2007 update:
Alice's Restaurant (MP3) -- Happy Liberal Thanksgiving!
Bonus: WKRP Turkey Drop
My thanks to Jeralyn for her post about the lefty Thanksgiving tradition of remembering the last great progressive era via Alice's Restaurant.
Singing along with Arlo Guthrie in his classic 1960's voice of optimism and hope for a better, or more progressive, world has become a tradition in my home too. As Jeralyn observes, remembering the idealism and hope of the 1960's via Alice's Restaurant is a tradition that the children of 1960's liberal activists are carrying forward.
Progressive radio stations across the country will be playing Alice's Restaurant today. Check your listings or check here for the link to Jeralyn's local station.
The MP3 (full length) is here.
Thoughts on the Alice's Restaurant ritual from Ira Chernus, Professor of Religious Studies:
Out here on the left fringe of '60s-style activism, we don't go in much for ritual. We lefties are about freedom, innovation, always finding a new and better way to do things. Still, there is something to be said for ritual. It creates an illusion that things never change, that we can turn back the clock for a moment and pretend things are still the way they used to be. Maybe it's having dinner with the same folks every Thanksgiving, or fixing the trimmings in the same way each year. In my house, it's turning on our local public radio station and waiting for that magic moment when we can start singing along with Arlo.
Snippet from Alice's Restaurant:
Came to talk about the draft
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. `Cause I wanted to look like the all-American kid from New York City, man I wanted, I wanted to feel like the all-, I wanted to be the all American kid from New York, and I walked in, sat down, I was hung down, brung down, hung up, and all kinds o' mean nasty ugly things. And I waked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the phsychiatrist, room 604."
And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumpin up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumpin up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy."
You can print the lyrics here so the whole family can sing along: Lyrics Connection
Alice’s Restaurant Arlo Guthrie Thanksgiving MP3 Audio
