Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie was and still is one of the most distinctive singer-songwriters of this century. He said, "I was born in Coney Island, Brooklyn, NY in the summer of 1947 - with a guitar in my hands (D'Addario)." Since his father was a legendary folk musician, Woody Guthrie, that is pretty close to the truth. His father, Cisco Houston, Leadbelly, Pete Seeger and many others passed on their knowledge to the young Arlo. Arlo made his first appearance at the age of thirteen (Official Oughtabiography). He attended a private high school in Stockbridge, Mass. and dropped out of a college in Montana. In 1967, at twenty years old, he appeared at the Newport Folk Festival. He performed the song "Alice's Restaurant", the song propelled him to instant fame. That song became the anthem of a generation (Official Oughtabiography).
"Alice's Restaurant" protested the draft and the Vietnam War. The lyrics of this song probably make no sense whatsoever, but there is a very long story behind it. The original version of the song is over eighteen minutes long, when done with the original story. This is a shorter version.
You can get anything you want... at Alice's Restaurant, exceptin' Alice
You can get anything you want... at Alice's Restaurant
Walk right in it's around the back
Just a half-a-mile from the railroad track
Oh... You can get anything you want
At Alice's Restaurant.
First of all, there is no restaurant named Alice's Restaurant. Rather, it is about a woman named Alice who lives near a restaurant. Alice and her husband lived in a church that they made into their residence. There was a lot of garbage in the church and it leads to Arlo getting arrested and tried for littering. A couple of years later Arlo registered for the draft because he wanted to be an All-American kid. In the end, the Army found out he was arrested before and found guilty of a crime. He then said, "you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army, burn women, kids, houses and...
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