Arlo [LIVE]

Arlo Guthrie

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 28, 1994)
• Original Release Date: 1968
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Label: Rising Son
• ASIN: B0000030NJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #152,206 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

  Popular in this category: (What's this?)

  #93 in

  Music > Folk > Live Albums > Contemporary Folk

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
This is a live album, recorded at the famous Bitter End Cafe in New York City. The music's great and the stories hilarious. A '60s classic. "The Pause of Mr. Claus" is a holiday hit!

Arlo is backed by Bob Arkin on bass, Stan Free on piano and harpsichord, and Ed Shaughnessy on tabla and drums.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arlo at his best., June 8, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Arlo (Audio CD)

Not just as a live album, but any album of Arlo's for that matter. I personally enjoy any one of his(albums) but this may be my favorite. The best on this CD are "Motorcycle Song"(of course), "Meditation (Wave Upon Wave)", and "The Pause Of Mr.Clause." I strongly recommend it.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Have original record and is great, February 21, 2004

By	The Old Man (Boynton Beach, Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

In answer to one of the questions, yes, this is the album which was recorded live at "The Bitter End Cafe"; and it has the long version of "The Motorcycle Song" on it. Although I think "The Motorcycle Song" is terrific, "The Pause of Mr. Claus" is still my favorite. Just transferred the album to CD (complete with the small "pops" and "clicks" you get with a record...nothing like it). Am now getting rid of all albums (space considerations).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars avoiding the sophomore jinx, October 31, 2005

By	running_man (Chesterfield Twp., MI) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Arlo Guthrie's second album was a live effort, a follow-up to his curious 'Alice's Restaurant' debut. The album was recorded at the famed Bitter End Cafe, located on Bleeker Street in New York's Greenwich Village, the quaint home-away-from-home for many folk artists of the 1960's. While most live sophomore releases are replete with covers of tunes from the debut disc, Guthrie only offers one cover, and that's a more desirable, extended version of 'The Motorcycle Song', so the album actually stands on its own merits. And while sophomore discs are often rushed into production and are inferior to their predecessor, Arlo Guthrie's second album actually expands on both the artist's first impression as a humorous storyteller, and his budding career as a serious folksinger and composer, a symbolic nut that did not fall far from father Woody's tree.

The album opens with the extended version of 'The Motorcycle Song', a humor-laden dash down a mountain at 150 miles per hour, featuring a catchy chorus and storyline playing on the anti-establishment, counterculture values Guthrie espoused in that most liberal of era's. In case you happen to forget where Arlo is coming from, the album closes with a simliar exposition of the New Left mindset in the entertaining 'The Pause of Mr. Claus', being an unusual blend of liberal indoctrination and Christmas carol. Sandwiched between are four new Arlo Guthrie compositions, and a cover of honky-tonk singer Ernest 'ET' Tubb's 'Try Me One More Time', also cloaked in humor as Arlo introduces it as a Lyndon B. Johnson theme song, drawing laughs from the first lyric, "Yes, I know I've been untrue", to the last, "Won't you take me back and try me one more time".

Among the new Arlo compositions are two standouts. The hypnotic and aptly named 'Meditation (Wave Upon Wave)' features ethereal lyrics such as "Wave upon wave of life within me, Give me the strength to go on, Wave after wave of love all around me, Give me the time to catch on". Another lovely ballad, both in music and lyrics, 'Standing at the Threshold', follows. The other two compositions are less noteworthy, especially 'John Looked Down', which features an unusual cadence, and even more unusual lyrics, which I'm still trying to understand.

Because 'Arlo' was released early in the artist's career, it may be more commercially oriented than discs that were issued after Guthrie felt more established as an artist. This disc was originally released in 1969, and prepared the way for what I believe was Guthrie's finest moment, the wonderfully textured 'Washington County', released in 1970. There is hardly a disc in Guthrie's career, however, that isn't worth investigating by any serious appreciator of Twentieth Century folk music. Guthrie possesses enormous taste, talent, and a tradition few cutting-edge artists from the 1960's and 70's can lay claim to. This disc comes nicely packaged with Henry Diltz photography and printed lyrics.