Around New England

Arlo Guthrie Marking 50th Anniversary of ‘Alice’s Restaurant’ With Concert in Lowell

October 4, 2018

Singer-songwriter Arlo Guthrie is marking the 50th anniversary of his most famous song and the movie it inspired with a concert tour that includes Lowell.

“Alice’s Restaurant Massacree,” a memorable 19-minute song recounting how a 1965 Thanksgiving Day littering incident in Stockbridge, Massachusetts helped Guthrie out of a jam a little later in life, was released in 1967 and led to a movie called Alice’s Restaurant in 1969.

Guthrie told the Lowell Sun (by email) that he didn’t have much trouble writing the long song as it “was mostly all true.”

He added:

“It was difficult having to perform it for people who had already heard it. I remember the moment I realized that most people in the audience had heard it before. I thought, ‘Well, the fun is over.’ The reactions from the crowd began to change. The best of times was singing it for new victims who had no idea what was coming.”

Guthrie, 71, is the son of singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie. He lives in the town of Washington in western Massachusetts.

The concert is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday, October 13 at Durgin Hall at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. Tickets range from $39 to $99; they are available at www.uml.edu.