History Music / AlicesRestaurant

* SecondaryCharacterTitle: Though he says at the outset that the song is about Alice and the restaurant, they're ultimately just incidental to the story.

** "Four-part harmony"

* BrickJoke: Arlo starts out telling an amusing, but seemingly pointless, tale about getting arrested for littering before moving on to talk about his draft experience. And when he finally meets the "last man" at his draft induction, he's told they have one final question: [[spoiler:"Have you ever been arrested?" Which requires him to go ''back to the very beginning ...'']]

* TakeAThirdOption: Lampshaded. Officer Obie does this when Arlo and his friends show up at the police station.

* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: The title track is a fierce critique of the Vietnam War and the police and military bureaucracy.
--> ''Obie came to the realization that it was a typical case of American blind justice and there was nothing he could do about it.''

* SkewedPriorities: Arlo points out how the army has a "lot of damn gall" to question if he's morally fit to go to the Vietnam War because of a minor littering charge. When he points this out to the sergeant, the sergeant rejects Arlo for draft service.

* SpringtimeForHitler: Arlo rants about how he wants to "Kill. Kill! KILL!" in front of the draft board, hoping they'll find him too unstable to enlist. Their response? "You're our boy!"

* ThanksgivingDayStory: "Alice's Restaurant" takes place on this day. Which is also an important plot point as the city dump appears to be closed on that date, causing Guthrie and his girlfriend to decide to just litter the garbage they brought along with them.

* [[JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife Littering Will Ruin Your Life]] (or in this case, quite possibly saved it.)

-->''Imagine one person, I mean even today, walking in singing some "Alice's Restaurant", walkin' out... They're gonna say "That guy's 30 years too late, get him out of here!" Imagine two of'em walking in [[HoYay hand in hand, singing in harmony]]? I don't care what the president says, unfortunately, to a lot of people that's still a problem. So you can imagine 50 people a day walking in, singing some "Alice's Restaurant", walking out... Friends, they might think it's a movement! And most of'em'll be too young to know what a movement WAS!''

* AlbumFiller: The TitleTrack, which is a funny story in its own right, but could have been a lot more to the point without Guthrie's {{Padding}}.

The song is talking-blues-style with a sung refrain[[note]]The refrain, confusingly, is introduced with the words, "This song is called Alice's Restaurant"...[[/note]]. It's a recounting of a [[EpicRocking long-winded]] and exaggerated but [[BasedOnATrueStory basically true story]] of a young Arlo Guthrie's experience one Thanksgiving Day. Arlo tried to do [[ASimplePlan a simple favor]] for his friend Alice by trying to take her garbage to the dump, but since it was Thanksgiving, the dump was closed. He threw the garbage over a cliff instead, only to be arrested and fined for littering, and later being judged "morally unfit" to be shipped off to fight in Vietnam because of it. Arlo points out the absurdity that a person with a littering conviction is considered morally unfit to go to war and "burn women, kids, houses and villages", and ends it with an anti-war message (or is it an "anti-stupidity" message?).

* ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: Or in this case, mother-rape, father-stabbing, ''father''-raping... and littering.

--> ''I went over to the sergeant and said, "Sergeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean...I mean...I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench, 'cause you wanna know if I'm moral enough to join the army and burn women, kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug.''

* EpicRocking: The title track takes up more than 18 minutes, and updated versions are sometimes ''even longer''.

* MyCountryTisOfTheeThatISting: The title track is a fierce critique of the Vietnam War and the police and military bureaucratism.

* OverlyLongGag: Used often in the song, also arguably the song itself. Guthrie often elaborates a lot of unneccessary plot details or tells the audience things he had already just told them.

* ShaggyDogStory: It all works to a punchline that will make you groan.

* TimeMarchesOn: In so many ways. "Alice's Restaurant" deals with UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, the draft, and the fact that homosexuality disqualified people from military service at the time.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Averted
-->''And it was about four or five hours later that Alice -- remember Alice? This is a song about Alice -- came by''

The song is talking-blues-style with a sung refrain,[[note]]The refrain, confusingly, is introduced with the words, "This song is called Alice's Restaurant"...[[/note]] recounting the long-winded (18 minutes!) and exaggerated but basically true story of how a young Arlo Guthrie did a simple favor for his friend Alice by trying to take her garbage to the dump, only to be arrested and fined for littering, and later being judged "morally unfit" to be shipped off to fight in Vietnam. Arlo points out the absurdity that a person with a littering conviction is considered morally unfit to go to war and "burn women, kids, houses and villages", and ends it with an anti-war message (or is it an "anti-stupidity" message?).

* AlbumFiller: The TitleTrack, which is a funny story in its own right, but could have been a lot more to the point, without Guthrie's {{Padding}}.

* AxeCrazy: Arlo acts this way in an attempt to get the army psychiatrist to exempt him from duty:

* BreadEggsMilkSquick: "[S]hovels and rakes and implements of destruction."
* BreadEggsBreadedEggs: Mother ''Rapers'', ''Father'' Stabbers... ''Father Rapers''.

* InsaneTrollLogic: Obie takes Arlo's wallet so he doesn't have any money to spend in jail, but also takes his belt because he doesn't want any hangings. Arlo even says, "Obie, did you think I was gonna hang myself for littering?" TruthInTelevision - it's routine for the police to remove belts and shoelaces when someone is detained, no matter what they were arrested for.

* ArtisticLicenseLaw: The court hearing is two days after Thanksgiving - which is to say, ''Saturday'', when most courts do not hold session.
** The [[http://www.captainfatherjohn.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/image20.jpg contemporary news report]] in the ''Berkshire Eagle'' states that they were indeed in court on the Saturday. RealityIsUnrealistic.

** The [[https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/23754824_1497403306980740_8667734382423231279_n.jpg contemporary news report]] in the ''Berkshire Eagle'' states that they were indeed in court on the Saturday. RealityIsUnrealistic.

* DashinglyDapperDerby: Alice's bowler hat on the cover.

!! He said "Kid, we found your name on an envelope at the bottom of a pile of tropes...":

* AudienceParticipationFailure: On the recorded version, Guthrie's first attempt to get the audience to sing the chorus is too quiet. He even remarks [[YouSuck "that was horrible."]]

The song is talking-blues-style with a sung refrain,[[note]]The refrain, confusingly, is introduced with the words, "This song is called Alice's Restaurant"...[[/note]] recounting the long-winded (18 minutes!) and exaggerated but basically true story of how a young Arlo Guthrie did a simple favor for his friend Alice by trying to take her garbage to the dump, only to be arrested and fined for littering, and later being judged "morally unfit" to be shipped off to fight in Vietnam. Arlo points out the absurdity that a person with a littering conviction is considered morally unfit to go to war and "burn women, kids, houses and villages", and ends it with an anti-war message.

!! Ring-Around-a-Rosy tropes:

* WhatAreYouInFor: The criminals ask Arlo this and are frightened that he is a litterer, despite them themselves being murderers and rapists.

->''"Walk right in, it's around the back''
->''Just a half a mile from the railroad track''
->''You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant[[note]]excepting Alice[[/note]]"''

--> ''The fortune teller tells me that I have somewhere to go''
--> ''Look and try to understand and wonder how she knows''

* {{Motormouth}}: The DrillSergeantNasty who hands out the forms on the Group W bench and "talked for fourty-five minutes, but nobody understood a word he said."

--> ''I don't want a pickle''
--> ''I just want to ride on my motorcycle''
--> ''Yeah, and I don't want a tickle''
--> '''Cause I'd rather ride on my motorcycle''
--> ''And I don't want to die''
--> ''Just want to ride on my motorcycle''

--> ''Now my friends it's time to go''
--> ''And this love will live to grow''
--> ''And I want you all to know''
--> ''I'm going home''

* {{Motormouth}}: The DrillSergentNasty who hands out the forms on the Group W bench and "talked for fourty-five minutes, but nobody understood a word he said."

''Alice's Restaurant'' is the name of a 1967 album by American folk singer-songwriter Music/ArloGuthrie. The lead song on the album is officially named "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree", but is frequently also called "Alice's Restaurant".

'''Alice's Restaurant''' is the name of a 1967 album by Music/ArloGuthrie. The lead song on the album is officially named "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree", but is frequently also called "Alice's Restaurant".

A 1969 film, also called ''Film/AlicesRestaurant'', was based on the song. Not to be confused with 1969's "Alice's Rock & Roll Restaurant", which is basically "The Alice's Restaurant Massacree" without the talking-blues about the garbage, arrest, etc. It's also not ''Film/AliceDoesntLiveHereAnymore'' which had a {{Spinoff}} ''Series/{{Alice}}'' - though the title character works in a restaurant.