You Can Get Anything You Want At Alice's Restaurant

By Samantha Abernethy in Arts & Entertainment on Nov 24, 2011 4:00PM

As is the tradition, Arlo Guthrie's 18-minute epic song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" will be played on 93.1 WXRT-FM today at 11 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Why should you listen to a 44-year-old folk song about littering today? Well, WXRT's Lin Brehmer has one of the best reasons we've heard. "The reason some of us associate Arlo Guthrie's 'Alice's Restaurant' with Thanksgiving is that it's really the only day you can justify playing an 18-minute folk song." Listen to Brehmer's full piece about "Alice's Restaurant" below.

Guthrie also talked about the experience that inspired the song and the film on All Things Considered in 2005—he really was arrested for littering on Thanksgiving in 1965, rendering him morally ineligible for the draft. Below is a video of Guthrie performing some version of "Alice's Restaurant" at Farm Aid in 2005. By the way, Netflix users, the full movie is available on instant.