Arlo Guthrie played last night at Royce Hall at UCLA. He still does his amazing monologues which at first seem rambling but soon zero in on the point clear as can be. Crazy like a fox, he is.
He made his classics current and topical. This wasn’t nostalgia night. He’s still anti-war. I’d almost forgotten who his father was until he did "This Land Is Your Land" with his son Abe on keyboards. Talk about the torch being passed on!
The opening band was the high energy Mammals who call themselves a "trad-rad" string band. They’re plenty political too, and also have some serious lineage, one member is Pete Seeger’s grandson.
I don’t usually buy concert t-shirts, but I had to get Arlo’s. It’s army camo pattern, the front says "Not moral enough to join the army", with "Group W bench" on the left sleeve. (For those who know the song, no further comment is needed!)
"Alice’s Restaurant" was one of the anti-war anthems of the 60’s along with Country Joe’s "Fixin’ to Die." One lesser known anti-war song, Eric Burdon’s "Sky Pilot", is absolutely worth hunting for.
