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
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.
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.
We went back, afterward, after the show was over that night, I took my kids backstage and said, "You know what? I know my dad's songs...
We would turn everything into songs in those days...A lot of people think "Alice's Restaurant" was an anti-war song. It's not.
I don't write as many songs as I used to. But, I find myself writing for social media more - times have changed. And I love photography, so a lot of my creative energy gets caught up that way.
I've been singing this song now for twenty five minutes. I could sing it for another twenty five minutes. I'm not proud... or tired.
Be serious. Folk songs are serious. That's what Pete Seeger told me. Arlo, I only wanna tell you one thing. Folk songs are serious. And I said Right.
Songs are like fish. You just gotta have your line in the water. And it's a bad idea to fish downstream from Bob Dylan.
I've written quite a variety of songs, everything from kids songs to political satire, and my dad covered a fairly large range, also.
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.
Along with a sense of humor, my songs have to be sincere, and they have to be sung from a position of inner conviction.
We are thrilled that we have been able to make some small dent in all that is wrong down here.
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.
With all of the history that he'd had with the Weavers, he really was a connection between my dad's era and the world of the late 60's.