# Arlo Guthrie has Gone Fishing



## Halasían (Oct 25, 2020)

_*Gone Fishing*_.
Yes, he has retired from touring and live performances due to health issues.
Lets hope he will still take the stage at the church every now and then.
Thank you Arlo for a lifetime of good music and stories!


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## Alcuin (Oct 25, 2020)

Forty years ago as a college undergraduate, I saw and heard Arlo Guthrie sing “Alice’s Restaurant” in a room on campus with about 80 people. We were all well-lubricated with copious amounts of alcohol (the minimum drinking age in the US was then 18), include Guthrie. I went with one of the guys I lived with. I’d never before heard “Alice’s Restaurant”: it was too long for radio stations to play, and rather rude. After I got over the initial shock of the lyrics, I sang the refrain with all the other drunken students. 

Guthrie said the song reflected real events in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, during the Vietnam War era. 

By the way, Stockbridge is also where American artist and painter Norman Rockwell lived. He used many locals and local sites as models for his paintings. Here is one of the policemen from Guthrie’s song, Chief William Obanhein.


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## Halasían (Oct 25, 2020)

I thought it was cool Officer Obie played himself in the Alice's Restaurant movie. 



Alcuin said:


> I’d never before heard “Alice’s Restaurant”: it was too long for radio stations to play, and rather rude.



Rude?

And I read on Arlo's facebook page that Alice Brock ... remember Alice? ... she owned a restaurant... is 79 and not doing too well both healthwise or financially.


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## Alcuin (Oct 26, 2020)

Halasían said:


> Rude?


I don’t see the profanity Guthrie used that night in this recitation of his lyrics. But believe me, it was *rude and course*. It was also a live performance for college graduate students and (mostly) undergraduate students, we had no means of surreptitiously recording it (in the fall of 1979), late in the evening (it ended about midnight), we were all drunk and he was, too (perhaps along with some other substances being imbibed by the crowd), so maybe it was a one-time thing, not something performed for permanency.

Yeah, _rude_. (And crude. And tremendously shocking and funny at the time. After all, we were all drunk, and some of us were stoned.) He used a word other than one that appears four (that's "4") times in the aforementioned recitation. Perhaps you can count word occurrences, then use your imagination.

It was a very good performance, the one and only time I ever saw and heard him perform. The crowd _loved_ it, and I think he had a good time, too.


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## Erestor Arcamen (Nov 28, 2020)

Found an interesting article about Alice today. I didn't know she was still alive



Arlo Guthrie's 'Alice's Restaurant' Is A Thanksgiving Tradition. But This Year The Real Alice Needs Help


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## Halasían (Nov 28, 2020)

Yes, I donated back when I first saw it on Arlo's page.
Good to see they surpassed their goal!
I would love to find her cookbook but they are only on sale uded and demand a high price.


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