The haunting lyrics of James McMurtry's "Choctaw Bingo" seem to capture the spirit of the times. Here's an interesting commentary on the song:

http://www.slate.com/id/2213709

first time i heard that song i was on I-35 and had just passed the new Choctaw Casino there on the Oklahoma side of the border (obviously headin' North to move my Mama out of OKC)...I was laughing so hard I could cry because it reminded me of my childhood. I can put names from the late 60's and early 70's on all the characters in that song (right down to the Meth as I remember one guy staying up three weeks and he always had a pistol under his pillow when he lay in bed at night and stare at the ceiling...he did survive and is doing fine I hear with those days behind him) although the guns were different (I remember bad ass Russian guns (Koloshnikovs I believe) and M-16's back then, nothing from the Bad Ass Heb's as James says)!

I love that song though!

I was on I-35 the first time I heard Alice's !

Musical highway, that one!

The first time I heard "Alice's..." was at Sunset Pier in Key West around '72.......it wasn't even Arlo doing it, it was some other long haired hippie freak.......but it definitely got my attention.

I can't remember the first time I heard "Alice" but I think it was 1969 in the tenth grade. I was playing local TV shows and church coffee houses, etc. with the Stella 12-string in that photo at my site (I am 11 in the photo) and didn't have the skill for it yet. It was the first album I bought (the movie soundtrack) and played it in my restaurant sets post-high school because a) one lick so easy to remember and b) long enough to chew up half a set and I had to play six hours a night. In those days I could do it from memory. These days I don't think I could do it with a kareoke machine.

It didn't get me in nearly as much trouble as playing the I Feel Like I'm Fixing to Die Rag with the original cheer in the local Officer's Club. The young officers cheered. The bird colonel's huffed out of the room. The war was still on and it was rude. Didn't get another booking for two decades. Oh well... young dumb and full of....

hehe ... my decidedly non-Blunderite sister is heading out to spend the day at the Choctaw Casino. I haven't played the song for her yet, but maybe I will this evening, depending on whether she wins or not.