Alice’s Restaurant – ARLO GUTHRIE***

Alice’s Restaurant Massacree/Chilling Of The Evening/Ring Around A Rosie Rag/Now & Then/I’m Going Home/ The Motorcycle Song/Highway In The Wind

Son of a famous father, Arlo Guthrie is best remembered for his performance of the lengthy Alice's Restaurant Massacree at the 1967 Newport Folk Festival. It forms the first side of his debut album. He starred in the film of the same name, released a couple of years later. (US:17)

"Yes, the side-long title track completely overshadows everything else, I don't think anyone can really argue otherwise. Which is not to say that the Massacree is some flabbergastingly amazing story, but more that mainly the tunes on side two aren't really that great. Most of them just sound like standard folk-pop of the era. The only reason people bother with this is the A-side, the Alice's Restaurant Massacree which is quite a tale. Not so much a song as a spoken word story set to the simplest of acoustic guitar riffs. It's become somewhat of a tradition every Thanksgiving Day for lots of radio stations to play it."

"Primarily for folkies, this is just Arlo and his acoustic guitar on the studio cuts, most of which I find rather unimpressive. But that live epic has some unknown ingredient that just catapults it out of the ball park."

"Alice's Restaurant is indeed an American classic. Arlo, following in the gigantic footsteps of his father Woody, painted an ingenious portrait of American thoughts, conflicts and contradictions during the ugliness that was the Vietnam war. And with skill befitting an extension of the Guthrie legacy, he did it with a keen sense of humour. The rest of the songs are fine, with a sound that at times is akin to early Tim Buckley, and other times is more of a Country Joe sound."

"You had to love Arlo Guthrie, just as you gotta love him still. When you get right down to it, Alice's Restaurant is a novelty song, but it's a good novelty song - and certainly one of the most enduring. You can listen to it over 40 years later and still smile. I drag it out every Thanksgiving."

“Alice is still funny all these years later. Making something this good as a first effort, and simultaneously invoking his father’s spirit while establishing his own uniqueness as a performer was a pretty neat trick."