A Thanksgiving Day tradition continues this year on our sister station,
for all 18 minutes of 鈥淎lice鈥檚 Restaurant Massacree,鈥� a musical monologue by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie released on his 1967 album Alice鈥檚 Restaurant.
Our KXT friends give us the scoop:
is one of Guthrie鈥檚 most prominent works, based on a true incident in his life that began on Thanksgiving Day 1965, and which inspired a 1969 movie of the same name. Apart from the chorus which begins and ends it, the 鈥渟ong鈥� is in fact a spoken monologue, with a repetitive but catchy ragtime guitar backing.
Though the song鈥檚 official title, as printed on the album, is 鈥淎lice鈥檚 Restaurant Massacree鈥� (pronounced 鈥渕ass-a-cree,鈥� not massacre), Guthrie states in the opening line of the song that 鈥淭his song鈥檚 called 鈥楢lice鈥檚 Restaurant鈥欌�� and that 鈥溾�楢lice鈥檚 Restaurant鈥欌�� is just the name of the song;鈥� as such, the shortened title is the one most commonly used for the song today.
In , Guthrie said the song points out that any American citizen who was convicted of a crime, no matter how minor (in his case, it was littering), could avoid being conscripted to fight in the Vietnam War.
