| Arlo Guthrie | |
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 Guthrie performs during his Alice's Restaurant Massacree 40th Anniversary Tour (2005).
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| Background information | |
| Born | July 10, 1947 Coney Island, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk, blues |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | guitar harmonica piano |
| Years active | since 1967 |
| Labels | Rising Son Records |
| Associated acts | Shenandoah Pete Seeger |
| Website | Official Website |
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo often sings songs of protest against social injustice. One of Guthrie's works is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," a satirical talking blues song of about 18 minutes in length.
Guthrie was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie and his wife Marjorie Mazia Guthrie. His sister is Nora Guthrie. His mother was a one-time professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company and founder of the Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease, the disease that took Woody's life in 1967. Arlo received religious training for his bar mitzvah from Rabbi Meir Kahane, who would go on to form the Jewish Defense League. "Rabbi Kahane was a really nice, patient teacher," Arlo later recalled, "but shortly after he started giving me my lessons, he started going haywire. Maybe I was responsible." [1] Arlo graduated from the Stockbridge School in Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1965, and briefly attended Rocky Mountain College. He received an Honorary Doctoral degree from Westfield State College in 2008.
As a singer, songwriter and lifelong political activist, Arlo carries on the legacy of his legendary father. He was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience award on September 26, 1992.[2]
His most famous work is "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a talking blues song that lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds in its original recorded version. Guthrie has pointed out that this was also the exact length of one of the famous gaps in Richard Nixon's Watergate tapes. He has been known to spin the story out to forty-five minutes in concert. The Alice in the song is Alice Brock, who now runs an art gallery[3] in Provincetown, Massachusetts.
The song, a bitingly satirical protest against the Vietnam War draft, although Guthrie stated in a 2009 interview with Ron Bennington that Alice's Restaurant is more an "anti-stupidity" song than an anti-war song, is based on a true incident. In the song, Guthrie is called up for a draft examination, and rejected as unfit for military service as a result of a criminal record — consisting in its entirety of a single arrest, court appearance, fine and clean-up order for littering and creating a public nuisance on Thanksgiving Day in 1965, when Arlo was eighteen years old. On the DVD commentary for the film, Guthrie states that the events as presented in the song are true to real-life occurrences.
For a short period of time after its release in 1967, "Alice's Restaurant" was heavily played on U.S. college and counter-culture radio stations. It became a symbol of the late 1960s and for many it defined an attitude and lifestyle that were lived out across the country in the ensuing years. Many stations across the States have made playing "Alice's Restaurant" a Thanksgiving Day tradition.
A 1969 film, directed and co-written by Arthur Penn, was based on the story. In addition to acting in this film, also called Alice's Restaurant, Guthrie has had minor roles in several movies and television series. Guthrie's memorable appearance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival was documented in the Michael Wadleigh film Woodstock.
In 1972 Guthrie made famous Steve Goodman's song "City of New Orleans," a paean to long-distance passenger rail travel. Guthrie's first trip on that train was in December 2005 (when his family joined other musicians on a train trip across the country to raise money for musicians financially devastated by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita, in the South of the United States). He also had a minor hit with his song "Coming into Los Angeles," which was played at the 1969 Woodstock Festival, and success with a live version of "The Motorcycle Song." Guthrie's 1976 album Amigo received a 5-star (highest rating) from Rolling Stone, and may be his best-received work; unfortunately that milestone album, like Guthrie's earlier Warner Brothers albums, is rarely heard today even though each boasts compelling folk and folk rock music accompanied by top-notch musicians such as Ry Cooder.
In the fall of 1975 during a benefit concert in Massachusetts, Arlo Guthrie performed with his band Shenandoah in public for the first time. They continued to tour and record throughout the 1970s until the early 1990s. Although the band received good reviews, it never gained the popularity that Guthrie did while playing solo. They did play many of Guthrie's most famous songs, which were most requested. By this time, Guthrie had developed his own sound in versions of "talking blues" songs. A number of musicians from a variety of genres have joined Guthrie on stage, including Pete Seeger, David Bromberg, Cyril Neville, Emmylou Harris, Willie Nelson, Judy Collins, Wesley Gray, Josh Ritter, and others.
Though Arlo Guthrie is best known for being a musician, singer, and composer, throughout the years he has also appeared as an actor in films and on television. The film Alice's Restaurant (1969) is his best known role, but he has had small parts in several films and even co-starred in a television drama, Byrds of Paradise.
Guthrie endorsed Texas Congressman Ron Paul for the 2008 Republican Party nomination. He said, "I love this guy. Dr. Paul is the only candidate I know of who would have signed the Constitution of the United States had he been there. I'm with him, because he seems to be the only candidate who actually believes it has as much relevance today as it did a couple of hundred years ago. I look forward to the day when we can work out the differences we have with the same revolutionary vision and enthusiasm that is our American legacy." [4] He told the New York Times Magazine that he is a Republican because, "We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a loyal opposition."[5]
Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Guthrie often sings songs of protest against social injustice. He collaborated with poet Adrian Mitchell to tell the story of Chilean folk singer and activist Víctor Jara in song. He regularly performed with folk legend Pete Seeger, one of his father's longtime partners.
In 1991, Guthrie bought the church that had served as Alice and Ray Brock's former home in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, and converted it to the Guthrie Center, an interfaith meeting place that serves people of all religions.
Guthrie and his wife Jackie reside in the Town of Washington, Massachusetts. Guthrie's son Abe Guthrie and his daughters Sarah Lee Guthrie and Cathy Guthrie have also become musicians. Annie Guthrie writes songs and performs, and also takes care of family touring details. Sarah Lee performs and records with her husband Johnny Irion. Cathy plays ukulele in Folk Uke, a group she formed with Amy Nelson, the daughter of Willie Nelson. Abe Guthrie was formerly in a folk-rock band called Xavier, and now tours with his father. Abe Guthrie's son, Krishna, is a drummer and toured with Arlo Guthrie on his European tour in 2006[6] and plays guitar for the 2009-2010 Tour. Krishna plays drums in another local band and aspires to be the lead of his own band some day. Arlo Guthrie is a grandfather of Abe's son Krishna and daughter Serena, Annie's son Shiva Das (Mo) and daughter Jacklyn, Sarah Lee's daughters Olivia Nora and Sophia Irion and Cathy's daughter Marjorie Maybelle Midwood.
He is third cousin to Canadian composer and musician Jan Randall.
| Arlo Guthrie | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 10, 1947 |
| Origin | Coney Island, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Folk |
| Occupations | Singer-songwriter |
| Instruments | guitar harmonica piano |
| Years active | 1967 – present |
| Labels | Rising Son Records |
| Associated acts | Shenandoah Pete Seeger |
| Website | Official Website |
Contents |
Guthrie learned music from his father, who wrote songs for him like "Goodnight Little Arlo". When the young Guthrie became thirteen years old, his father gave him a bar mitzvah, and invited many folk musicians. It was called "the first hootenanny bar mitzvah in history."
Guthrie met Bob Dylan when Dylan came from Minnesota to meet his father Woody. Dylan taught Guthrie a new way to play the harmonica. Guthrie started college after high school, but dropped out.
During 1965, Guthrie visited his friends Alice and Ray Brock in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, who lived in an old church, and owned a restaurant. He recorded a commercial jingle for the restaurant. When Thanksgiving came that year, they invited many people, and afterwards there was a lot of garbage to be picked up and thrown away. Guthrie and another friend tried to take the garbage to a dump, but it was closed. They found a large trash pile not far away, and unwisely decided to throw their garbage onto the same pile. (Dumping trash where it does not belong is called littering, and is a crime in most places.)
When local police found out, they arrested Guthrie and his friend. Since the young men had long hair and looked like hippies, the police wanted to prosecute them and make an example of them to other young people. They prepared a big court case against Guthrie and his friend, with many photographs of the litter pile. It turned out the local judge was blind, could not look at the photographs, and was not interested in the case. He fined Guthrie and his friend fifty dollars, and ordered them to clean up the pile.
Not long after, Guthrie received a draft notice. The United States Army wanted him to become a soldier. Guthrie went for a physical examination, and had to fill out a questionnaire giving information about himself. When asked if he had ever been arrested, he talked about the littering incident. He soon found himself sitting on a bench together with criminals, some of which were violent or dangerous. He could not believe the way he was treated by the Army. He began to complain and protest his treatment. The Army officers decided he would not make a good soldier, but might become a threat to the American government. They fingerprinted Guthrie, and let him go.
Guthrie decided later the two incidents would make a good protest song, and he built one around the jingle he had written. He called the song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", and recorded it in front of a live audience. He did not want other young men to be drafted, and suggested in the song that they might get out of the draft by doing like he had.
The recording became half of his first album, and the rest was filled out with other music, like "The Motorcycle Song". The album became a hit record.
Guthrie later recorded other albums and songs. His cover of the Steve Goodman song, "The City of New Orleans", about a famous train named after the city, became another hit. He bought a farm with the money he earned from his music, and lived there between recording sessions and performing tours.
In time, he became interested in charity work. He noticed people of different religious beliefs did not always work well together for the same causes, because their beliefs kept them apart. He tried to work around the differences, and help people find ways to work together to solve the same problems. He started the Guthrie Center, as a place for people to work together. He later bought the old church where his friends had lived, and made it the headquarters for the Guthrie Center.
   | Guthrie Center - The Guthrie Center | Welcome |
| | World Music Central "Arlo Guthrie" - Your Gateway to the World of Music - World Music Central |
| | Massachusetts Foundation for the Humanities' Mass Moments: "Arlo Guthrie Convicted of Littering, November 28, 1965" - Mass Moments: Arlo Guthrie Convicted of Littering |
| | Guthrie's Rising Son Records - Rising Son Records |
| | Chronicle Books Link - Mooses Come Walking: $13.95 : Chronicle Books |
| | Audio from April 2007 interview - Tacoma Rock City - What's it like having Bob Dylan as your chaperone? | The News Tribune | Tacoma, WA |
| | YouTube video of the Motorcyle Song - YouTube - Arlo Guthrie/Motorcycle Song |
| | YouTube video of Alice's Restaurant - YouTube - Arlo Guthrie/Alice's Restaurant * |
| | Sarah Lee Guthrie - Sarah Lee Guthrie and Johnny Irion ~ Welcome |
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