Alice's Resturant

[flytrap]

It used to be sort of a Thankgsgiving (not turkey day) tradition of playing the Arlo Guthrie song, usually around noon every year. Mostly on album oriented stations. The last time I remember hearing it was years ago on David Adcocks "Tunes till Two" program. Does any stations still play that record? I haven't heard it in years.

 

[tomservo]

I heard it on Thanksgiving around 6 pm, I wanna say… WZEW in Mobile played it. They are AAA. That's the first time I've heard it years, though. Previously it got regular airplay on XM before the merger, that's where I heard it last.

 

[Doctor_Technical]

Some random thoughts re Arlo and Alice:

- On the New York board they're talking about it still being played on NYC stations.

- I got to meet Mr. Guthrie some years later; he was gracious and pleasant when I sheepishly brought up spending every t-giving with his song.

- as really did happen one year when it was my turn to play "The Song" on WZZQ (master of the fill-in and weekend/overnight shift, hah).

- given ZZQ's place as the archetypal Southern Rack station -- if not also from our common experience in the later classic rock era -- one would think that Skynyrd's Free Bird would have been ZZQ's most-requested song; instead my memory of that time is that other than the the constant and understandable demand for Dan Fogelberg, Arlo Guthrie was most likely to be requested at any time or on any day, of course especially if you had just played it.

 

[flytrap]

WZZQ played Alice's Resturant quite a bit and not always on Thanksgiving. Usually when I heard it I assumed the jock had to go to the john. Other songs such as the long version of In a Gada Davida, an entire side of a Pink Floyd album or that song that took up the whole side of the album "The Song Remains the Same" by Led Zeppelin. (Dazed and Confused?) Seems I remember the records seemed to get stuck on WZZQ late at night. Maybe they were asleep or on the can. Who knows. I miss pure analog radio.

 

[tzbarber]

WZZQ played Alice's Resturant quite a bit and not always on Thanksgiving. Usually when I heard it I assumed the jock had to go to the john. Other songs such as the long version of In a Gada Davida, an entire side of a Pink Floyd album or that song that took up the whole side of the album "The Song Remains the Same" by Led Zeppelin. (Dazed and Confused?) Seems I remember the records seemed to get stuck on WZZQ late at night. Maybe they were asleep or on the can. Who knows. I miss pure analog radio.

And,sometimes a night jock might have had the munchies and needed to drive to Krystal. Not getting stuck on the wrong side of the train tracks was problematic,too.

 

[RadeoEngineer]

You could easily make it to the pooper at ZZQ in under three minutes to take a leak. The long ones were put on to sneak outside for a doob.

 

[jfrancispastirchak]

WZZQ played Alice's Resturant quite a bit and not always on Thanksgiving. Usually when I heard it I assumed the jock had to go to the john. Other songs such as the long version of In a Gada Davida, an entire side of a Pink Floyd album or that song that took up the whole side of the album "The Song Remains the Same" by Led Zeppelin. (Dazed and Confused?) Seems I remember the records seemed to get stuck on WZZQ late at night. Maybe they were asleep or on the can. Who knows. I miss pure analog radio.

"PURE analog"... You nailed it!

 

[Poledo]

You could easily make it to the pooper at ZZQ in under three minutes to take a leak. The long ones were put on to sneak outside for a doob.

Sneak outside? In college radio we just locked the main door and broke into the PD's office for a little "privacy." We always put on a long "stoner rock" song that made it so obvious that the request line would start ringing. I was the only one capable of maintaining my composure afterwards so I was back on the air as soon as the hog leg was gone.... I was also usually the guy with the backpack except for the nights another DJ named Jay (yeah, that was his real name!) was working... he had the really good stuff! Then all the giddy (goofy?) first or second semester girls working the night shift would start coming into the studio and saying things on the air that made it sound like we were out of our minds. Picking up needles and changing the records mid song... it was all still fun. At the end of my shift I would just make up a fake log and filed it away. No one ever caught on.... except that one night my PD (faculty adviser) busted us... she joined in too and became the goofiest of the bunch. She was also thrilled to find out what I was always carrying around in that backpack! Makes me wish I was 20 again.

 

[flytrap]

I remember hearing some strange things on the Holmes Community College station in Goodman, MS. One night they were cracking crazy jokes and laughing their heads off at everything. Then playing some off the wall Pink Floyd Song that made no sense. "Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict" from the Ummaguma album. Not sure what they were smoking. But that song is enough to fry your brain. BTW what happened to the Holmes station? I think it ran something like 20,000 watts. I used to pick it up in Raymond back in the early 80's. The sound only came out of one channel.

 

[robgrayson]

I received the call on the JDX hotline from ZZQ jocks who went to Krystal and got caught by the train. Back then they were limited by the length of an album side, 20 to 25 minutes or so. Now, of course, they could grab beignets in the French Quarter and be back before anyone would notice they were gone.