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...And it was about four or five hours later that Alice - Remember Alice? It's a song about Alice.
Arlo Guthrie -
I went over to the Sargent, said, 'Sargent, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sitting here on the bench, I mean I'm sitting here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after being a litterbug.'
Arlo Guthrie
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And they took twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography.
Arlo Guthrie -
They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning.
Arlo Guthrie -
It's about the time I was riding my Motorcycle, going down a mountain road at 150 miles an hour, playing my guitar.
Arlo Guthrie -
I froze in time! And I thought 'My God......I'm free!'
Arlo Guthrie -
We came to a side road, and off the side of the side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw ours down.
Arlo Guthrie -
Be serious. Folk songs are serious. That's what Pete Seeger told me. 'Arlo, I only wanna tell you one thing. Folk songs are serious.' And I said 'Right.'
Arlo Guthrie
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For one minute, think of the last guy. Nobody's got it worse than that guy. Nobody in the whole world. He's so alone in the world, that he doesn't even have a street to lay in for a truck to run him over.
Arlo Guthrie -
We went back, afterward, after the show was over that night, I took my kids backstage and said, 'You know what? I know my dad's songs...'
Arlo Guthrie -
You can get anything you want at Alice's RestaurantYou can get anything you want at Alice's RestaurantWalk right in, it's around the backJust a half a mile from the railroad trackYou can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant
Arlo Guthrie -
Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers!
Arlo Guthrie -
This song is called 'Alice's Restaurant'. It's about Alice. And the Restaurant. But Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song. That's why I called this song 'Alice's Restaurant.'
Arlo Guthrie