"Alice's Restaurant" On November 26, 1965, while in
Stockbridge, Massachusetts, during
Thanksgiving break from his brief stint in college, 18-year-old Guthrie and his friend, Richard Robbins, were arrested for illegally dumping on private property what Guthrie described as "a half-ton of garbage" from the home of his friends, teachers Ray and
Alice Brock, after he discovered that the local landfill was closed for the holiday. Guthrie and Robbins appeared in court, pled guilty to the charges, were levied a nominal fine and picked up the garbage that weekend. This littering charge served as the basis for Guthrie's most famous work, "
Alice's Restaurant", a
talking blues song that runs 18 minutes and 34 seconds in its original recorded version. In 1997, Guthrie jokingly pointed out that this was also the exact length of one of the infamous gaps in President
Richard Nixon's
Watergate tapes, and that Nixon owned a copy of the record. Alice Brock had been a librarian at Arlo's boarding school in the town before opening her restaurant. She later opened an art studio in
Provincetown, Massachusetts, which she operated until shortly before her death in 2024. The song lampoons the
Vietnam War draft. However, Guthrie has stated in multiple interviews that the song is more an "anti-stupidity" song than an anti-war song, adding that it 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 solely of one conviction for the aforementioned littering. Alice and her restaurant are the subjects of the refrain, but are generally mentioned only incidentally in the story (early drafts of the song explained that the restaurant was a place to hide from the police). Though her presence is implied at certain points in the story, Alice herself is described explicitly in the tale only briefly when she bails Guthrie and a friend out of jail. On the DVD commentary for the 1969 movie, Guthrie stated that the events presented in the song all actually happened. Others, such as the arresting officer,
William Obanhein, disputed some of the song's details, but generally verified the truth of the overall story. "Alice's Restaurant" was the song that earned Guthrie his first recording contract, after
counterculture radio host
Bob Fass began playing a tape recording of one of Guthrie's live performances of the song repeatedly one night in 1967. A performance at the
Newport Folk Festival on July 17, 1967, was also very well received. Soon afterward, Guthrie recorded the song in front of a studio audience in New York City and released it as side one of the album, ''Alice's Restaurant''. For a short period after its release in October 1967, "Alice's Restaurant" was heavily played on U.S. college and counterculture 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. Its leisurely finger-picking acoustic guitar and rambling lyrics were widely memorized and played by irreverent youth. Many radio stations in the United States have a Thanksgiving Day tradition of playing "Alice's Restaurant". A 1969 film, directed and co-written by
Arthur Penn, was based on the true story told in the song, Guthrie, Brock and Robbins have all spoken out about their dissatisfaction with the film and the way they were portrayed.
Musical career and critical reception In 1972 Guthrie had a highly successful single as well:
Steve Goodman's song "
City of New Orleans", and a live version of "
The Motorcycle Song" (one of the songs on the
B-side of the ''Alice's Restaurant'' album). A cover of the folk song "
Gypsy Davy" was a hit on the
easy listening charts. In the fall of 1975 during a benefit concert in
Massachusetts, 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. and is not to be confused with the country music group
Shenandoah. The Ides, along with Terry a la Berry, reunited with Guthrie for a 2018 tour. In 1991, Guthrie's backing band was known as Xavier, an assembly of college-aged musicians led by his son Abe, designed to emulate the sound of Guthrie's studio recordings as closely as possible. Guthrie performed a concert almost every Thanksgiving weekend at Carnegie Hall from the late 1960s until 2019; he had planned to end the tradition even before his career-ending stroke. Guthrie's 1976 album
Amigo received a five-star (highest rating) from
Rolling Stone, and may be his best-received work. Aside from the song
Massachusetts, it also includes
Victor Jara, a poignant tribute to the slain Chilean folk singer with lyrics by poet
Adrian Mitchell. A number of musicians from a variety of genres have joined Guthrie onstage, including
Pete Seeger,
David Bromberg,
Cyril Neville,
Emmylou Harris,
Willie Nelson,
Judy Collins,
John Prine, Wesley Gray,
Josh Ritter, and others. A video from a concert with Seeger at
Wolf Trap in 1993 has been a staple of YouTube, with Guthrie's story-telling showcased in a performance of "
Can't Help Falling in Love". In 2020, Guthrie collaborated with
Jim Wilson on a cover of
Stephen Foster's "Hard Times Come Again No More". On October 23, 2020, Guthrie announced via
Facebook that he had "reached the difficult decision that touring and stage shows are no longer possible," due to a series of strokes that had impaired his ability to walk and perform. All of his scheduled tour appearances for 2020 were cancelled, and Guthrie said he will not accept any new bookings offered. His final performance at Carnegie Hall was on November 29, 2019. His final live touring concert was on March 7, 2020, at The Caverns in Pelham, Tennessee. He had attempted to record some private concerts in the summer of 2020 but concluded his playing was no longer up to his standards. Guthrie expressed no interest in further tours after ''What's Left of Me'' ended, conceding he was no longer interested nor physically able to "live in a tour bus." He remarked in 2025, shortly after making a public appearance at a Guthrie Center fundraiser to celebrate the 60th anniversary of "Alice's Restaurant," that he was amazed that contemporaries who were older than he could still perform and tour, and that he wished that he still had the physical capability to do that.
Acting Though 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 has had minor roles in several movies and television series. Usually, he has appeared as himself, often performing music and/or being interviewed about the 1960s, folk music and various social causes. His television appearances have included a broad range of programs from
The Muppet Show (1979) to
Politically Incorrect (1998). A rare dramatic film part was in the 1992 movie
Roadside Prophets. Guthrie's memorable appearance at the 1969 Woodstock Festival was documented in the
Michael Wadleigh film
Woodstock.
Political activism From the 1960s to the 1980s, Guthrie had taken what seemed a left-leaning approach to American politics, influenced by his father. In his often lengthy comments during concerts, his expressed positions were consistently anti-war, anti-
Nixon, pro-drugs and in favor of making nuclear power illegal. However, he apparently did not perceive himself as the major youth culture spokesperson he had been regarded as by the media, as evidenced by the lyrics in his 1979 song "Prologue": "I can remember all of your smiles during the demonstrations ... and together we sang our victory songs though we were worlds apart." A 1969 rewrite of "Alice's Restaurant" pokes fun at former President
Lyndon Johnson and his staff. In 1984, he was the featured celebrity in
George McGovern's presidential campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination in Guthrie's home state of Massachusetts, performing at rallies and receptions. Guthrie identified as a registered
Republican in 2008. He endorsed Texas Congressman
Ron Paul for the
2008 Republican Party nomination, and 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." He told
The New York Times Magazine that he (had become) a Republican because, "We had enough good Democrats. We needed a few more good Republicans. We needed a
loyal opposition." Commenting on the
2016 election, Guthrie identified himself as an independent, and said he was "equally suspicious of Democrats as I am of Republicans". He declined to endorse a candidate, noting that he personally liked
Bernie Sanders despite disagreeing with parts of Sanders' platform. While he thought it "wonderful" that
Donald Trump was not relying on campaign donations, he did not believe that it necessarily meant that Trump had the best interests of the country in mind. In 2018, Guthrie contacted publication
Urban Milwaukee to clarify his political stance. He stated "I am not a Republican", and expressed deep disagreement with the Trump administration's views, especially its policies on immigration and treatment of detained immigrants by ICE. Guthrie further clarified, "I left the party years ago and do not identify myself with either party these days. I strongly urge my fellow Americans to stop the current trend of guilt by association, and look beyond the party names and affiliations, and work for candidates whose policies are more closely aligned with their own, whatever they may be. ... I don't pretend to be right all the time, and sometimes I've gone so far as to change my mind from time to time." Guthrie expressed support for the
George Floyd protests in June 2020, stating that it would be good if politicians "embraced it rather than resist the evolving nature of what it means to be an American". In 2023, Guthrie stated that though he still maintained his personal convictions on particular issues, he had grown to become largely apolitical. He expressed irritation at having his past political views be brought up in later interviews and commented that the collapse of the groups and institutions that his parents' generation had embraced in favor of an overly individualist culture was "disheartening", but a natural progression of society.
Legacy , Germany Like his father, Woody Guthrie, he 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 musician Pete Seeger, one of his father's longtime partners.
Ramblin' Jack Elliott, who had lived for two years in the Guthries' home before Arlo left for boarding school, had absorbed Woody's style perhaps better than anyone; Arlo has been said to have credited Elliott for passing it along to him. Arlo also attributed his inheritance of his father's talking blues stylings as "genetic" without any conscious learning of it, as Woody was too ill to perform by the time Arlo was old enough to enter most concert venues and thus Arlo never saw his father perform live. 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. The center provides weekly free lunches in the community and support for families living with HIV/AIDS, as well as other life-threatening illnesses. It also hosts a summertime concert series and Guthrie does six or seven fund raising shows there every year. There are several annual events such as the Walk-A-Thon to Cure Huntington's Disease and a "Thanksgiving Dinner That Can't Be Beat" for families, friends, doctors and scientists who live and work with Huntington's disease. One of the title characters in the comic strip
Arlo and Janis is named after Guthrie. Cartoonist
Jimmy Johnson noted he was inspired by a friend who resembled Guthrie to name one of his characters Arlo. English commentator
Arlo White was named after Guthrie. Guthrie was the subject of a 2012 unauthorized biography,
Arlo Guthrie: The Warner Reprise Years, by Hank Reineke, for which Guthrie refused to cooperate. After finding Reineke's work to be "better than (he) imagined it" and feeling it had suffered from Guthrie's non-participation in it, he agreed to assist Reineke in the sequel,
Rising Son: The Life and Music of Arlo Guthrie, which was released in 2023. Guthrie has expressed no interest in writing any memoir or tell-all. ==Personal life==