Just Be Thankful For What You Got

I recall every thanksgiving that WHFS in Bethesda, and later Annapolis MD would play the full length extended version of Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant on turkey day...

al 18 minutes of it...

consider it like a hippie podcast...

Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant

It was kinda cool to hear this 60's throwback with references to draft boards and whatnot give me political perspective between blasts of Dave Edmunds, Cramps, Rootboy Slim and whatever else that evil Weasel DJ dude was gonna play...

Although, the premise of Arlo's record never seemed as cool as anything his dad did...

I mean Woody was a real "this machine kills fascists" folksinging American hero type, while Arlo was a dirty hippie who seemed to think it was ok to dump trash wherever he wanted...


For every "Purple Mountains Majesty" that his dad conjured up, Arlo was likely just looking for some purple skunk bud or something...

There's nothing that makes this more apparent than his movie of the same name as his biggest song "alice's restaurant"...

All I really remember is Arlo just tearing it up on some polluting dirt bikes, and then going to dump his trash...

Sad...

I still have a soft spot though, because I actually bought this album at a Goodwill store once, and after about a 45 minute session of trying to listen to it to see if it had any redeeming qualities...

I discovered it did indeed...

As I was struggling to stuff the vinyl back in the sleeve I found some obstruction was preventing me from getting the disc back in place...

I reached into the cardboard sleeve and discovered about 10 mint 1969 20 dollar bills..

likely stashed by some stoner who'd long forgotten about 'em...

I then went out and bought a shit load of beer...


that's something to be thankful for...

here's something else

In the early 1970's, William DeVaughn was a Washington DC area DJ, whose sole chart splash was this classic soul cut.

I think it's more than appropo for this weekend

Here's two versions for y'all ...

The short & sweet 7" single & AM radio mix

William DeVaughn - Just Be Thankful For What You Got ( AM)

and the extended groovin' jazzy-delic LP version suitable for freeform FM playback...

William DeVaughn - Just Be Thankful For What You Got(FM)



I enjoy those grooves more than Alice's Restaurant,



anyhow I'll try to stay thankful, even as I head into the central valley this morning...

to some gawd forsaken place called "Granite Bay"

where people must think that just because their subdivision developer put in a manmade lake, their country club lifestyle includes an actual "Bay"

... Arlo Guthrie would probably just wanna dump his trash in it...

anyhow...

starting later this week... I'll be dumpin lotsa Xmas Holly Daze music on ya... so you have been warned...

don't forget to shop