An acclaimed theatre and TV director, Arthur Penn learned to communicate the language of life when he turned to film. If his unorthodox education at Black Mountain College in North Carolina imparted the grandest lesson, that alone made him the perfect conduit to convert Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute "talkin' blues" autobiography "The Alice Restaurant's Massacree" into a feature film.
When art imitates life imitating art, coincidence and history play key roles. In Great Barrington, MA, the St. James Chapel was first built in 1829. Expanded in 1866 to become Trinity Chapel, the church served residents until Ray and Alice Brock purchased it in 1964. Alice and Ray worked at the nearby progressive boarding school Stockbridge School whose small list of graduates boasts the name of Arlo Guthrie. After completing the film that would soon define his career, 1968's "Bonnie and Clyde," Arthur Penn would move to Stockbridge where the song's central tale of littering would still be the proverbial talk of the town.
The union of Penn knowing the region and the people paired with Guthrie's granted freedom to break his story into a less-linear narrative than the track makes "Alice's Restaurant" a capsule of the culture. As Dylan said, "the times they are a-changin'." So, Penn takes great care to let Guthrie be himself and tune everyone to his frequency. In exchange, we as viewers are allowed to see Guthrie as less Dionysian than most (turning down a groupie, thus showing his concrete morals and turning down a club owner who just underhandedly insulted his generation) and the kids filing into both the deconsecrated church and The Back Room (a/k/a Alice's Restaurant) as industrious. To avoid being heavy-handed about the growing war in Vietnam, Penn, and off-Broadway writer Venable Herndon are careful to introduce how it affected daily life.
As the story unfolds toward the song's Thanksgiving Day flashpoint, Penn and Guthrie conspire to insert Arlo's song (in part) as narration. Penn's addition of a comedic element and Dede Allen's sharp editing even lend the movie an early music video appearance. However, what truthfully helps these staged scenes hold their reality is the addition of Stockbridge's actual police chief William Obanheim as himself. When Guthrie and his friend Roger are booked, it is Officer Obie's tough demeanor that holds it together. Later on, Penn and Guthrie heighten the comedic side of "Alice's Restaurant" with a French New Wave-style montage of their trip to fill the garbage barge in New York City culminating in it sailing to strains of "Aloha Oe." This distinct change in tone shifts to the film's most famous and effective sequence where Guthrie visits the Selective Service office on Whitehall Street in New York City. Like most Penn films of his classic era, they wrap up the insert story on a pair of sad notes - but the 23rd highest-grossing film of 1969 helps the song live on a Thanksgiving tradition.
After the origin story event in 1965, Guthrie only put pen to paper to write about it for copyright purposes. Then after playing it live for audiences in the Folk clubs in 1966, it grew to its mammoth length. So, it was only natural that in February 1967, non-commercial radio station WBAI would ask him to come on and play it. According to Guthrie, he had no idea that it was being recorded. By May, the station was taking so many requests for it, that it was used as a fundraising tool. In June, Guthrie performed it to a handful of people at the famous Newport Folk Festival in a small Saturday afternoon slot. Word spread so quickly that Guthrie was added to both the Saturday night main stage and the Sunday closing show in front of 9000 people. Recorded in front of a small in-studio audience, the album version quietly led the album to Gold status and its central Thanksgiving tale made it an AOR radio tradition. The 1969 film helped it continue to sell and be seen as an artistic work while earning Arthur Penn an Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Arlo's recording of "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree" would be the last thing that his father Woody would hear before he passed away on October 3, 1967.
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Mik Davis is the record store manager at T-Bones Records & Cafe in Hattiesburg.
RECORD STORE DAY BLACK FRIDAY 2023 - CHOICE WAX
When we swing open those doors at 10AM Friday, TBONES has quite the post-Thanksgiving feast to wake up from that tryptophan-induced slumber. The year's second celebration of independent record stores worldwide offers you a plethora of releases from across the spectrum. So we plucked a few choice berries from the vine for you.
13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS - Bull of the Woods [WHITE LP](Culture Factory) • The first band to be seen as Psychedelic may have perished after their third album, but the presence of legendary Roky Erickson on four songs completes the sequence of the lysergic November 1966 debut and its deep follow-up "Easter Everywhere."
CHET BAKER - Chet's Choice [CLEAR 2LP](Criss Cross/Elemental] • A long-lost prize of the trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker's later days, Baker is at his best with guitarist Philip Catherine and bassist Jean-Louis Rassinfosse. Given all the space to play off of each other, Baker injects the energy into the standards (the blazing "Love For Sale") while pulling out rarely heard tracks like "Sad Walk."
CAPTAIN BEEFHEART AND HIS MAGIC BAND - Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller) [2LP](Rhino) • After disenchantment led to his retiring the original Magic Band around 1974, Don Van Vliet finally escaped a contractual morass to reform with new players in time for the arrival of Post-Punk in 1978. Already an influence on Punk, the years of angular songwriting made "Shiny Beast" fit in perfectly with the experimental Rock sneaking onto AOR radio.
BO DIDDLEY - I'm A Man: The Chess Masters 1955-1958 [SILVER 4LP BOX](Third Man) • Having created one of Rock and Blues most immediately identifiable rhythms, McComb native Bo Diddley scored a string of singles (all here A's and B's) before a misunderstanding on "The Ed Sullivan Show" sidelined his career.
THE DOORS - Live in Bakersfield [ORANGE 2LP/CD] (Elektra/ Rhino) • With Jim Morrison's onstage antics leading to scheduling shows in between court dates, The Doors played locally in California in late Summer 1970. This never-before-released performance shows the band stretching out on covers ("Mystery Train") as well as their own ("Away In India.")
BILL EVANS - Tales: Live in Copenhagen 1964 [LP](Elemental) • Surviving both the death of his beloved bassist Scott LaFaro and the drugged depression that followed, Evans returned to Europe with a new trio to rebuild. This never-before-released show features the only recorded version of "I Didn't Know What Time It Was." Also look for more unreleased Jazz from Wes Montgomery, Cal Tjader, and Les McCann.
GOODIE MOB - Soul Food [ORANGE/BLACK 2LP](Get On Down) • Like their friends Outkast (who appear on here on "Dirty South" - which introduced that term into use,) Cee-Lo Green and Goodie Mob were staples of late-nineties Southern Hip-Hop. With three Billboard Hip-Hop Top 10 hits, "Soul Food" was the first of their three consecutive Gold albums. More awesome Nineties Hip-Hop in the mix too including Three 6 Mafia, a De La Soul 7" box, and Dr. Dre's "The Chronic" in a special CD longbox.
GRATEFUL DEAD - Fillmore West, San Francisco, 3.2.69 [5LP BOX] (Rhino) • While recording shows (the first 16-track mobile recording at that) in 1969 at their homebase, The Grateful Dead were busy toying with their sets each night at the Fillmore. While the tracks culled for "Live/Dead" remain stellar, the lengthy excursions around them are finally on wax thanks to this limited (only 9000 made worldwide!) box.
NOAH KAHAN - Cape Elizabeth EP [MARBLE LP](Republic) • To celebrate the huge year that singer/songwriter Kahan has had with "Stick Season," Record Store Day Black Friday brings you the acoustic EP that helped Kahan reframe his writing and focus while the world shut down.
LINKIN PARK - Lost Demos [BLUE LP](Warner) • Released only in the CD box set of the anniversary edition of "Meteora," these fourteen "Lost Songs" hint at the direction the album will take. In addition, three songs did not make the album with "Lost" becoming a hit single on its own years later.
MY MORNING JACKET - Happy Holiday! [SNOW SPLATTER LP](ATO) • So close to Christmas, there just has to be a holiday album in the mix. In addition to reissues of Beach Boys and Sia, My Morning Jacket puts their gift of favorites and newly written songs under your tree.
WILLIE NELSON - Shotgun Willie 50th Anniversary Edition [2LP] (Atlantic/Rhino) • The 1973 album that changed Country Music by introducing the Outlaw movement is re-released with an entire second LP of alternate versions, outtakes and other ephemera.
GRAM PARSONS & THE FALLEN ANGELS - The Last Roundup March 16, 1973 [2LP](Amoeba/ORG) • Discovered by his daughter Polly, this is one of the final live recordings of Cosmic American musician Gram Parsons. An entire show at The Bijou in Philadelphia, it showcases those trademarked harmonies between Parsons and his newest addition, Emmylou Harris.
PRINCE AND THE NEW POWER GENERATION - Gett Off [12"] (NPG/Legacy) • Sometimes a single can change everything. After the failure of the film/soundtrack "Graffiti Bridge," Prince dialed back into his new band for some steamy vamps. Designed to merely introduce The New Power Generation, this one-sided single (presented here at its original length) was edited to become a surprise hit before shaping the album that followed "Diamonds & Pearls."
POST MALONE - The Diamond Collection [CLEAR 2LP](Republic) • "The Diamond Collection" puts together all of Post Malone's hits (solo and collaboration) in this 18-song collection. Normally only available on CD, this very limited pressing assembles the massive hits on four sides of clear wax.
OLIVIA RODRIGO - GUTS: the secret tracks [PURPLE LP](Republic) • These are the four hidden tracks originally found on the d2c exclusives G, U, T, and S vinyl. The release is pressed on limited edition opaque deep purple vinyl and is etched with a butterfly on “Side B”. Pressed exclusively for Record Store Day Black Friday at Third Man Pressing. Only 7500 are being made worldwide.
BILLY STRINGS & WILLIE NELSON - "California Sober" [GREEN LP](Reprise) • As Billy Strings makes the leap to the majors, he chose to give everyone a taste of what is coming with this new single featuring Willie Nelson. In addition, Strings gives you a rare B-side of a live rendition of Nelson's "Whiskey River." Only 5000 available worldwide.
VARIOUS ARTISTS - Istanbul 70: Psych Disco Folk Edits [PURPLE 2LP](Nublu) • One of the best features of any Record Store Day continues to be the inclusion of esoteric music from overseas. Turkish music enjoyed a flowering in the 1970s based on the influences of Psychedelia and Dance music. Here are 12 remixes of this music (some originally found on singles with as little as 300 copies produced for sale) that join the tradition of Turkish Folk to hypnotic Rock.
VARIOUS ARTISTS - Jazz Dispensary At The Movies [PURPLE HAZE LP](Craft) • As a staple of Record Store Day, the Jazz Dispensary doctors are always ready to hand out your seasonal subscription to some of the funkiest Jazz in their deep vault. For Black Friday, they want to take you to the movies with a sweet sweetbag of Blaxplotation films including Melvin Van Peebles (with a little-known band called Earth, Wind, and Fire,) Isaac Hayes, Booker T. and The M.Gs, and more that are still not streaming.
VARIOUS ARTISTS - Written In Their Soul: The Stax Singer/ Songwriter Demos [ORANGE LP](Stax/Concord) • To commemorate their Grammy nomination, the best demos (Eddie Floyd, Carla Thomas and more) of some Stax classics ("Respect Yourself" and "If Lovin' You Is Wrong (I Don't Wanna Be Right)") are gathered for this one-time vinyl pressing.
