Sharp Notes Monday: ‘Alice’s Restaurant’

By Jandoli Institute on November 21, 2022 • ( 0 )

While our Sharp Notes, Sharp Thoughts music and social media project was on hiatus for the summer, we shared a song every Monday to start your week. We’ve decided to make Sharp Notes Monday a permanent feature.

'Alice's Restaurant' is filed with humor, but it also provides an example of the connection between music and social justice.

Perhaps no song is more associated with Thanksgiving than Arlo Guthrie’s “Alice’s Restaurant,” but that is not the only reason “Alice” is this week’s Sharp Notes Monday selection.

Guthrie’s18-minutes, 34-second Thanksgiving tale is filed with humor, but it also provides an example of the connection between music and social justice.

After telling a sargeant at the draft board the tale of his Thanksgiving arrest, Arlo responds with indignation and irony when he is asked if he has rehabilitated himself:

“Sargeant, 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 sittin’ here on the bench, I mean I’m sittin’ 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 bein’ a litterbug.”

This Thanksgiving, take a short break from turkey and football and let yourself be entertained by this Arlo Guthrie classic.