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Alice's Restaurant Question

F

faderraider

Guest
I always enjoy the airplay of the full length Alice's Restaurant on Turkey Day. Does anyone know who played it first as a Thanksgiving tradition? WZLX played it this morning and is playing it today at noon and at 4 pm.
 
As best as I can remember, wasn't it Steve Strick on BCN? He'd do that whole food themed show? Any really, really old people remember it before then?
 
I don't know if I qualify as really old, but WAAF used to play it every Thanksgiving. BCN might have played it in the olden days, and I'd almost guarantee they were the first to play it in Boston, given their history as an actual pioneering FM progressive rock station.

But in the 80s, they didn't play it very often as far as I know. The 80s is as far back as I go, personal experience wise.
 
scooty430 said:
I don't know if I qualify as really old, but WAAF used to play it every Thanksgiving. BCN might have played it in the olden days, and I'd almost guarantee they were the first to play it in Boston, given their history as an actual pioneering FM progressive rock station.
Click to expand...

Nope, WBCN was still classical when the album came out in 1967. They didn't start playing rock until March, 1968.

MIT college station WTBS 88.1 (now WMBR) may have been the first. I remember hearing it there in late 1967.
 
faderraider said:
I always enjoy the airplay of the full length Alice's Restaurant on Turkey Day. Does anyone know who played it first as a Thanksgiving tradition? WZLX played it this morning and is playing it today at noon and at 4 pm.
Click to expand...

It goes back to the 'Nam era. It first started on college radio and underground rock FM's like WBCN when the tune came out in the late 60's. Gradually, commercial mainstream and classic rock formats adopted it in the 80's and 90's.
 
WKSU, Kent State played it through the 70's, WMMS in Cleveland played it every Thanksgiving from at least 1979 until the Buzzard flew the coop & WCPZ, Sandusky Ohio evolved from Cleveland broadcasting students & played it every year during their "Classic Cafe" at noon. Other days they'd bust out "City of New Orleans or "I Don't Want a Pickle" also Arlo.
In 8th grade I had the entire 18.5 minutes of "massacree" memorized. Talk about a nerd! :D
 
Not sure who played it first. It IS getting played in Orlando on WMMO. Played the entire version yesterday at Noon. Still can't enough of that story.
 
nightfly61 said:
Other days they'd bust out "City of New Orleans or "I Don't Want a Pickle" ...
Click to expand...

That's called "The Motorcycle Song". ("I don't want a pickle, I just want to ride on my motor-sickle...")

Spinning the dial quickly from Newton, MA at noontime on Thanksgiving yesterday, I heard "Alice's Restaurant" being played on the following stations:

980 WCAP Lowell
88.9 WERS Boston
91.9 WUMB Boston
92.5 WXRV Andover (playing newer 1990s version)
94.1 WHJY Providence, RI
100.3 WHEB Portsmouth, NH
100.7 WZLX Boston
101.1 WGIR Manchester, NH
104.1 WBCN Boston
105.7 WROR Boston

Probably could've found even more if I had more time...
 
OK so......does anyone have the movie? Also what character was in the song and NOT the movie?
 
spacetrucker said:
OK so......does anyone have the movie? Also what character was in the song and NOT the movie?
Click to expand...
A. The meanest father raper of 'em all? ???
 
Lucylu said:
As best as I can remember, wasn't it Steve Strick on BCN? He'd do that whole food themed show? Any really, really old people remember it before then?
Click to expand...

Since I seem to fall into the "really old" catagory, it seems I remember WGTR 1060 playing it, but then my mind may be playing tricks on me. ;)
 
I saw the movie only recently--a friend dubbed it for me. Officer Obie (William Obanheim, who also appeared
in one or two famous Norman Rockwell paintings) played himself and was apparently quoted in Newsweek at the time saying that he's rather play himself rather than have some actor screw up the portrayal. Alice
Brock has a small role. The film is an interesting time piece and has great music--it goes back and forth
from comedy to pathos. Clips are on YouTube.

When WBUR-producer "Car Talk" did a Thanksgiving special "Live from Greaseland" (recorded at Johnny D's
I believe), Arlo was the guest and a sketch had him bringing his VW microbus in to Click and Clack for
repair. He's asked to wait in the waiting room and we hear him say, "Hey! Officer Obie, what are YOU doing here?" A couple scenes showed Arlo visiting his ailing father in the hospital, something Bob Dylan apparently did as well. A Saturday Night Live sketch showed Dylan in one such visit and he asks Woody something, Woody
replies, "Yeah, they'll stone ya for playing your guitar!" and "Dylan" starts furiously scribbling it down--
the joke being that Dylan borrowed his act/style from the elder Guthrie!
 
(The Other) Big John said:
Since I seem to fall into the "really old" catagory, it seems I remember WGTR 1060 playing it, but then my mind may be playing tricks on me. ;)
Click to expand...

WGTR didn't come on the air until around 1971 though, so that would've been about four years after it came out.

I remember that because there was a pirate on 1060 AM from about late 1969 to early 1971. It was some guys in Waltham who had an old WWII shortwave military transmitter converted to AM and called themselves "WEGN", playing progressive album rock of the time in poor audio fidelity (the transmitter was not designed for music). It could be heard (weakly) into Boston to the east, all over the north and west suburbs, and almost out to Route 495.

They were fortunate that the old transmitter fried and they went off the air before Garabedian put WGTR on the air. He might have gotten them into big trouble if he found them on his frequency. The pirate situation back then wasn't like it is today. There were very few of them, and they DID bust them back then.
 
FYI ... I looked into this last year and this is what I found:

http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2007/11/22/now_friends_heres_a_story_alice_again_invades_airwaves/

If one station did it, listeners might be amused. If two, well, that would be odd. But, to paraphrase the lyrics of “Alice’s Restaurant,” if 50 radio stations start playing Arlo Guthrie’s rambling anti-war ballad on Thanksgiving Day, friends, they may think it’s a movement.
[EDIT]

[EDIT-Citation exceeds amount of permissible content under Fair Use standards and has been truncated as a result.]
 
Aw, c'mon, if Arlo can say it on the air on Thanksgiving why can't we say it on here? :mad:
 
I remember the Alice's Restaurant Thanksgiving playback schedule being promoted on WAAF in 1978. It was big enough back then to play two or three times Thanksgiving day.
 
Someone told me a while back that he made an "updated for the times" version of Alice's Restaurant? Kinda like Adam Sandler did with the 2 or 3 newer versions of the "Happy Hunnukkah song? If he did I never heard it. Anybody? ???
 
nightfly61 said:
Someone told me a while back that he made an "updated for the times" version of Alice's Restaurant? Kinda like Adam Sandler did with the 2 or 3 newer versions of the "Happy Hunnukkah song? If he did I never heard it. Anybody? ???
Click to expand...

WXRV "The River" played the updated version, "The Massacree Revisited" (1996), on Thanksgiving while the other stations were playing the original version.

He also released another version in 2005 called "Remembering Alice". There may be others also. He often improvises new lyrics when he performs the piece in concert.
 
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