A good friend of mine once told me that he heard the following story from Arlo Guthrie. I'm wondering if it is a song or a random story. The jist is this:

There was a guy who was complaining about his life & Arlo said "Hey, you think you have it bad, look at that guy over there, he's a lot worse off than you are!" & so on & so forth until someone finally points out "Yeah, but what if you're worse off than everyone else? What if you're the last guy?"

Does this story ring a bell to anyone? If it does, I'd love to know (if it isn't an actual song) if I might be able to find it somewhere.

Thanks for your help!!

Kara Jan

Arlo's bit about "the last guy" is offered as proof of how fair the government is - 'cause they'll get ANYBODY. It's from Arlo's second recording - Arlo. The introduction to the Pause for "Mr. Claus," it's actually the last five minutes or so of "Standing at the Threshold," the previous song on the CD.

Hmmm.... I vaguely remember part of this story... lemme' see if I can paraphrase it from 20+ years gone by memory.... "....then there's the LAST GUY. And all this guy has to do in order to get a little excitement in his own life is to bum a dime off of someone, Call up the FBI and say 'I dig Uncle Ho and Chairman Mao, and their friends are coming over for dinner,' and hang up the phone. And in 5 minutes... and not 5 minutes from when he hangs up the phone, but 5 minutes from when he first puts the DIME in, The FBI has got files of information, all kinds of stuff about this guy. For you know, there's a number of QUESTIONS about this guy. I mean, if this is the last guy, THE LAST GUY, then how'd he get a dime? There are plenty of guys that aren't the LAST GUY that can't get a dime; he comes along and he gets a dime! And how's he gonna' feed all those people? " And then I think it drifs off onto FBI guys following a guy waiting standby on a plane - the FBI guy gets the last ticket, so he can't get on, but then he get off to follow this guy, so that THEN the guy can get on after all" Anyway, I believe it ends up with some tail-wagging-the-dog logic that PROVES that the FBI isn't prejudiced, cuz' they'll get ANYBODY. - That's all I (think I) remember. Hope that helps!

I guess there's no accounting for taste...I've also got one Martin that has Felix the Cat all over it...but I think my 1937 Gibson L4 archtop (sunburst with a round soundhole) makes up for my lapse in judgement...!
I always wonder though...can you hear the ocean through the soundhole of guitars that have a lot of pearl inlay?