Guthrie recounts events that took place in 1965 (two years prior at the time of the original recording), when he and a friend spent Thanksgiving Day at a deconsecrated church on the outskirts of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, which their friends Alice and Ray Brock had been using as a home. Part One Alice Brock, the titular host of the Thanksgiving dinner who bailed Arlo and his friend out of jail He then sings the chorus, which is in the form of a jingle for the restaurant, beginning with "You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant" twice, and continuing with directions to it before restating the slogan once more. Guthrie states that the song is entitled "Alice's Restaurant" but clarifies that this is only the name of the song, not the business owned by his friend Alice. It is a corruption of the word massacre, but carries a much lighter and more sarcastic connotation, rather than describing anything involving actual death. Guthrie refers to the incident as a " massacree", a colloquialism originating in the Ozark Mountains that describes "an event so wildly and improbably and baroquely messed up that the results are almost impossible to believe". Due to Guthrie's rambling and circuitous telling with unimportant details, it has been described as a shaggy dog story. The track lasts 18 minutes and 34 seconds, occupying the entire A-side of the Alice's Restaurant album. Guthrie has used the brief "Alice's Restaurant" bookends and guitar backing for other monologues bearing the Alice's Restaurant name. This is bookended by a short chorus about the titular diner. The song consists of a protracted spoken monologue, with a constantly repeated fingerstyle Piedmont blues ragtime guitar backing and light brush-on- snare drum percussion (the drummer on the record is uncredited). In 2017, it was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant". The work has become Guthrie's signature song and he has periodically re-released it with updated lyrics. The song inspired the 1969 film Alice's Restaurant, which starred Guthrie and took numerous liberties with the story. Although Brock is a minor character in the story, the restaurant plays no role in it aside from being the subject of the chorus and the impetus for Guthrie's visit. The title refers to a restaurant owned by one of Guthrie's friends, artist Alice Brock. The song is a deadpan protest against the Vietnam War draft, in the form of a comically exaggerated but largely true story from Guthrie's own life: while visiting acquaintances in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, he is arrested and convicted of dumping trash illegally, which later endangers his suitability for the military draft. " Alice's Restaurant Massacree", commonly known as " Alice's Restaurant", is a satirical talking blues song by singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie, released as the title track to his 1967 debut album Alice's Restaurant.
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