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TheOutbreak t1_ixo3bt9 wrote

I have no idea what this is about. I've never heard about any of this. Is this Thanksgiving tradition? What? Is it a regional thing?

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SatansLoLHelper OP t1_ixo6xs0 wrote

https://www.nytimes.com/1969/08/25/archives/movie-of-arlo-guthries-alices-restaurant-opens.html

> it's about the America of the nineteen-sixties, which is like a dog being wagged by a tail pronounced "VEETnam," about the continuity between generations (as well as the gap), about the mindlessness of authoritarian systems

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TheOutbreak t1_ixot6j1 wrote

thank you, that explains the "what", but I'm truly lost on how that's relevant to Thanksgiving. America is pretty big, maybe this is an East Coast thing?

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Ent_Trip_Newer t1_ixouq41 wrote

Radio stations only played it on Thanksgiving as it's a 30 or so minute song. Advertising rates are low on holidays. And part of the story takes place on Thanksgiving

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MWBluegrass t1_ixou1qv wrote

The incident happened on Thanksgiving. That's why the dump was closed. People try to listen to the song once a year on Thanksgiving. I mean, I mean...it's only 18 minutes long.

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jazzminetea t1_ixp0vzi wrote

It's more generational than location. Been a thanksgiving tradition in my southern family for years.

or maybe more anti-war folk than generational... but definitely not about where you are from; other than it is American.

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SatansLoLHelper OP t1_ixp1oeu wrote

> Now it all started two Thanksgivings ago

It's a hippie thing. Arlo Guthrie is Woody Guthrie's kid, Woody was a famous Union Folk Singer in the US. You may have heard his hit song "This Land is Your Land".

Is Die Hard only a Christmas movie on the West Coast where Nakatomi Plaza blew up?

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subsonicmonkey t1_ixpdr7a wrote

We used to hear it on Thanksgiving on the radio in California as we drove to my grandparents’ place in Lake Tahoe in the 80s & 90s.

I just played it on Spotify this morning for myself while I was prepping some Thanksgiving dishes.

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ZsaFreigh t1_ixost1c wrote

Yeah I'm Canadian and have no clue what anyone in here is talking about.

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corycutstrees t1_ixoulqq wrote

Some radio stations play it every thanksgiving since the events in the song begin on thanksgiving day.

I didn’t grow up with my parents playing it, but I’ve played it on thanksgiving every year since 2004 when I was 14 and first heard it on the radio on the way to a family thanksgiving lunch.

I called my folks today and what are they doing? Listening to Alice’s Restaurant in my absence. They have apparently done that every year since I moved out of the state (10 years ago). It made me feel very loved.

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TheOutbreak t1_ixovp2p wrote

I guess I should have read the lyrics, thank you for further explanation. It makes a lot more sense now.

It really seemed like y'all were saying "here is an anti-draft/anti-vietnam song we play on Thanksgiving just because" which sounds just as bizarre as Unfortunate Son being a classic Christmas jingle.

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agreeingstorm9 t1_ixohfe0 wrote

I'm an American and had never ever heard of it. If it's a tradition it's not a big one or it's regional one or the other.

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wingedcoyote t1_ixp3bkv wrote

It's a "your parents or grandparents were hippies or hippy-adjacent in the 70s" tradition

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jazzminetea t1_ixp129z wrote

not regional, but maybe generational. Definitely anti-war.

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loquacious_avenger t1_ixpb96l wrote

I grew up on the west coast. My parents were horrified by it, my sisters and I made it a family tradition. Very much a generational thing.

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AudibleNod t1_ixodayi wrote

My house put it on when we were setting all the food out and doing final cooking. Good times.

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jbrc89 t1_ixot6q7 wrote

Kshe 95 in Saint Louis has been playing this song at noon on Thanksgiving day since it came out its a Midwest tradition

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Important_Collar_36 t1_ixq0jkq wrote

NPR plays it every year, some other commercial radio stations do too. But mostly it's an NPR listener thing.

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msspider66 t1_ixrdmkn wrote

I grew up on Long Island. A radio station, I think WBAB, played it every Thanksgiving.

These days I live in Michigan and listen to it on YouTube

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