Friends… I deeply regret not taking the time to post this back there a couple days ago on Thanksgiving Day when I had the opportunity. I could have, but I didn’t. There I was, surrounded by a delicious roast turkey with dressing and mashed potatoes (both Idaho spuds and those of the sweeter yam variety) and gravy and various and sundry green bean casseroles and macaroni cheese casseroles and some other kind of casserole that I’m still trying to figure out what it was and hot rolls and tempered butter (in other words a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat), when my mind wandered.
I mean, there I was… just sitting there with Rhonda and Kristen and Michi and little Nugget at the dinner table, holding hands and saying grace and mentioning things we were thankful for with great sincerity, all the while ruminating in the back of my mind (as I’m inclined to do at such moments) about how the origins of Thanksgiving Day with the Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe all hanging out together in peace and harmony, celebrating their bounty with a lot of thankfulness and sharing and all sorts of cool, wonderful things there at the first Thanksgiving dinner have been misreported, distorted and resorted to in an attempt to make the history of this nation called the United States sound a whole lot more palatable than it actually is. Seems to me most holidays suffer from this sort of mythology and misrepresentation, and it kinda makes me wonder about even personal holidays like birthdays and stuff.
And friends, I could have stood up… I mean I could have just stood up from the table there and begin jumping up and down reciting the true mantra of the aforementioned United States, which if you listen real close sounds a lot like “KILL, KILL, KILL!” And maybe, just maybe I could have gotten the rest of the family to jump up and down with me there, yelling “KILL, KILL, KILL!” at the top of our lungs ….. Maybe I could have, but I didn’t. I mean, when you’re sitting there about to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner that just couldn’t be beat, it takes a lot of damn gall to start raining psychotic babble all over a perfectly good family get-together… no matter how much you might want to.
So yeah, I didn’t do that. And somewhere in the course of the afternoon, there was something else I didn’t do. I suspect you’ve guessed it by now. I neglected to post a link to Arlo Guthrie doing the quintessential Thanksgiving Day song he made up and released back in 1967, Alice’s Restaurant. I feel real bad about that, so here for your musical and historical and political and social edification is an updated version of this wonderful song, with additional commentary and story-telling by Arlo that if you haven’t heard it I suspect you might enjoy, especially if you’re an old child of the 60s like me and still have enough brain cells left to remember back to when this song had just been released and was revolutionizing the concept of what a song could be… and do.
It’s also one of the coolest little fingerstyle licks ever, and if you’re a guitar player but can’t remember it note for note after listening to this tune in its entirety… well, I won’t say anything about that, not wanting to appear all negative and stuff about something like another person’s talent and all.
The FULL song all in one video… Arlo Guthrie- Alice’s Restaurant. This is on the new album called The Massacre Revisited. This was originally released in 1967 off of the album “Alice’s Restaurant”. It was used in the movie “Alice’s Restaurant” in 1969. This rendition of it was done by Arlo in the 90’s.
via Alice’s Restaurant (Full 23 Minute Song) – YouTube.
