickled that you are keeping the movement alive by singing out "You can get anything you want" and hopefully more people will join you. It is great that you have never had to worry about getting drafted. I hope you and your future children never have to be subjected to that. Times change and when the government says they "haven't taken anything off the table" it makes my skin crawl. Love your channel 💕 Keep doing what you do!
In Arizona where I grew up they played this song every year at Thanksgiving, it became a tradition, I was shocked when I moved out of state and people didn't know this song.
This is an antiwar song about the draft during the Viet Nam War, when it was a thing to try for young men like you to avoid being drafted and sent to the war, which everybody opposed, except for the previous generation, who thought young men like you were unpatriotic. It's very contextual.
There's a Heavy Metal band from the late 80's/early 90's called " Scatterbrain" that did comedy in their music. Mainly the songs "I'm with Stupid !" And "Don't call me Dude". It's one of those bands that got lost in the confusion of the times, and has been largely forgotten, but really good music (and it's hilarious). Love your channel, and I just subscribed. 👍
You wouldn’t believe how many times we busted into the memorable words, “You can get anything you want t Alice’s Restaurant.” You really had to be there.
There was an FM station that played this in full every Thanksgiving. First time I heard it was on a family trip. I can remember my dad laughing so hard that it made the rest of us laugh.
Just a fun story (classic)...listen to it every Thanksgiving because of the reference. 'Tis what it is. You're to young to dig the depth perhaps, but I really like your reactions to other music from before your time.
LMAO!!!!! Knowing this song so well I just sit here and wait for the end when you put it all together and eventually 'get it' about all the things he's doing and singing/saying in the song. As many others have said, this is a Thanksgiving radio tradition. Now kid...KID...they put him with group W not because he littered, but because he had gotten arrested. And kid...KID.....KIIID!!!!! We HAD to hear the first part in order to understand the second part LMAO!!! Reading song facts LMAO!!!!!! This was a lot of fun, thanks!
this song is great. you have to remember that back in the 60s lot of people were smoking weed and it made this song funny as shit. I dont think i need to say anymore. its an icon song and you being so young would not understand how things were back then with the war and all.
Having lived through a bit of the sixties and the seventies and been in the Army I can tell you the point of this whole thing. It points out the ridiculas non-sensical mess that is the government. Whether it is a small town cop or the US Army it is absolutely insane to any normal person looking in at it.
Funny stuff. Hadn’t heard this in awhile. Has a way to keep you listening. My favorite A Guthrie song is City of New Orleans, it’s an actual song not a story song like this one. Oh and early George Carlin is bad word free, check out the album FM AM. After he did the Seven Words bit his routines got pretty dirty. One exception I can think of and it’s actually my favorite Carlin and it’s the Baseball Football sketch.
You'd have to be old enough to remember the war in Viet Nam to appreciate that the draft *is* the point of the song. The war was ubiquitous. It came into every home through the nightly news, every day, with footage of the fighting, body bags, demonstrations. You couldn't *not* have feelings and opinions about it. Now we've had nearly twenty years of nonstop war in the middle east and Afganastan, and most Americans seem barely aware of it.
Exactly what I came here to say. You asked WHY did Arlo write this. He was trying to help stop the massacre happening in Vietnam. The Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement. Stopping the war was the focus.
That's because the "Military Industrial Complex" has won. They have otherwise distracted us. So. bow down now to our Corporate Overlords!
so, total US killed in 'Nam - less than 60 thou, ten years. total Corona killed, 6 months - 200,000.
😢
Kids were drafted. Families got directly involved because of that. Today, the wars that the US is involved with are just TV shows to most.
I am 66 years old and can recite this entire performance from memory. I consider this one of the great accomplishments of my life and a lasting source of pride. Thank you.
You too?
@@bvscfanatic me three
@@bvscfanatic me THREE (am 74)
I can too
The style here is called 'talking blues.' It goes back to the 19th century. Dylan had a few talking blues songs at the start of his career, as did Woody Guthrie...
This is just Arlo being Arlo... tellin' a story. This is not 'the talking blues'.
So glad you found this story. A movie was made about this with Arlo starring in it. You can usually find it around Thanksgiving on broadcast channels. Arlo's most played song is probably "City of New Orleans". (train song) His father was Woody Guthrie, a famous folk/ western singer songwriter. (This land is your land) Arlo was a real Hippie at the time he wrote this.
There is a scene in the movie of Arlo with his dad in a hospital. He died of complications of Huntington's disease on October 3, 1967.
My favorite Arlo Guthrie song is coming into las angeles
"City of New Orleans" was written by Chicago's Steve Goodman, who was also a huge Cubs fan, and died young of leukemia. Arlo's song was a key moment for everyone of us who faced the draft. I served in Iran in the Peace Corps instead.
Surprised no one's mentioned that Arlo and Obie became lifelong friends. When Obie passed a few years ago, Arlo gave the eulogy.
His father was the great folk singer/union supporter Woody Guthrie.
Dylan was impacted by Woody Guthrie.
@@1177kc pretty much every folk/protest singer/songwriter was inspired by Woody Guthrie, whether they knew it or not.
"This machine kills fascists"
Came to nothing??? I know you live in a different time but fresh faced boys just like you had to register for the draft when I was in high school. Many were sent overseas at 18 years of age to serve in a cruel war in Vietnam. Some who lived through it have still not recovered from it emotionally 50 years later & now live on the streets. Rather than a comedy song it is irony and pain filled; an anti-war epic delivered lightly to surprise, engage & touch. I usually love your sensitive reactions and I think when you listen again, from time to time, and when you have sons of your own you will feel it more deeply. You felt deeply for the 29 souls who died on the Edmund Fitzgerald so I know you may someday understand & shed a tear for the 1,353,000 deaths that resulted from the war including 627,000 civilians. Arlo’s father Woody was a singer/songwriter who wrote to help right injustices for the poor & oppressed working class.
His guitar killed Fascists
We need his Dad back
I guess you had to be there. Everybody was in mortal fear of being drafted, put into the infantry and sent off to Vietnam. The point of the song was to illustrate how pointless it all was. And how arbitrary. It was also an illustration of how those in authority were often clueless. My brother joined the Army only because that made it less likely that he would be put in the infantry. He ended up in Vietnam anyway but not in the infantry. He has told me about his induction physical which was pretty much as Arlo describes it here. I was spared all of that because the lottery was instituted and I luckily got a very high number.
I was notified by the draft board (before the lottery was created) to go get a physical (to save time) because they had just missed me that month and I would be at the top of the list for the next month. And yes, I and a couple hundred other guys had to strip nude at 0800 hours (8 a.m.) and went from one examination station to another inside a huge federal building in Houston, standing in line with no clothes on until 1700 hours (5 p.m.). After that, I didn't wait until the next month, but joined the Navy in the meantime. They sent me to New Orleans, where I had to do it all over again because they did not have any record of my physical exam. To make matters worse, I had a few drinks the night before because it was my first time in New Orleans, and that caused me to fail the urine test (too much sugar or something). So I had to stay in the nude a few more hours to retake that test. I passed, they swore me in, gave me a little Bible and a service number to memorize and off I went to boot camp.
Oh I hear you!
@@woodysthoughts4032 Similar story for me. I got my notice to report for a pre-induction physical for the draft. I went down the next day and enlisted in the Navy. I didn't mind serving my country, but I wanted to minimize my chances of being shipped off to Vietnam. Went for my Navy physical, passed, and signed up on what they called a 120-day cache program. It meant I was in the Navy, but I didn't have to report for active duty for 120 days. Meanwhile, I had to go down for my Army physical - and they made me go through the WHOLE THING. At the very end they asked "Is there any reason you can't go in the Army?" and I finally got to say "I can't go into the Army because I've already enlisted in the Navy."
arlo guthrie was NOT a comedy act. he was a folk singer like his dad, woody guthrie. in this piece he was using his story telling skills to humorously demonstrate the INSANITY of the military and of war in general.
@Charlie Bryant I was sitting in the day room of my barracks when they did the lottery, I got 285. Oh well the Air Force actually was a good place for me. I spent 23 months out of my 48 in one training program or another and went to Italy and Turkey instead of Nam...
One of many anti Vietnam war songs of the 60s and the most unique. He got a dig about small town police in there too. I was 14 when the song came out. 52 years later I still find myself singing the chorus from time to time, usually at Thanksgiving. Once you've heard it you can never unhear it LOL.
For as long as I can remember this song has been a must-listen on Thanksgiving day. I am now in my 50's and now my children and grandchildren carry on the tradition. On another note, I am new to watching reaction videos but find watching your videos truly wonderful. It is incredible to me to see someone listen to something for the first time that has touched my heart for a lifetime. Keep discovering, keep feeling, keep doing you, you are appreciated.
Thanks for reminding everyone
In 2017 there is an updated version - He oddly noted that 18 minutes and 34 seconds of the song length happens to be the same amount missing from the "missing" Nixon Tapes.
😳
THIS!!!
Yes, I saw Arlo in Madison WI many many years ago and he used that to proven Nixon loved Alice's Restaurant, "How many songs do you know that are 25 minutes long?" referring to the erased part of the Watergate tapes.
Never knew that.
that's funny. damned nixon. he wanted this song all to himself!
arlo guthrie was NOT a comedy act. he was a folk singer like his dad, woody guthrie. in this piece he was using his story telling skills to humorously demonstrate the INSANITY of the military and of war in general.
Another interesting fact is that in the movie, Officer Obei was played by Chief Obanhein himself. During the making of the movie "Alice's Restaurant" Chief Obanhein and Arlo became good friends and remained good friends for the rest of his life.
That's great!
I like Officer Obie. He said, "If I'm gonna be represented in a movie, it might as well be me doing it".
Though Officer Obie disagreed with some details of the story, for example, he said he never handcuffed Arlo & co.
Great anecdote, nevertheless.
That part about the draft was very real to those of us who could be drafted (forced) to fight in a war we didn’t believe in. The draft is gone and only us old farts remember what it felt like.
Draft gone ..thanks to in some measure This song...
I joined the Navy in June of 1964. Two weeks into Boot Camp My mail was forwarded to me. In it was my draft notice. I missed going to Nam by two weeks. 4 of my friends died over there.
I'm 66, and though I couldn't be drafted (girl), I had friends who lived in fear, and friends who either didn't come back or didn't come back mentally.
@@lisavalentine8877 I'm so glad that you couldn't be drafted! This government is way to close to forcing women/girls be drafted and I don:t think that's right. Leave that shit to the men! Not sure the newer generations feei the same way, but back when men were men, we all felt this way! Keep Smiling...
@@shineon7641 That's nice but 50 years plus of propaganda about how women can do anything a man can do only better, about how comes the only reason that women don't have all the good jobs (They don't care about garbageman) is discrimination and the forced destruction of largely male spaces (never the other way around) has left the majority of men in Generation X and later generations either blase about the chances of women being drafted or downright supportive of it, and your Generation is mostly to blame as most of the radical feminists that make domestic family law and military policies originated back in the 1960's. You probably don't know this but 'egalitarian' feminists lost pretty much all of their societal and political power back in the early 90's and ever since radicals have been in charge and pretty much everything they do is based on ideas of male privilege and its made the lives of your grandsons and the current boys in the current generation much harder due to things like easy divorce, female only programs and scholarships, reduction of Due Process on places like College Campuses. And the Boomers who have run most of the political apparatus of the American government since the 90's have went along with all of this. So let women be drafted. It will be one of the few lessons about power or rights (say, to vote) coming with responsibility that they get in this society.
This song is the type of story my Gramps would tell. He'd lull you into thinking you knew where the story was going, then he'd take a hard left turn. And you'd think to yourself, "Well, I didn't see that coming." Then, at the 17 min. and 30 sec. mark in his story, Gramps would say, "Well, to make a long story short ..." And everyone would think to themselves, "That horse left the barn a while ago." Then Gramps would wrap up the story exactly where he started, just like the song.
Yeah , that's what us ole folks do ...lol
@@oldman9843: My Gramps could get 15 minutes out of, "Went to pick up a few groceries this afternoon."
@@briangraham5156 lol
Not comedy. Satire. There's a fine distinction. Arlo was explaining all along how twisted are war and American justice. Honestly, this is what earned you the privilege of not having to be drafted and to think this was really minimal. It was very important at the time, and the fact it's no longer that important shows just how important this was.
Right on
A Thanksgiving tradition at my house! Now that you have heard this, you may run across references to it all around you. "Implements of destruction", "8 x10 color glossies with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one "splainin' what each one was", "getting good and drunk the night before so I'd look and feel my best", "veins between my teeth", "I mean... I mean...." and of course "Kid" - all said like Arlo - may pop up from time to time. Then you can seem really wise for your age by singing a few bars of Alice's Restaurant and walking out.
Daniel, if I may offer a few insights from someone who was a teenager when the song came out in 1967: First: Arlo's father was Woody Guthrie, a famous American folk singer-songwriter who was born in rural Oklahoma in 1912. Although Arlo grew up in New York City, his accent was like his daddy's - pure Okie. I'm an old Central Texas country boy, and I can tell you that his story-telling style comes straight out of the old Southwest, complete with repetitions for comic effect and a good bit of irony, if not out-right sarcasm. The story may seem repetitive and slow to modern ears, but back then the purpose of a comic story wasn't just to say the punchline and get out, but to take one's time and build an atmosphere that one could enjoy along with the story.
Second: I'm a finger-picking acoustic guitar player like Arlo (though not nearly as good), and I can tell you from personal experience that the guitar music isn't nearly as simple as it sounds. Quite frankly, it's a bitch to play well at all, much less repeatedly over a period of 18 minutes (while telling a convoluted story, no less).
I have always loved it. I recommend that you check out some of Arlo's other songs, as well as the songs of his father, Woody. BTW, I enjoyed the video and watching your ambivalent reactions to it. Good luck.
They used to call the songs with a repetitive chorus "sing-alongs" because everybody would join in on the chorus and that made it more fun.
The Reactor clearly does not understand satire. I grew up in the 80-90’s with tv shows like Married with Children. He is listening to this song like someone reading a script for and episode or South Park believing it is a documentary script.
He’s reading/thinking way too much into it, to get the humor.
That song is from a time gone by. The Vietnam War was in full gear and the draft was in place. As a young man still in high school, I was summoned to my local draft board to register for the draft. It was a very scary time for us. Your life was basically on the line based upon numbers drawn from a bowl! I was lucky in that my number was 327 out of 365 (your birthday day determined your number). At the time, anyone with a number under 100 was pretty much headed to Vietnam. I have a vivid memory of sitting on my parent’s porch watching the drawing. When my number came up, it was like the weight of the world was lifted. My mom cried and my dad’s eyes teared up a bit. He was a World War 2 veteran so crying wasn’t something he did. I graduated from high school and went off to college with a student deferment which placed me even further down the line in being selected. I can’t imagine how my life would have evolved if I would have been drafted. As I said, it was a much different time. Arlo’s voice added greatly to the anti-war movement at the time which is why it means so much to those of us who lived through it.
Amen, Richard.
I learned to play this entire song when I was about 17 and the chord picking progression is quite intricate. It is not especially hard, but it is when you are playing this while talking through this whole 17 minute story. I used to play this in college for my friends and we would go through the whole thing. Such memories.
It's not about the destination, it's about the journey.
Another couple of good actual songs by him are City of New Orleans and Highway in the Sky
So much impatience in youth always divided people even then some less layed back.
😍
This anti-draft "song" was a group signifier. You knew this song, often to the point of knowing all the words, or you didn't. Anti-establishment vs the establishment. Not sure it transcends its time and place. You had a lot of patience.
I saw George Carlin late in his career. For the first half of the show, he tore into the conservatives. For the second half, he tore into the liberals. He always makes you think.
I suggest you go back to Carlin's 1981's A Place for My Stuff (some use of the word sh*t) or even better, in the Covid days, Germs and Immune System. ( more swearing)
Folk music is generally telling stories. And this is a story! Yeah, it is a little absurd but so was the Vietnam War and so was the draft and so was the processes by which the US government found soldiers to fight the war. And this folk song is an allegory of all this absurdity. It is anti war and anti draft song. It is a classic. I actually saw Arlo play this live with Pete Seager listening at his feet. It was amazing! Glad to hear you play this. You have a much better selection of song choices than other reviewers. Keep up the good work!
Arlo is funny and touching. City of New Orleans. The Pickle Song.
Yeah I know. The motorcycle song
Steve Goodman wrote ‘City of New Orleans’.
City of New Orleans is a GREAT song, Arlo made it famous, but Steve Goodman did write it. I saw Goodman in 1978 and he spent considerable time comparing that Arlo Guthrie got famous on his song.
how about "coming into los angeles." his woodstock song. arlo guthrie was NOT a comedy act. he was a folk singer like his dad, woody guthrie. in this piece he was using his story telling skills to humorously demonstrate the INSANITY of the military and of war in general.
“The song is a deadpan protest against the Vietnam War draft, in the form of a comically exaggerated but essentially true story from Guthrie's own life: he is arrested and convicted of dumping trash illegally, which later leads to him being rejected by the draft board due to his criminal record of littering (and the way he reacted when the induction personnel brought it up). “ Wikipedia
Officer ob a real person, died in 1994
Hey don’t mess with Arlos lyrics...in my generation this was “dang near” an anthem !
They still play Alice's Restaurant on the radio during Thanksgiving every year in my region!
Mine also! It’s tradition!
I agree!
I know this song by heart as it was from my "peace, love, groovy, stop the war in Vietnam" days. Arlo is an amazing storyteller....funny but often with social commentaries, as was his father. Haven't started your video but will click play, close my eyes and delve back into my 16 year old self :-)
I've seen Arlo Guthrie live twice. Once was with several members of his family; his daughter is an equally capable storyteller. The second time was in western Massachusetts (not terribly far from Stockbridge) the week before Thanksgiving. He prefaced "Coming into Los Angeles" with a HILARIOUS story that he claimed was the True Facts Lead-Up to the song's story.
You've heard... well, the first verse of one of his father's songs, almost certainly. Woody Guthrie is the folk legend/bitter socialist behind "This Land Is Your Land," which makes its way in part into a lot of grade-school music curriculum. (Schools do tend to skip the 'bitter socialist' verses.) He died young of Huntington's Disease, so he didn't have time to put most of his lyrics to music. Arlo has picked up the slack on some of those rather than let the songs be entirely lost, but apparently his father was the type to write on *anything* handy, including walls and tables.
Check out the album "Mermaid Avenue" some time. It's Woody's unreleased lyrics set to music by Billy Bragg & Wilco, with his widow's permission.
Fun watching you struggle without a frame of reference
'If you wanna end war and stuff';. Those kids thought they could end the war (Vietnam) and they did. All about the context of the time.
That's highly debatable. It wasn't the street protests. It was going to end, anyway, after all the news reports showing the war and death, and military defections, public opinion turned the government off to the war. Nixon was a dick, and should have stopped it, and pulled out the troops when he came into office.
@@kentclark6420 I shouldn't be, but am frequently, surprised to be reminded that there is always someone willing to debate anything. If you choose to believe that self-annointed youth counter-culture was not influential in moving public opinion against the war, you certainly are free to do so. Remember though, that your right to an opinion is not packaged with a right to be right. Edit: maybe you missed the point that I was talking about the music and not the demonstrations... This is a forum about music, no?
@@kentclark6420 The banksters want the war and $
You'r reaction was priceless ! You had me laughing through the whole song. Classic song
All the radio stations used to play this on Thanksgiving back in the day. I grew up in Mass. He used to play the fair in a town not far from me so I saw him about once a year at the fair. Great guy! His father was a big folk star in the 50's.
I haven't heard this song for many years. Thanks for the memories from all of us on the Group W bench. 😎
I listened to this on the radio every Thanksgiving for at least 20 years. I hadn't heard it in awhile until last Thanksgiving. I decided to pull it up on youtube, and was instantly transported back to when I was a kid. Arlo's a great story teller. Listen to "City of New Orleans".
Pretty much what others have said about the song but a point most have missed is this was era when FM radio was just taking off. AM radio wouldn't play any song over 4 minutes because it cut into advertising air time. FM radio came along and would play anything the longer the better and the kids (me) loved it and there was far less advertising. So Arlo made this really long song that no AM station would play and it became very popular and pulled more young folks from AM radio to FM and that was the beginning of the end of AM pop radio as it had been for a decade. More artists began making longer and longer songs and albums. I haven't listened to AM radio in 50 years.
This is a great point.
One of the greatest folk songs ever ,and love seeing young people like yourself experience it .
Arlo Guthrie adapted this song with the changing times. When I saw him in 1975, he made it about Nixon's resignation. Always funny and quirky, he also had a song called The Motorcycle Song that would make you smile. Peace.
You do a wonderful Arlo! I've loved your reaction. I have the original album of this. I love it. Not really sure if you get it, but thank you for your reaction. It's hilarious.
Half way through the song he tells you what the song is about, "it's about the draft." I was about 13 when this was released, started listening to it as I was falling asleep one night, and loved it instantly. Do you remember Kent State? I do, classic but heartbreaking picture on the front page of the newspapers I was supposed to deliver. Those were the times, you had to live them to "feel" them. I was there.
This whole story didn't come to nothing. It was a MAJOR swipe at the draft and the Viet Nam war and sort of became an anthem for a generation of young people that did NOT want to go to Viet Nam, me included.
@@flingmonkey5494 He's too young to understand it or the way it was presented.
"Remember Alice? It's a song about Alice."
@@jb888888888 27 8x10 color glossy photos 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.
Obie looked at the seeing eye dog,....
My family listens to this EVERY Thanksgiving. Makes meal prep go by faster and funnier
Daniel, thank you for playing (okay, singing) along.
You are now part of the Alice's Restaurant Anti War Peace Lovin' Movement
"and stuff."
You can get, anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant:)
@@DiconDissectionalReactions Excepting Alice, of course.
You actually made it through and did a great analysis reaction. Hearing you adopt Arlos speaking style made me smile because that’s the lasting impression of this song. Whenever telling a story I would occasionally go into an Alices Restaurant accent and everyone knows that song from thanksgiving radio tradition. It’s fun to see you do the same thing. The song can be tedious to listen to as intently as you do but in a more casual setting like thanksgiving afternoon with family and friends it’s fun. Great reaction.
It was a humorous anti-war song. That era had a lot of protest songs, but this was unique.
I'm so glad you discovered this and reviewed ir. It's a classic for my generation.
Massacree: a sequence of events so absurd so complicated and uncommon as to be unbelievable
This was fun and kept me smiling. Listening to this song is like watching the movie in song form. Made me want to watch the movie again, been awhile. it's about anti protest, and how a peace loving hippie avoided the draft because of his criminal record of being a liter bug. Tks been watching these reaction videos on you tube for a little while now and this has been my first comment on any of them. Thanks for hanging in there.
This song is a Thanksgiving tradition at my house - we must listen to this, before dinner and football. Wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it. Love your reactions - thank you!
this was the funniest reaction yet! This is my favorite holiday song. thank you for suffering with us.
I'm from the UK & this is just my cup of tea! Dry, laconic, witty, faux-naive. Rich Hall's humour is in the same vein. The best of American humour.
Country Joe and the Fish doing the Fixin' To Die Rag. Much shorter.
Yes! - at Woodstock! More bitter than comedic, but another great anti-Vietnam War protest song that became an anthem of the hippie era.
Greetings from the Group W bench. I "beat" the draft by enlisting for twice the hitch in the Coast Guard. Got to spend the 70's making sure Charlie never got as far as Sausalito. I went looking for Woody and ran into Arlo along the way. No, I meant literally both times.
pssst...Alice's Restaurant was also a password for soldiers who might be wanting to go AWOL while waiting at their last disembarkation sites in California before they got sent on their way to war. You remember the war. It was in all the papers. A war resisters underground would help them get up the west coast to the Canada border. "Do you know where Alice's Restaurant is? ...walk right in, it's around the back..."
Did you run into Otis Redding in Sausalito? I understand he wrote his "Dock of the Bay" song on a houseboat there. Oh, and when my Navy ship docked in New York City, I went down to Greenwich Village (in uniform) just to look around. Some members of the Weather Underground there tried to get me to go to Canada, but I declined.
This is a song that you understand as you age... the way the south tells stories, express love of home and people, share experiences. It describes who they are. Not stupid, smart as hell because he got you to listen to an 18 minute story, confuse you, made you laugh, wonder and yet left you feeling up because it was great! And he made you think about what people do, how they are, and their thought processes. Amazing. This is the way older folks talks. All the way round Robin Hood’s barn before getting to the point. And all of a sudden, we are getting to know each other, how we think and feel, and most importantly, imagine! That is why I am a caregiver. I hear this all day. And I feel blessed. People share who they are, how they process and get a reaction. Priceless....
Thanks, Dicon - takes a lot of patience for this one - but it's really clever and opinionated - and I love it!
I used to play this entire song on my old radio show every thanksgiving. Twas a tradition.
I always admired Arlo for his sense of humor and social justice. Peter, Paul and Mary sang "and if you really say it the radio won't play it unless you lay it between the lines" regarding social commentary in the 60's and 70's. Much of the anti-war sentiment had to be implied or satirized in order to get played and find an audience on the radio. Obviously the length of this song precluded AM radio from playing it, but its message inspired other songwriters to speak out against the Vietnam War. On another note (😁) it's not easy playing the same 16 bars for 18 minutes even if it may be boring. Try concentrating on doing that, then add a story. At 18. You have the accent already! 👏
The point of the story is if you were convicted of a felony during the days of the draft when the Vietnam war was going on the selective service would reject you . So when he got a ticket for littering he was also became exempt from the draft . Thus allowing him not to worry about having his ass shot off in Vietnam .
The irony is that the army wanted to draft him when he said he wanted to kill kill kill, but after finding out he was arrested for littering he wasn't good enough to kill kill kill. So the comment about the group W is that they must be even worse than someone who would has no problem killing during war, he's imagining, what could have these men in group W done that is even worse than war? They obviously aren't mother-killers etc, it's just a social commentary. You got there.
A true "holiday" song for me, as this is played without fail on Thanksgiving. The Motorcycle Song is classic stuff. City of New Orleans, Riding into Los Angeles, and Ring around the Rosy Rag are some other favorites. The Latter Was introduced to me by my College roommate as he sang it relentlessly, and it was killer every time. He sang that song like his own, and his voice was as real as the day is long without fail. He uploaded it for me on FB at the start of the covid lock down in March, and I play it even today, I miss him. He is a true brother.
Can't imagine how you'd react to The Story of Reuben Clamzo and His Strange Daughter in the Key of A! Arlo's characteristic rambling style is very much in the tradition of the court jester, the wise fool. He delivers it in a rambling, almost childlike (or perhaps "too high to be fully coherent") tone, as a sort of cover for the truth he's telling -- in this case about the senseless nature of the Vietnam war, and the draft. Remember Dagonet, the court jester in the Idylls of the King? Playing the part of a madman, or a fool, he's the only one who speaks truth to power. In the end, with the kingdom crumbling around him, Arthur meets him in the darkness and demands to know who is there. The jester replies, "I am thy fool, and I shall never make thee smile again." You have to look beneath the surface with Arlo's stories to see what power he's speaking truth to, and what truth he's speaking to power.
Wow, this is an interesting choice. I usually just hear it on Thanksgiving. A real classic!
a good example of the traveling minstrel shows where a singer would entertain and deliver the "news"
“Good Morning America, how are you”, a real song from Arlo !
You may find some interesting comedy done by The Firesign Theater. They did the best studio comedy productions ever made. This was not stand-up comedy, but, umm, hard to decribe actually, as they varied from genre to genre.
From the early seventies, their best work was media parodies. Sometimes they did fake ads, sometimes they did the most intense wordplay you will ever hear.
One album (How can You Be Two Places at Once, When you're Not Anywhere at All) had a 20 minute parody of an old-time detective radio show -- "Nick Danger Third Eye" that just flowed like poetry. "Then it hit me, like a hot kiss on the end of a cold fist."
The four guys do voices for each character -- Rocky Rococco, for example, is a dead on Peter Lorre imitation.
Another album, "Don't Crush that Dwarf, Hand Me the Pliers" (my favorite) is basically an old man flipping through various movies, game shows and TV ads late at night. All fun and games until the movies start blending together, this being a rather psychodelic Seventies production. The title makes sense when you learn that a dwarf is slang for the end of a reefer, and pliers were the clamps (roach clips) to get the last puffs.
These guys could be from another planet.
"Let's talk about your car. It's screaming Wash Me Please. Now, if you're a Mister Common Sense, you won't believe me when I tell you that I've got an envelope that'll clean your car while you're driving it home to work... "
It's all about turning your mind into scrambled eggs trying to figure out what is nonsense, what is wordplay, and what advances the little narrative there may be.
"We're about to engage in the Story of the Missing... (yes?) ... Plot!" (from "The Tale of the Giant Rat of Sumatra" a takeoff on a Sherlock Holmes movie, which turns into a Chicago gangland mystery halfway through.)
On second thought, forget it. Too complex for on-camera listening. Not ha ha humor.
Four brillant comic minds, doing mental and verbal calisthenics. A number of drug jokes (A can of Uncle Sigmond's Peruvian Marching Powder!), and some sexual references of course, ("Boy, that Louise Wong's got a balcony you could do Shakespeare from!")
But no meaness, violence or cheap jabs at religion... well, maybe one or two. Quite a few cultural references that might fly right over people's heads. (Adameus Mudheadski's Magic Bowl Movement)
Firesign Theater -- I think you might enjoy them. There is a double CD with, I think 23 different bits on it edited down to digestable chunks. Sample that and perhaps share the bits you like? I enjoy "The Chinchilla Show" or perhaps "Freezing Mr Foster". One thing - some sketches get better upon repeated listenings. Many of them are just too much to catch on the first exposure.
I hope I have at least intrigued you a bit in this long essay. Thanks for the amiable personality, and the work you are putting into this project.
"In these days of Modern Times, when you can't tell the ACs from the DCs, don't you think it's time we turned on a little Stopping Power?"
Nick Danger Third Eye
lol...Firesign Theater are great! Glad I'm not the only one who remembers them :D
@@Dooklawz More Sugar!
An FM Rock station where I grew up would play this on Thanksgiving Day every year.
Holy Cow...you are the first reActor I know to react to this! What a time capsule this is! It’s an anti-war song of course....but it also came to be associated with Thanksgiving and was played on FM radio on Thanksgiving Day for at least a decade or more...a real holiday tradition.
Arlo's Motorcycle Song (significance of the pickle) is another funny one. Alice's Restaurant is a classic, I still know every word....
And it’s shorter...
I was doing genealogy research and about 10 years ago I found out that he was married to a 2nd cousin of mine. I never got a chance to meet her in person, but we talked quite often and shared family tree info.
After she passed away, her sister invited our family to the memorial service that was held at the old Trinity Church, so we made the journey from Texas to Massachusetts to attend. We were honored to have been invited and it was the first time that these two sides of the family had been reunited in over 70 years.
Vietnam war protest song. Played every Thanksgiving at HIGH noon on every major Rock Station in America for 50+ years.
Before internet you had to wait to hear songs on the radio. Every Thanksgiving I couldn’t wait to hear his this song! The film came out when I was in high school and I believe it was the same year as Easy Rider. Have you ever seen it? These films have a lot of meaning for people who went through the days of Vietnam, police brutality (they killed 3 students at Kent State university for protesting.
My dad still plays it after Thanksgiving dinner every year
@@foxandscout "4 Dead in Ohio"
Arlo Guthrie; "Alice's Restaurant" (MOVIE) ua-cam.com/video/1Yo-ngn46pQ/v-deo.html
While slightly exaggerated, this song is a true story from Arlo's life. He got arrested for littering on Thanksgiving and later got rejected by the draft board during Vietnam because of his conviction.
It’s the best song about getting out of, hopefully, the last military draft in American history. The process of drafting a hippie musta produced countless sad but absolutely hysterical stories we’ll never know.
I can't remember the date I first heard this song. A live version was broadcast late night on the Seattle PBS station and I live in Victoria BC across the border and happened to catch it. I bought the album, and still have it, and watched the movie when it came out. Amazing song, I still love it.
I don't know where you are. But growing up in the Boston area, this song is a Thanksgiving tradition! Most of the stations played in, I think one still does! Its just a fun folk style song! Not everyone will understand it,especially the younger generation!
My brother and I listen to this on WEBN radio in Cincinnati every thanksgiving at noon. It's a great way to get the day going. Thank you for taking this one on. I love it.
This has been a classic Thanksgiving Day theme song for over 50 years. It helps to have a sense of humor and fun when listening. The draft was still in effect and a war going on.
To truly appreciate the essence and humor of this song you would have had to lived through this period in our country. I did and this really nails it!!!
You were a great sport on this one!
So, yes, I'll subscribe!
Why? It was the 60's...it was the Viet Nam era...and Arlo was one of the most unique story writers ever! His father was the amazing Woodie Guthrie.
I'm glad you found this kind of quaint little song that we all loved back in those days. Some of us could quote it word for word, and to this day, much of it still rings around in my head. Especially the 8x10 photographs with circles and arrows. It's all pretty much self-explanatory and not just a little autobiographical. Of course, his father was the great Woodie Guthrie who wrote the song that really should be our national anthem, "This Land Is Your Land". Fortunately Arlo escaped the dreaded family disease.
i can sing every word now..
Just don’t READ the lyrics
LISTEN to them
These are the stuff and stories of a younger generation that was trying to deal with civil rights for everyone the Vietnam war Woman trying to work for equal opportunities and pay or basically all the stuff you guys have today while we now are older ignored or hidden away from sight
So just don’t read the lyrics
Listen to all they have to say.... even between the lines and of All the things you Can be
Be Kind 😏😉😏
for you older people..."I don't want a pickle, I just want to ride on my Motor.......cycle". if you recognize this quote, you are really an Arlo Guthrie fan.
most people dont realize that Lake Superior id essentially a land locked ocean she has tides and huge waves during the severe storms that plague her seas and iron ore isnt in bar form it looks like ball bearings anything that sinks below her icy waters is quickly frozen the wreck site is now a sanctuary and is considered a cemetery there is no diving or fishing allowed the bodies were never recovered they lay there still in the icy depths
This is the Alices Restaurant comment thread. You were probably commenting on the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald when the video changed. I’m sure some of her crew were familiar with Alices Resturant, Rest in a peace.
Ahhh the nostalgia!! We listen to this song every Thanksgiving in my family 😀
I have played this song every Thanksgiving since 1968. It just wouldn't be Thanksgiving without it!
“Alice’s Restaurant Massacree”-Arlo Guthrie
(1967) Added to the Library of Congress National Registry: 2017
Just had to watch a reaction to this song today. It’s Thanksgiving Day 2020. Thanks for doing it even if it was three months ago.
I don’t know if anyone told you but Alice is Alice Waters who kind of founded the farm to table movement🌳
Not True
Had to watch this one to see how you'd react, this is a little different than what you're probably used to. There was a whole movie written around this song, and Arlo was a performer at Woodstock (he didn't do this bit though). "City of New Orleans" would be a better one for you to react to, I imagine.
Try Arlo Guthrie's Motorcycle song along with a song called Camp Granada by Alan Sherman
You will probably not understand this as it involved the draft and Viet Nam war that was going on at the time. Yes it is based on a true story.
Then there's Clamzo. Reuben Clamzo is the world-renown clampooneer. He would hunt the giant clams with his clampoon! Freakin' hilarious! ua-cam.com/video/1YFSLnK_Z4Q/v-deo.html
Why? You ask me why did I sit through not only an 18 minute plus song I've heard countless times before, but to the very end of your video?
I'll tell you why.
With feeling.
Just gotta wait a bit. For it to come around again.
I sat around because of that accent you affected on your voice for the final minutes. That's why.
It amused me.
That's reason enough, for me.
Between your laughter and impatience of the totality of the song, I found joy. This may be the first time in over 20 years that I've broken tradition, and listened to this song NOT on Thanksgiving. So thank you for this reaction. Consider it a right of passage of sorts. For everybody should at least once sit down and hear the story of the 8x10 color glossy pictures with the circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, at least once.
Thank you very much, this comment may be appreciated more than you even know:) It seems as though my treatment of this song made some people think I was being disrespectful (which in hindsight, I certainly was making jokes throughout it so). I'm glad someone did enjoy my attempt at humor, and yes this song is awesome:)
I have sang this at people now, and one person got it heheh:) You can get anything you want...
@@DiconDissectionalReactions I, for one, am certainly glad that you reacted to this song and I don't think you deserved any bashing from anyone. Obviously they haven't considered your age and lack of context on the draft and Vietnam (not to mention all the violent and peaceful protests back then). I'm tickled that you are keeping the movement alive by singing out "You can get anything you want" and hopefully more people will join you. It is great that you have never had to worry about getting drafted. I hope you and your future children never have to be subjected to that. Times change and when the government says they "haven't taken anything off the table" it makes my skin crawl.
Love your channel 💕
Keep doing what you do!
In Arizona where I grew up they played this song every year at Thanksgiving, it became a tradition, I was shocked when I moved out of state and people didn't know this song.
This is an antiwar song about the draft during the Viet Nam War, when it was a thing to try for young men like you to avoid being drafted and sent to the war, which everybody opposed, except for the previous generation, who thought young men like you were unpatriotic. It's very contextual.
There's a Heavy Metal band from the late 80's/early 90's called " Scatterbrain" that did comedy in their music. Mainly the songs "I'm with Stupid !" And "Don't call me Dude".
It's one of those bands that got lost in the confusion of the times, and has been largely forgotten, but really good music (and it's hilarious). Love your channel, and I just subscribed. 👍
Avoiding the draft is always a valid point of any story. And it's even funnier if you're smoking dope while listening, which we mostly were.
You wouldn’t believe how many times we busted into the memorable words, “You can get anything you want t Alice’s Restaurant.” You really had to be there.
There was an FM station that played this in full every Thanksgiving. First time I heard it was on a family trip. I can remember my dad laughing so hard that it made the rest of us laugh.
This and the Turkey drop from WKRP are a must for Thanksgiving
Just a fun story (classic)...listen to it every Thanksgiving because of the reference. 'Tis what it is. You're to young to dig the depth perhaps, but I really like your reactions to other music from before your time.
LMAO!!!!! Knowing this song so well I just sit here and wait for the end when you put it all together and eventually 'get it' about all the things he's doing and singing/saying in the song. As many others have said, this is a Thanksgiving radio tradition. Now kid...KID...they put him with group W not because he littered, but because he had gotten arrested. And kid...KID.....KIIID!!!!! We HAD to hear the first part in order to understand the second part LMAO!!! Reading song facts LMAO!!!!!! This was a lot of fun, thanks!
this song is great. you have to remember that back in the 60s lot of people were smoking weed and it made this song funny as shit. I dont think i need to say anymore. its an icon song and you being so young would not understand how things were back then with the war and all.
Having lived through a bit of the sixties and the seventies and been in the Army I can tell you the point of this whole thing. It points out the ridiculas non-sensical mess that is the government. Whether it is a small town cop or the US Army it is absolutely insane to any normal person looking in at it.
OMG!! You did GREAT with your Arlo impersonation!!!!! Wow!
Every Thanksgiving we had to listen to Alice's Restaurant after we ate dinner. I can still quote the entire thing.
Funny stuff. Hadn’t heard this in awhile. Has a way to keep you listening. My favorite A Guthrie song is City of New Orleans, it’s an actual song not a story song like this one. Oh and early George Carlin is bad word free, check out the album FM AM. After he did the Seven Words bit his routines got pretty dirty. One exception I can think of and it’s actually my favorite Carlin and it’s the Baseball Football sketch.
Try Arlo’s “Flying into Los Angeles” (bringing in a couple of keys).
Doo doom doo doom doo doo
Don't touch my bags if you please mr. Customs man
His Woodstock song