Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrieis an American folk singer-songwriter. Like his father, Woody Guthrie, Arlo is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice. Guthrie's best-known work was his debut piece "Alice's Restaurant Massacree", a satirical talking blues song about 18 minutes in length that has since become a Thanksgiving anthem, and his lone top-40 hit was a cover of Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans." His song "Massachusetts" was named the official folk song of the state in which he...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionCountry Singer
Date of Birth10 July 1947
CityConey Island, NY
CountryUnited States of America
My dad's songs were really written to make certain people feel as though they had some kind of value. Because they were told from where they work and from the countries they had immigrated from that they did not.
Everywhere I go, I see all kinds of people at my shows - conservatives, liberals, new-agers, teen-agers, old pensioners. And for those people to have something in common is real interesting to me.
A lot of people think 'Alice's Restaurant' was an anti-war song. It's not. It's an anti-idiot song,
People were talking about songs of the common man in order to make the common man. With Woody Guthrie and Lead Belly, they were so common it was just uncommon.
Thank God that the people that run this world are not smart enough to keep running it forever. You know, everybody gets a handle on it for a little while.
My only description for me is that there's no throwaway people. That's the creed that I live by. It doesn't matter if I'm singing or not. That's the kind of person that my father and mother wanted me to be. The end obligation is to make people feel good about who they are.
Folk music is music that everyday people can play, and it inspired a lot of people to make their own music. That trailed into making your own pop music, and that's why garage bands started springing up everywhere.
There are people all over the world who are willing to exploit others. You can't just point the finger at America
We live in an increasingly sophisticated world that makes it difficult to make simple comments on stuff. There are too many people on both sides of the border who are taking advantage of circumstances and the situation.
Being famous is not the same as being important. A lot of important people aren't famous, and a lot of famous people aren't important.
I wasn't very reliable. People like Pete Seeger would show up there, obviously needing somebody to accompany him on the guitar while he went over some new songs. All of the office work just got left.
at the festival in 1969. ''I would love to see it just called the Newport Folk Festival, and you wouldn't have to change the name every few years.
Probably my two biggest musical influences were the Everly Brothers and the Beatles, in chronological order. Both of them have had a very simple-sounding musical style that's actually quite complex as far as popular songs are concerned.
Music is a nice friend to have around, whether it is just for yourself or for other people. If you can enjoy it, being professional is almost secondary.