Arlo Guthrie - Alice’s Restaurant / Pure Pleasure

Although he was a known quantity on the East Coast folk scene several years earlier, Arlo Guthrie did not release his debut album until mid-1967. It was "Alice's Restaurant," the epic, 18-minute-plus title track that spans the

entire A-side of the LP, that attracted the most attention. However, it's the half-dozen other Guthrie compositions that offer a glimpse into his all excellent, but perplexingly often overlooked, early Warner Bros. recordings.

Though it may not be one hundred percent factual, "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" - which was recorded at a performance in front of an audience - is rooted in a series of actual events. This tale with a decidedly anti-establishment bent,

involving garbage dumps closed on Thanksgiving, Obie the good cop, and Guthrie's experiences with the draft, bases its success not only on the unusual and hair-raising situations the hero gets into; it's also his outsider's point of view and

sardonic delivery that maximize the effect in the telling.

In terms of artistic merit, the studio-recorded B-side is an equally mature effort and features six distinctly more traditional folk-rock compositions. Among the standouts are the haunting "Chilling Of The Evening," whose arrangement seems

perhaps more fitting for a collaborative effort by Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell. There's a kind of old-fashioned charm to "Ring-Around-A-Rosy Rag," a snazzy, fast-paced, hippie-friendly piece of jug band nostalgia. "I'm Going Home" is an underrated

masterpiece in a minor key that not only recalls Roger McGuinn's "Ballad of Easy Rider" but also illuminates a more sensitive and intimate side of Guthrie's skill. Also worth mentioning is the first version of "The Motorcycle Song" - which was updated and

reworked on the live follow-up album "Arlo" (1968) - notable for its extended discourse on 'the significance of the pickle'.

Arlo Guthrie (voc, g)

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Title

Side One

1. Alice's Restaurant Massacree

Side Two

1. Chilling of the Evening

2. Ring-Around-a-Rosy Rag

3. Now and Then

4. I'm Going Home

5. The Motorcycle Song

6. Highway in the Wind