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That time Grace listened to Arlo Guthrie

Happy it’s-almost-Thanksgiving week. While we’re all setting up our “out of office” replies and fantasizing about what delicious wonders our Thursdays may hold, we at Complete PR have been thinking about traditions.


Thanksgiving wouldn’t be Thanksgiving without traditions. Heck, some of us may have traditions that we hate, but we keep them for the sake of having traditions. You know, like your uncle having a little too much to drink and challenging anyone who will listen to a debate. Do you love it? No, but it does feel like home.


One such tradition we used to be fond of was the tradition, one which lasted decades, of playing a certain song at noon on the radio stations on Thanksgiving Day: Alice’s Restaurant Massacree.


Since the song came out in 1967, there are many younger folks out there who have never heard this particular eighteen-minute-long Thanksgiving tale, including our own Director of PR and millennial, Grace.


There aren’t many times in life you get to experience something iconic for the first time. Could you imagine getting to watch Die Hard for the first time as an adult? In the spirit of traditions and Thanksgiving, Grace agreed to sit down and listen to the iconic Alice’s Restaurant for the first time.


Here were her thoughts:


Is he going to sing at any point in time? He’s just talking with music. This feels more like a stand-up with music. An early Bo Burnham, if you will.


One minute in.


Well, he’s singing now. I wonder what kind of food Alice’s Restaurant has. If you can get anything you want? Can I get a corn dog and Thai food?


But why was the dump closed on Thanksgiving?


They were ARRESTED?


Oh, I forgot about Alice. Now I see why the song is about her. She’s the hero who bailed him out of jail. But we’re also only at 6:23. So much more could happen.


Was this song performed often? How would you remember the words to this?


He was drafted? First jail then this?


I bet the psychiatrist seriously reconsidered her job that day.


Does my mother know this song exists? Why has she never shown me this?


Arlo sounds like he had a good time in jail. Good for him.


This may be the longest song I’ve ever listened to.


“You can get anything you want at Alice’s Restaurant,” will definitely be stuck in my head for the rest of the day.



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