Alice Brock Has Died

November 24, 2024 2:55 AM

Who was Alice Brock you might ask? None other than Alice of Alice's Restaurant fame. Arlo Guthrie announced that Alice Brock, his dear friend and inspiration for his song Alice's Restaurant died a week before Thanksgiving. Born Alice May Pelkey in New York City, Brock was a lifelong rebel who was a member of Students for a Democratic Society among other organizations.

"On Thanksgiving Day, 1965, a simple chore led to Guthrie’s arrest, his eventual avoidance of military service during the Vietnam War and a song that has endured as a protest classic and holiday favorite."

Guthrie's 18 minute talking blues song, Alice's Restaurant has become a Thanksgiving Day tradition played every year on radio stations around the country. As noted in the linked obit, it became part of the popular culture.

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant.

Previously.

posted by JohnnyGunn (51 comments total)

You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant.

(Excepting Alice)

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posted by automatronic at 3:11 AM on November 24, 2024 [27 favorites]

Growing up in the analog age, I would wait all year long for Thanksgiving Day at noon when WNEW in NY would play Alice's Restaurant. When I had my own kids, I would insist on playing the song every year on Thanksgiving also at noon. I would get the protests, "Not that song again dad. It is too long and too boring." But now that they are older, they insist on it being played not only at Thanksgiving, but at all family holiday gatherings.

To me, the song represents a different era. Compared to now when being a disrupter means attacking others not like you (DJT are you listening?), back then, it meant arguing for something, trying to change things, but by building them up, not knocking things down.

Admittedly, I never knew much about Alice, but now that I have looked into it, she seems worthy and a terrific representative of the 60s sounterculture.

This Thursday, while listening to the song with my 3 children and their significant others, I will do so with a heavy heart in memory of Alice Brock and with a raised glass of wine in memory of an age of innocence.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 3:12 AM on November 24, 2024 [26 favorites]

Guthrie’s Alice’s Restaurant and Jefferson Airplane’s We Can Be Together have been among my anthems for the 60’s and going forward… goodbye, Alice
posted by aldus_manutius at 4:22 AM on November 24, 2024 [2 favorites]

I never heard the song on the radio but I have performed it for an audience several times.
Last time was at a [slow night] open mic, and when I was done, one guy said, 'I never heard that song except on Thanksgiving.'

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posted by MtDewd at 4:24 AM on November 24, 2024 [3 favorites]

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posted by anotherpanacea at 4:28 AM on November 24, 2024

A cultural touchstone for many, not so much perhaps for GenX like me and younger, but I'm glad I heard about it here on the blue community.

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posted by rabia.elizabeth at 4:40 AM on November 24, 2024 [2 favorites]

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posted by whatevernot at 4:45 AM on November 24, 2024

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posted by token-ring at 4:45 AM on November 24, 2024

🦃
posted by HearHere at 5:02 AM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

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posted by lordrunningclam at 5:08 AM on November 24, 2024

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posted by Faint of Butt at 5:08 AM on November 24, 2024

Also the subject of one of the most awesome MeFi posts ever.
posted by TedW at 5:25 AM on November 24, 2024 [26 favorites]

The church is now the Guthrie Center
posted by BWA at 6:00 AM on November 24, 2024 [5 favorites]

Well crap. Rip Alice
posted by wheelieman at 6:11 AM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

My dad loved to play that for me, and in due time I played it for my kid. Now my kid is off at college, but last night we had a quick moment on the phone and I told him this news. He said, “You can get anything you want…” and we sang together for just a sec.

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posted by BlahLaLa at 6:33 AM on November 24, 2024 [4 favorites]

It is not Thanksgiving without this song. We are trekking to my Dad’s this year and will be sure to play it on the drive.

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posted by theBigRedKittyPurrs at 6:49 AM on November 24, 2024 [3 favorites]

I'm also from a family who listens to it every year at Thanksgiving (not always together), except for the Thanksgiving when my sister and I went to the Somerville Theater to watch the movie, back in the days when that theater had a full turkey dinner out in the lobby for the occasion. Goodbye, Alice.

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posted by pangolin party at 7:28 AM on November 24, 2024 [7 favorites]

We have a piece of art that allegedly was on the wall at the restaurant.

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posted by Windopaene at 7:42 AM on November 24, 2024 [2 favorites]

A cultural touchstone for many, not so much perhaps for GenX like me and younger, but I'm glad I heard about it here on the blue community.

I'm Gen X, a random sampling of friends, age-cohort peers, and family yesterday found that every one of them listened every Thanksgiving because our parents were of age during the Vietnam War (right around the same age as Arlo) and it was their tradition every year.

Also the subject of one of the most awesome MeFi posts ever.

Was coming in to post that exact link. One of the greatest MetaFilter posts ever. It's such a shame about link rot.
posted by tzikeh at 7:45 AM on November 24, 2024 [7 favorites]

Remember Alice? This is a song about Alice.

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posted by Aznable at 7:49 AM on November 24, 2024 [13 favorites]

I hadn't heard "Alice's Restaurant" until I was in my teens. It was backstage after a performance of Arsenic and Old Lace, around 1989?, and one of the performers had his guitar along and as people were taking off their costumes and putting props away, he took out the guitar and started playing this. His delivery was good, so that I was somewhat convinced he was just improvising the story; I'm not sure if I said something that made me sound confused or a friend just realized it and explained the song's origins.

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posted by AzraelBrown at 7:51 AM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

For me it was always a duo, "Alice's Restaurant" and "The Motorcycle Song". Don't know why.

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posted by aleph at 7:53 AM on November 24, 2024 [6 favorites]

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posted by JustSayNoDawg at 8:18 AM on November 24, 2024

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posted by limeonaire at 8:24 AM on November 24, 2024

83. A good run
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posted by BlueHorse at 8:29 AM on November 24, 2024

For me it was always a duo, "Alice's Restaurant" and "The Motorcycle Song". Don't know why.

It's cuz you didn't want to die. You just wanted to ride your motorcy.

Cle.
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 8:33 AM on November 24, 2024 [17 favorites]

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posted by EvaDestruction at 8:42 AM on November 24, 2024

“Remember Alice? This is a song about Alice…”

Having never met Alice, and indeed never knowing much about her, I’ve always felt like she must be one of the good ones. I will remember her, and raise a glass to her this year and each after.
posted by jzb at 10:11 AM on November 24, 2024 [5 favorites]

.

As to Arlo, he had gone republican for a while (if you're here you can reach google, look it up yourself), but apparently the openly fascist direction was too much for him. Good, I suspect his dad was turning somersaults in his grave.
posted by evilDoug at 10:23 AM on November 24, 2024 [6 favorites]

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posted by JoeXIII007 at 11:13 AM on November 24, 2024

A most cherished ritual during the holidays was listening to "Alice's Restaurant." We saw the movie, which was touching and memorable, especially the scenes where Arlo is visiting his dad in the hospital. Alice was a giant among counter-culture icons of the 1960's. May her memory be a blessing. ♥
posted by Lynsey at 11:42 AM on November 24, 2024 [3 favorites]

Just going to mention the movie, the funeral scene in the snow with Joni's "Songs For Aging Children Come."
posted by Rash at 12:31 PM on November 24, 2024 [3 favorites]

my sister and I always make sure to listen to this every Thanksgiving while we're prepping dinner.

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posted by suelac at 1:02 PM on November 24, 2024 [1 favorite]

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posted by filtergik at 2:12 PM on November 24, 2024

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posted by /\/\/\/ at 2:59 PM on November 24, 2024

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posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 3:29 PM on November 24, 2024

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posted by hap_hazard at 4:02 PM on November 24, 2024

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This has been our Thanksgiving do-the-dishes song for 30+ years. My 88yo mother is always so proud when she gets "exceptin' Alice" right on the beat.

The years that illness (or lockdown) kept us from having a family Thanksgiving and I was home alone, with nary a sign that it was a holiday, playing this made me feel better.

May Alice Brock's memory be a blessing.
posted by The Wrong Kind of Cheese at 4:20 PM on November 24, 2024 [5 favorites]

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posted by Flight Hardware, do not touch at 5:04 PM on November 24, 2024

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posted by TwoStride at 5:50 PM on November 24, 2024

I knew the story, I knew the chorus, but I (at age 68 at the time) had never heard the whole song until earlier this year. I don't know how I missed it. Thanks, Alice, for inspiring a great song.
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posted by lhauser at 6:02 PM on November 24, 2024 [2 favorites]

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posted by detachd at 7:31 PM on November 24, 2024

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posted by anadem at 8:08 PM on November 24, 2024

streamin says the movie isn’t available to stream, nuts!
posted by billsaysthis at 8:48 PM on November 24, 2024

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posted by jim in austin at 8:50 PM on November 24, 2024

billsaysthis: streamin says the movie isn’t available to stream, nuts!

HMU in MeMail
posted by tzikeh at 8:35 AM on November 25, 2024

I learned to cook from her cookbook, which I found on my hippie aunt's bookshelf when I was a teenager living alone in Spain (the 80s were another planet.) I still own a copy - I think it is my third. The recipes are solid but what's really good about it is the attitude. She says things like*, who says you can't throw a dinner party if you have 2 plates and a jam jar? And put a big overstuffed chair in your kitchen so you can sit down and relax and have a glass of wine while you cook. And, if you are worried that something isn't going to turn out, make your guests wait until they're really hungry. I love that books so much.

RIP Alice, I never met you but you were a huge person in my life. Also I too listen to that song every Thanksgiving. And Arlo Guthrie playing for free at Fenway Park when I was 15 in the late 70s was one of the first concerts I ever attended. But this is about Alice.

* do not have book at hand, so, not verbatim quotes.
posted by mygothlaundry at 8:49 AM on November 25, 2024 [2 favorites]

streamin says the movie isn’t available to stream, nuts!

The Internet Archive is back, and it provides
posted by Rash at 9:18 AM on November 25, 2024

Thanks Rash and tzikeh!
posted by billsaysthis at 10:10 AM on November 25, 2024

Also the subject of one of the most awesome MeFi posts ever.

I can say without hyperbole that that is the greatest post in the history of civilization.
posted by kirkaracha at 10:39 AM on November 25, 2024 [1 favorite]

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posted by gkr at 1:16 PM on November 25, 2024