How was Arol Gutgrie song Alice Restaurant a commentary on the draft?

Answer 1

The song is supposedly based on a true incident. Arlo is called up for a draft examination, and rejected as unfit for military service as a result of a criminal record - consisting in its entirety of a single arrest, court appearance, fine and clean-up order for littering and creating a public nuisance on Thanksgiving Day in 1965, when Arlo was eighteen years old.

For a good period of time after its release in 1967, "Alice's Restaurant" was in frequent rotation on nearly every college and counter-culture radio station in the country. Indeed, it became a symbol of the late '60s and for many it defined an attitude and lifestyle that were lived out across the country in the ensuing years. Many stations across the States have made playing "Alice's Restaurant" a Thanksgiving Day tradition.

The song describes Guthrie's being called up for the draft, and the surreal bureaucracy at the NYC induction center at Whitehall Street. Because of Arlo's criminal record for littering, he is first sent to the "Group W Bench" (where those draftees wait who cannot be inducted except under a moral waiver) then outright rejected as unfit for service. The punchline of the story is that, in the words of Guthrie, "I'm sittin here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough to join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug?"

The final part of the song is where Arlo tells the audience that should they find themselves facing the draft they should walk into the military psychiatrist's office and sing, "Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant," and walk out. Thus is born, "The Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement, and all you got to do to join is to sing it the next time it comes around on the guitar."

Guthrie revised and updated "Alice's Restaurant"years later to protest Reagan-era policies, but this second version has not been released on a commercial recording. He sang a third version during the Bush Administration years that was recorded and released by the Kerrville Folk Festival.

Answer 2

How was Arol Gutgrie song Alice Resturant a commentary on the draft?The song is supposedly based on a true incident. Arlo is called up for a draft examination, and rejected as unfit for military service as a result of a criminal record - consisting in its entirety of a single arrest, court appearance, fine and clean-up order for littering and creating a public nuisance on Thanksgiving Day in 1965, when Arlo was eighteen years old.