First off I am a 27 year old who saw you in Springfield, MO and loved it. I have given your music to those younger than me and they love it. Sorry it is like a mission in life for me to introduce people especially younger than me to real music. Those who just don't perform but who are actually saying something through their music. Even if it is just all in fun like the Motorcycle Song. Anyway my question is just for fun and I think I know the answer but in the song Alice Restuarant what does the W stand for as in "group W"? :?:

THANKS FOR THE COMMENTS! But, I have no idea what the "W" meant. That's just what it actually was called for some reason. Maybe someone with military experience can help us all out... Does anyone know what it meant? What a great question!

adg

... and I always thought it just meant "Weird"

..weird works for me,wyld.....
...can't speak from any military experience.....but i did a pretty quick web surf on google.....wow...if you ever doubt the power and influence of alice's.....just search "group w bench".....it's everywhere,man, specially with all of these blog sites.....some of it's pretty funny.....

..but i tore myself away and did find one post on one site from a woman who claims to have been a draft consultant way back then and she says "W" stood for Waiver....
try...
http://70.84.35.50/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.c ... 8;t=000434

...scroll (but don't necessarily ignore the cool discussion)....about halfway down to "Kathy B's" post.....interesting.....true??who knows....maybe....anyway, it was fun......arlo's kind of folks...you know??

Hey Jessie! I went to the show last night too. I loved it bunches.

Arlo, you rock. I loved the stories as much as the music.

Ok, the venue had a weird vibe. Or maybe it was something else. It was a strange mixture of concert goers. Some were ole hippies (which I must say includes me). There were Young People With Promise. Then there were some rather normal middle agers, and then there were those who seemed more like clueless curiosity seekers. The Don't-Know-Arlo-but-what-the-hell-it's-Saturday-night-lets-go-to-somethin group. (I mean all this in a light-hearted way. Don't want to step on toes. Personal disclaimer for recurrent foot in mouth disease.)

Anyway, I would have liked to have started up a campfire in the aisle and then gathered all the cooshy seats around the fire and roasted marshmellows while listenin to Arlo's stories and songs. Lord knows the Hammonds Center, for being a big fancy place, is really hurtin for a Munchie station. Would have loved a margarita and some nachos or something too but I settled for H2O and hunger pangs.

I would like to see Arlo in a different venue in a more liberal world. I've been suffering the Red State Blues for quite a while now. Maybe someday I will travel up the east coast or west coast or anywhere left of here.

I took a bunch of pictures last night and don't know where to post em. No I did not use my flash! But this goober next to me did. Which causes a s-load of negative vibes to converge on my little corner of the front row and a brisk heat-seeking usher to tell him to knock it off. Don't know what happened to him. He left in the intermission and never returned. Do you suppose they "suicide" errant flash-users nowdays?

Here's a couple of pix that turned out.



This is about as clear as it got.



I really want to go to another show.



I really like this picture. I forgot to turn the flash back on though.



Peace in.
Jeanne

I'm with you Wyld.... Weird sounds about right, tho............. Wonky might work too????????? I think Wonky is what you need to be to visit the bench!
Thats why I like goin' there!

Great pix Jeanne...........Last June when Arlo was down under visiting us I was so excited about seein' him live for the first time that I forgot my darn camera!!!!!!!!!!! And there I was sittin' right next to him after the show!! sans camera!! Arrrrrggggghhhh! I'll be different next time, (hopefully in '06), that's for sure!!

P.S. Fellow concert goers, always follow your intuition (or call it wishful thinking if you like). I had a feeling I might meet up with Arlo that night.
I was still in the car when I noticed I'd forgotten my camera, and my brother said to go back but I was worried about being late!

Waiver sounds about right, although I like weird better. But if the "military intellegence" guys were involved "W" coulda stood for almost any word that didn't start with "W". I mean those guys spell "W" "Dubya". If they bring the draft back, "W" may end up standing for young people who voted for "W" or know somebody close to him, which of course would exempt them from military service.

Okay, while we're askin newbie questions...

What's up with the "blunder" stuff?

Nice pics! You take better ones than I do...

Nice to see ya back on here ADG! Got the tix to Bethesda, MD today. See ya on 3rd row hon. Luv ya!

Oh yeah I was listening to the oldies station in Gloucester, VA Sat & they played CONO by Arlo on there. So nice to see him on the radio here in VA again...

Group W Bench reminds me of Dubya right now for some reason. Maybe it's for blunderites who like Dubya. LOL! I doubt it tho as I'm among the few blunderites who like him lol...

I'll attempt this one. Arlo's newsletter is called The Rolling Blunder Review & the subscribers were always called Blunderites. (I go all the way back to RBR #2, I believe, & I remember when it was quarterly, then it was whenever, when it was free, when it was free for only $1, then free for only $3, then free for a $25 Guthrie Center donation as it is now, when it was discontinued & started up again...anyway, I digress.) When I discovered this message board, I noted that the members were also calling themselves Blunderites, probably coz they comprised the same folks who got the RBR. (Some people don't get the RBR....they receive it, but they don't "get" it.) Anyways, posting to the site thus came to be known as blundering. I thought it a silly phrase, until I realized that it accurately described my style of posting.

I always wondered about Group W myself, & also wondered what Groups A-V were, much like I used to watch Cpl. Klinger go for a Section 8 & wonder what Sections 1-7 covered.

Those of us who grew up in in the '60's in Pittsburgh watching KDKA-TV when it was a Westinghouse Broadcasting station (other cities had these stations as well) were reminded every half hour that they were watching a Group W station, when a giant W would appear on the screen & a deep broadcaster's voice would tell you it was a Group W station. (Westinghouse invented TV way back when, then somebody said, that's nice, but who's gonna buy it if there's no such thing as TV stations yet, so Westinghouse started the 1st TV stations, hence Group W.) Little did I know what lie in my future when I saw that giant Group W on my TV....

to put it in better perspective - in the mid 70's (1975 if i'm recalling correctly), there was Bobby D. out on the road with his band of gypsies doin' the Rolling Thunder Review (and what a great show THAT was!)... so evidently this is another one of those times that adg found himself "downstream" (as one of his more popular stories goes...)

Yeh..but Dylan just got that one great tour out of the name...Arlo got us! Now who ended up upstream? Um....never mind.

Blundering has become for many of us a community and even a lifestyle .
Blundering could mean going to an Arlo gig, hanging out here on the website, going up to the church, walking in the HD walk, etc.
Useally, in order to have a blunder even, there needs to be a Guthrie involved. But that is not always the case. I have participated in what one might call mini-blunder events with groups of other blunderites where no member of clan Guthrie was present. Ironically, we can do that, but Arlo can't. Because whereever he goes, there he is.

.....in blundering, maybe it's enough to have a "spirit of Guthrie" present......since as many Guthries as there seems to be, we seriously and scarily outnumber 'em......and they move around alot .. and fast....

...course "spirit of Guthrie" is very open to all kinds of interpretation....which can be alot of fun.....

....personally i'm currently loving the "blunderground" ...tho i'm not sure what it is or what it does......it's rich for the wondering and wandering mind....

....i'll bet Bob's just a tad jealous of all the blunderers...eh, pat??

Just to add my 2 cents, I too went to Arlo's concert in Sprinfield, MO this last weekend. I took my wife and my 35 y/o son...and all 3 of us absolutely loved it. My son had a great comment in that Arlo has stayed the same (not mellowed) after so many years...he was abit afraid of that happening. Not to worry.

HeeBGBz, thank YOU so much for posting the pics from that concert. We too, forgot our camera...almost caused a divorce...you saved my day!!! Also, your description of the atmosphere was dead on......was very strange. I didn't mind the auditorium, in fact I found it to be extremely comfortable and relaxing, but you are right...no munchies. But, the folks...wow...something was definitely different...and to the great credit of Arlo for inspite of it...was undaunted and performed a brilliant show!!

I thought it odd too that in the local fish wrapper that morning they referred to Arlo as "the son of the legendary Woody Guthrie"....wake up folks, Arlo is every bit as much legendary in his own right...he is an American Folk icon...and his place in history is cemented....and his place in our memories and hearts is solidly assured.

When he started "Coming into Los Angeles" I thought for a minute it just wouldn't be the same as when he first recorded it. Was I wrong...he just gets better with age...it was fantastic and the story with it, I laughed so hard I actually hurt.....was alot of deja vu going on... Anyway, Arlo is definitely a professional, with a warm personal touch, and can work an audience as well as anyone. I thank him very much for coming to the mid-west!!!!