Guthrie, Arlo: Alice's Restaurant CD Track Listing

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Guthrie, Arlo Alice's Restaurant (1967)
Originally Released 1967\nCD Edition Released January 1987\n\nAMG EXPERT REVIEW: Although he'd been a fixture on the East Coast folk circuit for several years, Arlo Guthrie did not release this debut album until mid-1967. A majority of the attention directed at Alice's Restaurant focuses on the epic 18-plus-minute title track, which sprawled over the entire A-side of the long-player. However, it is the other half-dozen Guthrie compositions that provide an insight into his uniformly outstanding -- yet astoundingly overlooked -- early sides on Warner Bros.. Although arguably 100 percent factual, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" -- which was recorded in front of a live audience -- is rooted in a series of real incidents. This decidedly anti-establishment saga of garbage dumps closed on Thanksgiving, good ol' Officer Obie, as well as Guthrie's experiences with the draft succeeds not only because of the unusual and outlandish situations that the hero finds himself in; it is also his underdog point of view and sardonic delivery that maximize the effect in the retelling. After decades of refusing to perform the work in concert, he trotted it back out in the late '80s, adding fresh perspectives and side stories about the consequences that the song has had, such as the uncanny role that the track played in the Watergate tape cover-up. In terms of artistic merit, the studio side is an equally endowed effort containing six decidedly more traditional folk-rock compositions. Among the standouts are the haunting "Chilling of the Evening," which is given an arrangement perhaps more aptly suited to a Jimmy Webb/Glen Campbell collaboration. There is a somewhat dated charm in "Ring-Around-a-Rosie-Rag," a sly, up-tempo, and hippie-friendly bit of jug band nostalgia. "I'm Going Home" is an underrated minor-chord masterpiece that is not only reminiscent of Roger McGuinn's "Ballad of Easy Rider," but also spotlights a more sensitive and intricate nature to Guthrie's craftsmanship. Also worth mentioning is the first installment of "Motorcycle Song" -- which was updated and discussed further on the live self-titled follow-up release Arlo (1968) -- notable for the extended discourse on the "significance of the pickle." None of the performances on this disc were used in for the Alice's Restaurant (1969) film. However, the soundtrack -- which was issued on CD by Rykodisc in 1998 -- contains a full-length studio version of the "Massacree." In 1995 Guthrie marked the 30th anniversary of the original Thanksgiving Day incident which sparked the need for a Massacree in the first place. He re-recorded this entire album to uniformly superior results. Alice's Restaurant: 30th Anniversary Edition is a fun update as well as a stirring reminder of what a national treasure Guthrie's music and lyrics really are. ~ Lindsay Planer, All Music Guide\n\nAmazon.com Editorial Review\nWhile the title track may seem, by now, a rather obvious and nostalgic relic, we'd do well to remember that an entire post-baby boom generation has likely never heard it. At 18 minutes, the song remains one of the most hysterical things ever recorded, and many of its politcal barbs can still sting. But the record also contained two far more lyrical pieces: "Chillin' of the Evening" and the gorgeous, sweeping "Highway in the Wind." Some will turn to this countercultural classic for side one's epic, but it's the exceptional songs on side two that will offer finer rewards. --Roy Francis Kasten \n\nAmazon.com Customer Review\nSorrow and Hilarity, November 4, 2000 \nReviewer: A music fan \nWritten with moving candour, the songs on this album give glimpses of a character at once despairing and unconquered that must excite sympathy, or at least pity. Arlo sings of homelessness, travelling our "Highway in the Wind", when sometimes we feel like going and sometimes we'd like to stay; of transience, as all changes with time, "Going Home" to death; of restlessness as desires motivate "Now and Then"; and of the need for companionship to "Keep me from the Chillin' of the Evening" in all of this emptiness where the raging winds that blow inside us make it impossible to "keep believing". "Motorcycle Song", "Ring-Around-the-Rosy Rag", and the brilliant "Alice's Restaurant" demonstrate how humor, which can convey delight, can also be the final expression of despair. You may have the comfort of seeing in this album another who thinks as you do, but you will certainly find a beautiful lament for the world's emptiness and a defiant humor that struggles to relieve it. And "Alice's Restaurant" is halarious. \n\nHalf.com Album Credits\nFred Hellerman, Producer\n\nAlbum Notes\nPersonnel includes: Arlo Guthrie (vocals).\n\nA product of the hippie/protest movement of the mid-'60s, Arlo Guthrie, son of perennial folk icon Woody Guthrie, found himself with not so much a hit as a whole movement on his hands with the eponymous 18-minute saga of his arrest for littering and its deleterious effect on his chances of being selected for active duty in the Vietnam War. "Alice's Restaurant" may have lost some of its counter-culture appeal over the years, but its story of blinkered officialdom is as relevant today as it was when it was first performed.\n\nThough few of the other cuts match it in terms of sheer hummability, ALICE'S RESTAURANT contains several understated high points, notably "Highway in the Wind" and "I'm Going Home," both fine examples of mid-'60s folk pop. "The Motorcycle Song" is another instance of Guthrie's talent for constructing almost childishly simple yet fiendishly catchy melodies, a skill he obviously inherited from his father.\n
This folk cd contains 7 tracks and runs 35min 15sec.
Freedb: 55084107

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