CONEY ISLAND — Arlo Davy Guthrie was born in the Coney Island section of Brooklyn on July 10, 1947, son of legendary folk song singer/writer Woody Guthrie. Arlo was a name taken from a character in a story that his mother had read in her childhood. She was a dancer and teacher with the Martha Graham Company, and later, she ran a children’s dance school in Sheepshead Bay.The modest Guthrie household in Coney Island, and later in the Howard Beach area of Queens, where the family moved when he was six, was usually filled with music, and Arlo grew up in the presence of such folk artists as Pete Seeger, Cisco Houston, Lee Hays, Jack Elliott, and Leadbelly. He remembers from his early years — before the onset of his father’s terminal illness (Huntington’s chorea) in the mid-’50s — the beach walks and family games with his parents and songs like “Goodnight, Little Arlo,” that his father made up.
A somewhat shy boy, Arlo was poor at sports, but his musical talent became evident in his early childhood. By the age of three he was playing the harmonica, and by six he had learned the rudiments of guitar playing from his mother.
Brought up in his mother’s Jewish faith, Arlo was Bar Mitzvahed in his mother’s Lower East Side dance studio. The loft was filled with ritual blessings, square dancing, harmonica playing and songs performed by “The Weavers” and other folk groups. The ceremony has been described as the first and only hootenanny Bar Mitzvah in history.
When Arlo was in the sixth grade, he entered the Woodward School, Brooklyn’s progressive educational institution. He sang before an audience for the first time at ten, when Cisco Houston brought him onstage at Gerde’s Folk City in Greenwich Village. In his early teens he began to write songs, and during his high school years he played with a folk/bluegrass band.
Arlo was just past his teen years when in 1967 he burst onto the folk scene with an 18-1/2 minute story-song called “Alice’s Restaurant.” It was a year that the antiwar movement embraced young and old, and most of its members lived in traditional communities. But for a growing number of disillusioned young people, opposition to the war was an impetus to seek out “alternative” lifestyles. “Alice’s Restaurant” was a timely ballad which perfectly encapsulated the mood of the time. It also demonstrated Arlo’s unique perspective and contagious twinkle-in-the-eye humor. The recording earned Arlo a gold record for sales exceeding $1 million.
For a time Arlo retired “the long one,” as “Alice’s Restaurant” was called, from his concert performances, saying that he had forgotten the words. But as the thirtieth anniversary of his now infamous garbage dumping arrest approached, he began to perform it again. He seemed to have a love-hate relationship with the tale. As he began playing the song to thunderous applause, he quipped “You may have heard this one before. I know I have!”
Through the course of repeated performances, as many of his tales do, “Alice” grew longer. Arlo recorded an updated version of his most famous anthem. The same revamped album includes Arlo’s famous “pickle” ditty “The Motorcycle Song.”
The new version was recorded live at The Guthrie Center, Guthrie’s spiritual center and church, which is located where the events of “Alice’s Restaurant” took place. (Yes, there really is an Alice; her last name is Brock). It’s the same place from whence he took out the garbage and dumped it over a hillside. His arrest for littering not only prevented him from being drafted for service to Vietnam, but also provided the plot for “Alice’s Restaurant.” In 1991 Arlo was able to buy Alice’s church building and establish The Guthrie Center in Housatonic, Massachusetts, as an interfaith spiritual center with programs for children who are recovering from abuse. “I’m just your average small town monk with a church … have been for years,” he says.
“Alice’s Restaurant,” starring Arlo was made into a movie and released in 1969. American Classics Movie Companion reviews it as follows: “A finely wrought, and often strikingly funny, cinematic snapshot of the 1960s. After illegally dumping a load of garbage, a young man gets tangled up with both the local police and the draft board.”
Arlo’s book “Mooses Come Walking” includes his poem by that name which he performs at concerts. Alice Brock did illustrations for the book. He dedicated the book to his two grandchildren and received a favorable review from the New York Times. “I’ve been a record, a movie, a performer and part of a TV show, but I have never been a book about a moose. I’m thrilled.” he says.
Arlo has recorded many other successful albums. His newest “Mystic Journey” contains all new material. Arlo appeared on the TV family drama “Byrds of Paradise.” He played the role of Alan Moon, a warmed-over hippie and 45-year-old high school student. The show ran from March to June 1994. In the last episode he performed his “Moon Song” which is included in the “Mystic Journey” album. When the series ended, according to Arlo, a Hawaiian (locale of the series was Hawaii) asked him what he was going to do next. “Oh, I guess I’ll just go back to singing,” he said. “You sing too?” asked the friend. Like his father Woody, Arlo became the spokesman for a generation of many young Americans who felt alienated from society. He has given benefit performances for the Black Panthers, the American Indian movement, and many other causes. A cause especially close to Arlo’s heart is the Committee to Combat Huntington’s Disease, which he helped his mother establish. He has had to live with the 50-50 possibility of contracting his father’s affliction later in life.
He performed at Carnegie Hall in 1981 with Pete Seeger. Arlo converted to Roman Catholicism in 1977, and subsequently became a member of the 3rd Order of St. Francis, the lay auxiliary of the Franciscans. He is a vegetarian, and on his farm he and his family have a menagerie of pet ducks, dogs and other animals.
Arlo owns a church, spends most of the year making personal appearances, writes poems about mooses, sings half-hour long songs, plays a middle-aged high school student on TV, and records the same album twice. Quite a record for “just your average guy” as he describes himself! Brooklyn’s opinion of its native son Arlo is definitely not that of “an average guy.” He was crowned 2001’s King of Brooklyn at the Welcome Back to Brooklyn festival on June 10. As usual with newly crowned “royalty,” Arlo was also given his spot on the Celebrity Path at Brooklyn Botanic Garden. His daddy Woody was honored with his place in 1986.
Photo above Arlo & Bob Guthrie
Attention: Governors Island Show July 28th:
Ribbon of Highway/Endless Skyway: A Tribute in the Spirit of Woody Guthrie, 1:30 pm
This is a show specifically designed to showcase Woody's songs, words and spirit. The show, originated by singer-songwriter Jimmy Lafave, focuses on the entire scope of Guthrie's career so that all of his music, known and unknown, recorded and unrecorded, can be experienced by the audience.
