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Alice's Restaurant Massacree, 2020

R

RadioHal

WERS, 88.9 and streaming worldwide at WERS.org, will continue our yearly tradition of playing Alice's Restaurant, with Jersey Hal, at 11am on Thanksgiving!
 
freqlost said:
I am sure fans will be happy.

I thought for a minute maybe the song was massacreed, never to be heard again.
Click to expand...

I'm a folkie from way back and never found the song very interesting or its story all that funny. Thing is, Arlo is a born storyteller and can be very funny. I went to see him in concert about 25 years ago. My friend laughed heartily and hung on every word of "Alice's Restaurant," but then, she was a much more obsessive Arlo fan than I could even imagine being, and was laughing at lines she knew by heart. I liked the rest of the show just fine and was laughing right along with her at Arlo's meandering introductions to his other songs. It's just a shame that this particular bloated, pointless narrative has become the song everyone (but me) can't get enough of in concert and on radio on Thanksgiving Day.

I assume WUMB will be joining in the "Alice" ritual as well. Is WZLX still playing it on Turkey Day?

The Massachusetts Thanksgiving radio tradition I miss most is scanning the dials, AM and FM, at 10 a.m. and catching bits of high school football games from near and far, with some of the stations even taping play-by-play at other games to play on the air after their live games were over. Massachusetts barred fall football this year, right? That's what happened here in Connecticut. Our school sports have been limited to golf, soccer, volleyball and swimming. Not sure what the plans are for basketball and hockey yet.
 
There have been many many stations across the country that have played the song for over 40 years. Usually, at Noon and again at 6pm on Thanksgiving. It's mildly amusing, but not after the third time. It's like hearing the same joke every year. "Motorcycle Song" was on the same album. That was another FM Album Rock staple...
 
I’m one of those who like it. Just listened to it at 9 on WUMB. They’ll be playing it again at Noon & 3. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
 
And both 100 Fm the Pike and WZLX continued the tradition as well. And WJIB played a unique instrumental version.
 
I caught it at 3 on WUMB online. Still not really funny. Maybe if Connecticut ever legalizes weed ...

Fortunately, WUMB's featured artist today was The Band, of whom I'm a huge fan, so I kept the station on in the background for a couple of hours after "Alice" and enjoyed it very much.
 
Speaking of Alice, you remember Alice, right? this is a song about Alice...

---"Officer Obie" I believe posed as a policeman for a Norman Rockwell painting about a runaway boy at a diner

--In the 90s, WBUR produced a special edition of Car Talk recorded at a local nightclub (Nightstage, Johnny D's, something like that). Arlo Guthrie was the guest and it was said his VW microbus had broken down.
One of the Tappet brothers said, "Hey, you wrote some great songs...Blowin' in the Wind...(etc)"--Arlo laughs and says, "Yeah I wrote some good tunes!"
Then when he goes into the waiting room:
(SFX door opens)
Arlo: "Hey Officer Obie, what are YOU doing here!"
(SFX door closes...audience laughs)

I think David Grisman, who did the Car Talk Theme was on too. The show was called Live From Greaseland. In the 90s we had a tape exchange program to share homemade compilations and oddball
stuff and I think I submitted an aircheck of it.
 
I think I played it one year on a station I worked for. Never found it funny and it seemed to never end. I'm also one of those people that doesn't find the TV series The Office funny (I guess it is the equivilant of WKRP for people that work in cubicles and type daily memos). Depends on your humor and situation.
 
CTListener said:
I'm a folkie from way back and never found the song very interesting or its story all that funny. Thing is, Arlo is a born storyteller and can be very funny. I went to see him in concert about 25 years ago. My friend laughed heartily and hung on every word of "Alice's Restaurant," but then, she was a much more obsessive Arlo fan than I could even imagine being, and was laughing at lines she knew by heart. I liked the rest of the show just fine and was laughing right along with her at Arlo's meandering introductions to his other songs. It's just a shame that this particular bloated, pointless narrative has become the song everyone (but me) can't get enough of in concert and on radio on Thanksgiving Day.

I assume WUMB will be joining in the "Alice" ritual as well. Is WZLX still playing it on Turkey Day?

The Massachusetts Thanksgiving radio tradition I miss most is scanning the dials, AM and FM, at 10 a.m. and catching bits of high school football games from near and far, with some of the stations even taping play-by-play at other games to play on the air after their live games were over. Massachusetts barred fall football this year, right? That's what happened here in Connecticut. Our school sports have been limited to golf, soccer, volleyball and swimming. Not sure what the plans are for basketball and hockey yet.
Click to expand...
A few weeks late on this post, but I was occupied with other things over the Thanksgiving holiday and didn't see this thread until now. Couldn't disagree with you more here- Arlo's narrative is an absolute classic in my opinion! Boston University soccer used to have a goalkeeper named Alice Binns and we, the fans, would sing: "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant...."

Since CT high school football was cancelled the year after the walkoff TD, there was no Miracle on Berkshire Road (Rte 34/ 34th Street) in Newtown this year. They delivered a moment of joy in 2019 and then had football taken away from them the following year. Can't believe it. Soccer had a shortened season with no state tournaments so there were no soccer miracles like what happened in 2012 on Thanksgiving weekend either.

Whatever the plans for basketball/hockey end up being, they better not involve players wearing masks while competing. That isn't healthy or safe. Would much rather winter sports just be cancelled.
 
FTRlistenerAM said:
Whatever the plans for basketball/hockey end up being, they better not involve players wearing masks while competing. That isn't healthy or safe. Would much rather winter sports just be cancelled.
Click to expand...

Go to YouTube every evening and search for live basketball, volleyball, hockey or wrestling. You'll see dozens of streams from high schools around the country that are going ahead with winter sports under a variety of restrictions, from practically none in Texas, in half-full gyms, to mostly masked and spectatorless in Delaware. I've even seen girls basketball games in which one team was masked and the other was not!

Wrestling would be a horror show -- the winner of each match being the boy or girl who could avoid passing out longest -- with masks impeding breathing, of course, so whatever masking occurs during matches doesn't include the wrestlers, only the referee. On the "bench", (distanced in chairs or bleachers, actually) wrestlers and coaches are generally masked.
 
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