Still a Song About Alice

Alice Brock, the woman whose eponymous restaurant became the epicenter of Arlo Guthrie’s famous rambling song about a consequential Thanksgiving day gathering, passed away this past week at the age of 83. What is it about Alice’s Restaurant that makes it such a lasting Thanksgiving tradition?

For those who may be less familiar, other than the refrain about getting anything you want at Alice’s restaurant, Guthrie’s song is on the surface about a real incident that took place in the Berkshires sixty years ago, one that seemed relatively minor but leads to wry and poignant observations about the Vietnam draft. After the gathering for a Thanksgiving meal not in a restaurant but a nearby church in which Alice and her husband lived and provided for many, Guthrie and a friend helped out by cleaning up and clearing out the debris and clutter from the Church, failed to find a proper place to dump it, and ended up cuffed in the back of a police car, charged with littering and “creating a nuisance.” All of which somehow makes him morally unsuited to join the brutality of Vietnam.

While Guthrie the singer reminds the assembled that this is still a song about Alice, what is the song really about? The singer himself said in a recent interview that he sees the longevity of his song as a testament to the smaller story it captures rather than a barbed satire about an unjust war. Less anti-war as a cause than about being “the little guy” acting ridiculous in a world built on a more dangerous kind of unquestioning foolishness. Eventually it's a ballad that resonated across “all sides of the struggle” happening overseas as well as at home and became a Thanksgiving tradition bringing people together. In his words “It could only happen here.”

The song itself - its catchy chorus, spoken blues cadence, and deadpan story telling - catalyzes connections that manifest in different experiences and disparate narratives of what makes our nation its best self and how to get there. An extension of Thanksgiving itself which against the backdrop of sameness and shared customs gives way to each of our personal stories of relating to each other, our friends and family. Remember Thanksgiving, It's still a song about Thanksgiving!

May you get everything you're able at your Thanksgiving table and be careful what you do with the garbage!