A tradition almost as essential as turkey...

Yes, of course Thanksgiving means turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, etc, etc…but another Thanksgiving tradition you can’t forget is the annual playing of Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” on the local rock/classic rock station. As a kid, I never really understood way it was always played, or what the song was really about…but nonetheless I always enjoyed the novelty of hearing an 18 minute, mostly spoken word song on the radio. Plus, after hearing it year after year, it became sort of a comforting tradition forever associated with the smell of a baking turkey in the oven. That being said, it’s actually been years since I’ve heard the song on Thanksgiving and I had pretty much forgotten about the song and its annual Turkey Day broadcast until I heard Lin Brehmer talk about it on XRT this morning. Growing up, I had always heard “Alice’s Restaurant” on the local rock station in Peoria and just figured it was some sort of quirky, local tradition at the station. However, XRT has also been playing the song for years on Thanksgiving…and apparently pretty much every other rock and classic rock station in the country plays it every year?!? Well, I’ll be damned! Hearing Brehmer talk about the song and explaining the meaning behind it also made me realize that I had absolutely NO idea what Guthrie was singing about…or for that matter, why it was played annually on Thanksgiving. So, as a public service this Thanksgiving holiday, here is the official story behind Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant...” Arlo Guthrie’s most famous work is "Alice's Restaurant", a story song that lasts 18 minutes and 20 seconds. The song, a bitingly satirical protest against the Vietnam War draft, recounts a true Thanksgiving adventure that began at Alice's Restaurant, where "you can get anything you want (excepting Alice)". Alice, in this case, was restaurant owner Alice Brock, who lived in a former church in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. The song describes how Guthrie was hauled into court for littering some of Alice's garbage after discovering that the dump was closed for Thanksgiving, and because of the resulting criminal record he was eventually rejected as unfit for military service when he was called up for the draft. The characters in the story, including both Alice and "officer Obie", who arrested him, became famous in their own right as a result of the song. "Alice's Restaurant" is regularly played on some radio stations every Thanksgiving. (courtesy of the Science Daily encyclopedia) Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant” will be heard locally on WXRT-FM (93.1) this Thanksgiving morning at 11:00 AM. If you’re out of town, scan the dial for a local rock station, and chances are you’ll hear it sometime before noon. Happy listening and happy thanksgiving…