Arlo Guthrie

Musician

Forfans of folk and protest music, storytelling enthusiasts, listeners of 1960s–70s singer-songwriters
2 Reviews 1 Definitions 2 Charts

The Profile

Arlo Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer-songwriter, son of Woody Guthrie, best known for the long-form spoken-song "Alice's Restaurant Massacree" and for his storytelling performance style.

Son of Woody Guthrie; breakthrough album Alice's Restaurant (1967) featuring the title 18-minute monologue; active in protest and folk circuits; noted for touring and collaborations with figures like Pete Seeger; featured albums include Amigo and Hobo's Lullaby.

DeBaser's reviews emphasize Arlo Guthrie's strengths as a storyteller and protest folk singer. Alice's Restaurant is presented as his signature piece. Amigo is praised for versatility and political engagement. Reviews highlight humor, live communicativity, and memorable long-form monologue.

Notable Quotes

❝ Alice's Restaurant Massacree, the highlight of the album, is, in essence, a true earworm, perhaps the most ingenious earworm ever written: eighteen minutes marked by a relentless ragtime guitar loop on which the debut artist, with the artistry of a seasoned entertainer, weaves an offbeat and seemingly endless monologue that, starting from an insignificant legal incident experienced by the same Arlo Guthrie two years earlier, grotesquely expands into a biting satire of the American judicial system and the draft for the Vietnam War.

❝ Arlo Guthrie was always a political activist following in the footsteps of his father, and who, among other things, famously carried out tours for decades alongside Seeger, singing "Where Have All The Flowers Gone?", "If I Had A Hammer", "We Shall Overcome" and more.