Dinner Music for Thanksgiving

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When I was growing up, I always remember a particular song that we listened to every Thanksgiving. It was “Alice’s Restaurant Massacree, a Thanksgiving protest song by Arlo Guthrie. Released in 1967, the song commonly know as "Alice's Restaurant" is Guthrie's most famous song. It's the true story of an incident that happened one Thanksgiving. Guthrie and his friends tried to do a favor for their friend Alice, and take a load of garbage to the dump. Because the dump was closed, they illegally dumped the garbage, and were subsequently arrested. It was the era of the Vietnam War. When Guthrie had to submit to a physical examination at a military induction center after receiving a draft notice, in spite of showing up hung over, he passed the physical. In spite of jumping up and down yelling, "I want to kill, kill, kill" he passed the psychiatric exam. What finally got him excluded from military service was his despicable criminal record. The song ends with the audience being invited to sing along with the chorus, and at my house, everybody still does. The full song may be heard here: If you are not familiar with the song, be forewarned, it is 18 minutes long.