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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Timeless Classic!, April 14, 2005
I heard *Alice's Restaurant* for the first time on the radio in 1967 and I almost drove off the road- it caught my attention both for what the lyrics were saying and the fact that it was long (18:22 min.) and kept going and going and...
I pulled over on a cul-de-sac in Ocean Beach, California facing the beautiful Pacific Ocean to listen without distraction. WOW!
Mind you, I was on my way back to the Navy base farther south to board a war ship and leave for a second tour in Vietnam. "To be or not to be?", that is, leave or stay? Duty to the Navy won the decision, so instead of bailing, I did the next best thing and went to a music store, picked-up the album and returned to my ship so I could share it with my fellow shipmates. They would just love these lyrics before going back to war:
"...and maybe, just maybe...", as the lyrics toward the end say, "...if 50 people come in and sing a bar of Alice's Restaurant, it may cause a movement: The Alice's Restaurant Massacre Movement." ...and the war would end, hopefully.
Alice's Restaurant is my most loaned out, never returned or ripped-off album and I now have this CD with a pit bull posted next to it- just kidding.
This is an all-time favorite classic from the wild `60's with a timeless message and it is well worth sharing with generations to come.
There was another war protest song playing at the same time by the group, "Country Joe and The Fish"- with a song titled, "I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixin'-To-Die-Rag". Very different from Guthrie's style, but potent.
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20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Both better and worse than the original, April 6, 2000
The 30th anniversary edition features all-new recordings of the same tunes that were on the 1967 version. The sound quality is better now (more bass, and all). At the risk of being accused of heresy, I shall also state that I prefer the newer version of Alice's Restaurant -- more solid performance, fewer glitches, etc. But with at least two other tunes, Ring-Around-A-Rosy Rag and The Motorcycle Song, something is lacking now -- or is it just nostalgia? It's hard to judge whether you, the average listener, would prefer the 30th anniversary edition, or the 1967 original. For some reason, the four reviews that have so far appeared have shown up under both versions, even though each review may have been intended for only one.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alice's Restaurant Still Has A message, August 18, 2004
I was just 15 when I went to the movies to see the movie "Alices's Restaurant" when it hit the theatres. It was an era of distrust of the US Government, a war most Americans did not want to be involved with and a young generation that began the tradition of questioning the validity of judgment calls made by those whom were our elders. This time brought about many musical groups, like Arlo Guthrie, that had the means of expressing our thougths in musical and lyrical formats. Arlo chose to use his musical abilities to convey what he believed to be he issues of the day as reflected by what he heard and experienced from the young generation of which he was a part. Alice's Restaurant, both in movie and musical format, expressed our fears and jest at what we then called the "establishment". The "establishment" is still with us today, in our work lives, our home lives and in our government policies. Alice's Restaurant still can provoke judgments as to what an individual is willing to accept as the norm and the willingness to make change. But isn't this what makes America what it is - the place where dissidents, like Arlo, can express themselves?
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~ Arlo Guthrie
~ Jaime Brockett
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~ Arlo Guthrie
by Arlo Guthrie 
