The Illustrated Version of "Alice's Restaurant": Watch Arlo Guthrie's Thanksgiving Counterculture Classic

"Record­ed in 1967, the 18+ minute coun­ter­cul­ture song recounts Arlo Guthrie's real encounter with the law, start­ing on Thanks­giv­ing Day 1965. As the long song unfolds, we hear all about how a hip­pie-bat­ing police offi­cer, by the name of William "Obie" Oban­hein, arrest­ed Arlo for lit­ter­ing. (Cul­tur­al foot­note: Obie pre­vi­ous­ly posed for sev­er­al Nor­man Rock­well paint­ings, includ­ing the well-known paint­ing, "The Run­away," that graced a 1958 cov­er of The Sat­ur­day Evening Post.)"

"Lat­er, when Arlo (son of Woody Guthrie) gets called up for the draft, the pet­ty crime iron­i­cal­ly becomes a basis for dis­qual­i­fy­ing him from mil­i­tary ser­vice in the Viet­nam War. Guthrie recounts this with some bit­ter­ness as the song builds into a satir­i­cal protest against the war: "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.""

Arlo Guthrie's 18+ minute counterculture song narrates his 1965 Thanksgiving arrest for littering by Officer William "Obie" Obanhein. Arlo pleads guilty to a misdemeanor, pays a $25 fine, and cleans up the trash. The petty citation later becomes a formal reason for disqualifying him from military service during the Vietnam War. The song shifts from anecdote to satirical protest with pointed lyrics about morality and wartime violence. The recurring, upbeat chorus — "You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant" — contrasts with the bitter, antiwar critique embedded in the narrative.

Read at Open Culture