How Arlo Guthrie's ‘Alice's Restaurant’ became an unlikely Thanksgiving tradition

Every year on Thanksgiving, radio stations around the country play Arlo Guthrie's 1967 track "Alice's Restaurant." But how did this 18-minute satirical song about littering and the Vietnam War become a Thanksgiving classic?   

The song, based on a true story, is about Guthrie and fellow musician Rick Robbins.

“They were home for Thanksgiving, and they were hanging out with their friend Alice and they had a big Thanksgiving dinner at this church where Alice lived,” says Margot Chobanian, program director for The Colorado Sound. A series of absurd events ensues, and the resulting song is both a chronicle of those events and a scathing rebuke of bureaucracy and “the Man.”

A few years ago, Margot unraveled the mystery of “Alice’s Restaurant” for host Erin O’Toole. In the spirit of the most (and least!) Thanksgiving song we know, ITN revisits that conversation today.

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