Arlo Aged

Have you ever noticed how other people get older and you don't?

Well that happened to me after having a conversation at the park the other night with my friend Pat about Arlo Guthrie.

Arlo Guthrie is one year younger than I am, but he aged and I haven't.


It seems to me like it was a few short years ago that we were all singing the pickle song.

Of course what real Arlo Guthrie fan doesn't remember the Alice's Restaurant song?

It was the stuff legends are made of.

I don't know how many of you knew this but Arlo Guthrie testified in the Chicago seven trial.

The Chicago Seven were seven (originally eight, when they were known as the Chicago Eight) defendants charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot and other charges related to protests that took place in Chicago, Illinois on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
The original eight protester/defendants, indicted by the grand jury on March 20, 1969, were Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner, and Bobby Seale. The defense attorneys were William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass of the Center for Constitutional Rights. The judge was Julius Hoffman. The prosecutors were Richard Schultz and Tom Foran.

TESTIMONY OF ARLO GUTHRIE
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MR KUNSTLER: What is your name?
THE WITNESS: Arlo Guthrie
MR. KUNSTLER: Mr. Guthrie, what is your occupation?
THE WITNESS: I am a musician. I am an actor and a writer.
MR. KUNSTLER: By the way, Mr. Guthrie, was your father Woody Guthrie, the writer of "This Land is My Land"?
THE WITNESS: Objection, your Honor.
MR. KUNSTLER: Sustain the objection.
THE WITNESS: Now, Mr. Guthrie, you stated that you were an actor. Could you elaborate on that?
MR. KUNSTLER: Well, I've done one film, "Alice's Restaurant."
THE WITNESS: Is that playing in Chicago now?
MR. KUNSTLER: I believe so.
MR. FORAN: Your Honor, this is a long trial and this silly stuff---
THE COURT: I sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, Mr. Guthrie, I call your attention to mid-January of 1968. Do you recall meeting with Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I met them in New York at an underground radio station. Abbie and Jerry were talking to me about having a Festival of Life here in Chicago.
MR. FORAN: Could we have who said what, please, your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes. We don't expect you to have all that other talent and still know how to be a good witness.
THE WITNESS: Abbie wanted me to come down and sing at a Festival of Life here in Chicago. What I said to Abbie was that it would be rather difficult, you know, for me to get involved in that kind of thing because we had had a lot of trouble before with festivals and gatherings because of police violence.
Abbie asked me if I had any song or kind of theme song for the festival, and I said yes. "Alice's Restaurant," and Jerry said, "What's that?" He had never heard it, and I proceeded to tell him about "Alice's Restaurant."
MR. KUNSTLER: What did you tell him?
THE WITNESS: Well, I told him that it was about Alice and Ray Brock, who live in a church in Stockbridge, Massachusetts, and she ran a restaurant. They live in a church and they had a lot of room in the church, and having all that room in the church, they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage. We had a big Thanksgiving dinner, and after we took out the garbage and we went to the garbage dump, but it was closed. There was a sign across the entrance saying, "Closed on Thanksgiving," and we drove around looking for another place to put the garbage. We found one and dumped it. We went back to the church and ate some more.
The next morning I got up. We got a phone call from a police officer who wanted to know who had dumped the garbage. He had found my name on a piece of paper in the middle of the pile, and said it was illegal to dump there, to come down to the police station and pick up the garbage. So I went down, and he arrested me, and I went with my friend, and we all went over to the garbage, looked around. We went to court, got fined twenty-five bucks, and eventually picked up the garbage.
And it was after that that I went down for my induction physical examination thing in New York City at Whitehall Street, and I went through a lot of tests and examinations, I had examinations and all kinds of things. I eventually went to see a psychiatrist.
THE COURT: Did you pass?
THE WITNESS: Excuse me?
THE COURT: Did you pass the examination?
THE WITNESS: Not yet. Anyway---
MR. KUNSTLER: Your Honor, this is a story of "Alice's Restaurant."
THE COURT: Oh, this didn't happen to him?
THE WITNESS: Yes it did.
THE COURT: Oh. You're mistaken. You're mistaken, Mr. Kunstler.
Did you pay the $25 fine?
THE WITNESS: Yes, I did.
Anyway, I finally came to see the very last person in the induction center who had asked me if I had ever been arrested. I told him yes, I was. He said, "What for?" I said, "Littering," and he said, "Did you ever go to court?" and I said, "Yes," and I was unacceptable to the draft because I had been a litterbug in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
The end of the song is the chorus which goes: [sings] "You can get anything you want---"
THE COURT: Oh, no, no. No. I am sorry.
MR. KUNSTLER: Your Honor, that's what he sang for the defendants.
THE COURT: I don't want the theater owner where this picture is shown to sue me.
MR. KUNSTLER: We'll represent you, your Honor.
THE COURT: No singing. No singing. No singing, sir.
MR. KUNSTLER: Mr. Weinglass and I, free of charge, will represent you.
THE COURT: I will reserve my comment on that one. You, please don't sing.
MR. KUNSTLER: Can you say the words of the chorus?
THE WITNESS: "You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant/You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant./Walk right in---it's around the back/About a half a mile from the railroad track, and/You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant."
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, I call you attention, Mr. Guthrie, to the opening week, approximately, of July, 1968. Do you know where you were?
THE WITNESS: I was on the front porch of the Viking Hotel in Newport, Rhode Island. Abbie and Jerry approached me, and asked me if I would come to Chicago to sing the song. I said to both of them that I was still concerned about the fact that the permits had not been granted yet, and that I would not attend and that I would to my best to have other people not attend if the permits weren't granted because of the fear of police violence.
MR. KUNSTLER: Now, did you go to Chicago?
THE WITNESS: No, I didn't.
MR. KUNSTLER: And would you state to the Court and jury why you did not go to Chicago?
MR. FORAN: Objection, your Honor.
THE COURT: Sustain the objection.
MR. KUNSTLER: No further questions.
THE COURT: Is there any cross-examination?
MR. FORAN: I have no cross-examination.
THE COURT: You may go.
TRIAL TRANSCRIPT PAGE
CHICAGO 7 TRIAL

Boy we all aged a little reading today's blog.

Arlo is currently touring performing in his solo reunion tour.