ALICE'S RESTAURANT MASSACREE:

"It's become a Thanksgiving ballad, more than an anti-war this, or a pro-that, or whatever it was. And I think it could only happen (in America)" - Arlo Guthrie (2005)

How did an 18-minute long song recalling the tale of a fateful trip to the city dump, become a cherished holiday tradition for music fans all across the country?

That's a strange story, indeed.

Let's start at the beginning ...

Alice's Restaurant Massacree

"It's really a story about having the best of intentions," said 'Deadair' Dennis Dillon, program director at Classic Rock 92.1 WBVX in Lexington, Kentucky.

In 1965, Arlo Guthrie and his friend and fellow musician Rick Robbins came to Stockbridge, Mass., to visit Ray and Alice Brock.

As the song says ... "Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the belltower, with her husband and Fasha the dog."

After a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, Arlo and Rick extended a friendly gesture to their gracious hosts. They loaded up their VW Microbus with the half a ton of trash which had accumulated in the bottom floor of the deconsecrated church (where all the pews used to be) and headed for the city dump.

They were shocked to find it was closed.

On the way back, though, they found another pile of garbage at the bottom of a cliff.

"We decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up, we decided to throw ours down."

And that decision likely kept Arlo from being sent to Vietnam. (But, we will get to that part of the story in a just a bit).

The next day, the two litterbugs were hauled into the local police station by Officer Obie. And in a classic case of blind justice, they were eventually fined $50 and ordered to pick up the garbage.

"I Came To Talk About The Draft"

The song, of course, is not about Alice (Remember, Alice?).

Or the restaurant.

Or even Thanksgiving.

Not long after the massacree, Arlo was ordered to the military processing center in New York City — the infamous Whitehall Building.

He was "injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected, and selected" and then was asked a serious question.

"Kid, have you ever been arrested?"

Arlo's conviction for littering — in addition to his odd behavior during that day at Whitehall (which resulted in him ending up on the Group W bench with 'father-rapers') — proved to the government that he wasn't 'moral enough' to join the Army.

"He looked at me and said, 'Kid, we don't like your kind. And we're gonna send your fingerprints off to Washington.' And, friends, somewhere in Washington, enshrined in some little folder, is a study in black and white of my fingerprints.‎"

Arlo was not drafted.

And he did not go to Vietnam

For those who did have to go, however, the song became an anthem.

"I still have – and I cherish the letters and the postcards and the pictures I got from the guys over in Vietnam, you know, who had little Alice’s Restaurant signs outside these tents in the mud and who would be quoting the song, you know, to their superiors or to each other when their superiors had no idea what they were talking about," Arlo said in 2005. "It became an underground thing not just here, but, you know, everywhere with guys on all sides of the struggles over there and the struggles that were going on here."

The Tradition Begins

In February of 1967, Arlo performed the song live on an overnight radio show on WBAI in New York City, hosted by Bob Fass.

It was an instant favorite with listeners, who called in constantly to request the recording.

It was so popular, the station used the song to promote its annual pledge drives.

"Alice's Restaurant Massacree" - the version which appears on the Arlo's debut album "Alice's Restaurant," was recorded in front of a live audience later that year.

And even though the legendary folk singer released several other renditions of the song, the original 18-minute epic is the one that slowly turned into the most unlikely tradition in history of modern radio.

"Other smaller stations in and around the New York City started to pick it up," Dillon said.

WBAI played the song on Thanksgiving.

Other stations followed.

John Gorman, a Massachusetts native, brought the tradition to Cleveland's WMMS when he because of the station's program director in 1974.

"Next year became every year," Gorman said in an interview with Cleveland.com (2022)

Dillon grew up in a rural community in Ohio and had never heard the song until he started working at a radio station in Chattanooga, Tenn., during the 1980s.

"I don't really remember being aware of it before that point," Dillon said. "What is a massacree? I just always assumed it was some play off the word massacre — which it is not."

FYI - A "massacree" is a bizarre, chaotic, and improbable sequence of events.

The Tradition Continues

Almost six decades later, hundreds of FM stations all across the country continue to play "Alice's Restaurant Massacree," on Thanksgiving.

"It's nice that they've held on to the tradition," Dillon said. "You wonder if rock stations will still be doing this 50 years from now? Will there be a 100th anniversary of Alice's Restaurant?"

Two stations in Central Kentucky have kept the tradition alive — 92.1 WBVX (Noon) and 100.1 WKQQ (9 a.m. and Noon).

"We get plenty of calls and messages on the request line making sure that we don't forget to play Arlo Guthrie on Thanksgiving," Dillon said. "It's a lot of fun."

Some stations play the song as many as four times on Thanksgiving.

Others take an old-school approach to the tradition.

"We play the original vinyl," said Tommy Carbone of WBLM in Portland, Maine.

While the song is a staple on Thanksgiving Day, don't expect to hear it any other time on terrestrial radio.

"You play it once a year — and that's it," Dillon said. "You can't put it in the regular rotation, because if you did, it would take away from the special vibe everyone gets from hearing on Thanksgiving."

The classic tale of littering does contain some language which is considered offensive by current standards, including the use of the word "faggots."

But, stations still play the original, unedited version.

"To my knowledge, no station has ever been fined by the FCC (Federal Communications Commission)," Dillon said.

Back to Stockbridge

A movie (very) loosely based on the epic song was released in 1969. "Alice's Restaurant" featured Arlo playing himself, with Pat Quinn as Alice Brock and James Broderick as Ray Brock.

The film earned Arthur Penn an Oscar nomination for Best Director.

The movie, though, was not general well-received and has slipped into obscurity over the years — unlike the song. It can be streaming on Netflix.

The album, "Alice's Restaurant" sold more than 1 million copies and peaked at No. 17 on the Billboard Charts in 1968. The song was elected for preservation in the National Recording Registry in 2017 by the Library of Congress

Alice moved out of the church — The St. James Chapel, which was built in 1829 — shortly after the movie was released.

Arlo bought the property in 1991 and turned into the Guthrie Center, a nondenominational, interfaith meeting place, which also plays host to folk music events.

In 2024, just a few days before Thanksgiving, Alice passed away. She was 83.

“She was a no-nonsense gal, with a great sense of humor. ... This coming Thanksgiving will be the first without her,” Arlo posted on social media after Alice's death.