Boy I am such a n00b to post these kind of things but they are of interest to me and therefor maybe to a few others........

I got into him because of his Dad.......my family were huge Woody fans.....then one day we watched a concert in the 70s with Pete Seeger and Arlo and Arlo just grabbed me with his humor, that bushy hair, his musical prowess, and his beautiful twinkly eyes ........I will never forget how much I loved that performance. I went out and bought every record I could find (still in the process of trying to get them all on CD ).......

I first got into his music when I was eight years old back in 1974,(OOPS I gave my age away) my third grade teacher was a huge Arlo fan. She would bring in all of her Arlo albums and used his story songs as Grammar lessons which was so cool.Also our whole class square danced to "Hard Times" an el perfecto Beverly Hillbillies song. Only joking! No other teacher of mine was never like that, I have to say that Arlo is the best Grammar teacher ever, thank you Arlo!
I was so sad when I left the third grade I never wanted to leave and then Arlo vanished from my mind. Recently after watching "Woodstock" on VH-1 Classics I got into him again.

Lorie

I first got into Arlo not long after Woodstock as a young teenage..... I was playing Ring Around The Rosie Rag and Coming into Los Angeles and a few other folk songs... plus a number of Cat Stevens songs...

All on my Montgomery Ward Airline model acoustic guitar....

In the mid 70's, I actually hooked my Dad onto Arlo's music..... He implemented the family tradition of playing Alice's restaurant on the home stereo, just before the turkey was served....

Now if only I can get my 7 yr old neice to like Arlo...... heck, I bought her a guitar and lessons.... it's a start...!!

ha ha ha

Dave

How I got into Arlo was. I knew how he was & liked the songs Alices & Con & he was okay but I wasn't in love with him or anything. One day in Feb or so of 1988 I saw the video of Alices in a Blockbuster video store & it looked like it'd be good. I asked Mike if it was & he said it'd seen it back then & it was good. I rented it & watched ti several times & boom I got hooked & ended up going & searching for all his records. And here I am...

In the mid-late 60's I spent a lot of time at Club 47 in Cambridge, Ma. I was hooked on folk and blues. First time I saw Arlo was at the Newport Folk Festival in 1967. From then on I was hooked on his music even though I went through the acid-rock and Led Zep phases. Just saw him in Charlotte last week and bought our Feb 2006 Newberry, SC tickets this past weekend. I hope to attend two or three other shows in 2006.


Bob

My parents read Mooses Go Walking to me as a kid on a regular basis. I remember thinking it was awesome, but not much else. I also was a baby that didn't sleep very well, an my parents found that folk music really soothed me (fun fact: my first full sentance was we are climbing jacob's ladder). Until I was about 12, it was all the same, just folk music. Then I started to really get into the individual artists. I was big into Pete, Jerry, and Bob mostly. Then my parents pulled out a copy of Arlo's Greatest Hits or Best of Arlo or something like that, which has AR, Gabriel, Motorcycle, Last to Leave, Last Train, Darkest Hour, CONO, and Los Angeles (not in that order, and that may not be all of em, but you get the idea). I saw him in 2002, and that was it; I was hooked. I'm not quite as religious of an Arlo fan as I am Bob, but close. Arlo's just so much fun live, and the music is incredible.

I hope that made sense, it was kind of rantish...

"Alice's Restaurant" (the movie) was playing in our very small town and my older sister had just turned 16. She went to see it and had to call home for my mom to go down to the theater and verify that my sister was, in fact, sixteen or they would not let her in! I was ten years old and made a mental note that it must be a movie worth seeing if all this fuss was being made.

Then, later, I discovered the Woodstock album among my sister's LP collection and played it almost everyday for an entire summer.

Finally, in the later 70's, I saw Arlo & Pete together, and then Arlo at his annual stops at Zachariah's Red-Eye Saloon in Columbus, Ohio.

I always thought Arlo and Bob Dylan were crappy musicians because of their voices. Once I started listening to the music and words and stories I learned that you dont need a great voice to be a great singer.

Im 34, I really only got into Arlo when I went to a show in Morristown NJ in 98 or 99. I like his style. He cares. I have since become a blunderite. I was always a fan of Alices Restaurant and the greatest hits but now I am listening to the other stuff that doesnt get played anywhere.

This week I started listening to more Dylan. I was only a fan of the regulars like Subteranean Homesick blues, Rainy Day Woman, Blowing in the wind, etc. Now that I am listenening to his other songs, Im loving them more and more.

Well, let's see. It all started a few years ago on Thanksgiving, or, it was on Thanksgiving a few years ago, after a Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat, I was the Last to Leave to catch the Last Train to the City of New Orleans to pick up a Motorsickle............Awww...I'm rambling.

Hey Goober.............who's Bob?

I grew up listening to Pete Seeger and Peter, Paul and Mary. When I was about 20 I bought Greatest Hits because I liked City of New Orleans. I bought tickets to take my parents to see Arlo and Pete at the Garden State Arts Center but it poured that day and we didn't go since we had outside seats. I've always regretted that decision. Anyway, when I started dating my husband I made him promise to take me to see Arlo and in 1991 he took me to Carnegie Hall. I've gone every year since, once or twice with my husband, usually with my Mom. It's our yearly outing. I've also seen arlo at the State Theater in Easton Pa and Deer Path Park in NJ.

My father bought Alice's Restaurant when it first came out. I loved listening to it. Would it have been '68? If so I was only 8. I didn't own any of my own albums at the time, just a little am radio. Eventually we began to play it every Thanksgiving. I never got another Arlo record till just after HS when a friend played Amigo for me. Then I went in search of all albums Arlo. Eventually got to see him live (I think the first time was at the Club Bene in NJ) and he shook my hand after the show. I eventually got my future husband to go see him with me (and he's not a folk lover, he's into 'Yes' and other progressive music). He likes to go see him. And now my kids are enjoying Arlo as well. I just play it and sing along, and they say "can you play that song over?" Thanks for asking!

I was really into Arlo's music when I was in high school in the late 60's. My friend and I would listen to his music while hanging out, particularly Alice's Restaurant. We were a couple of Long Island boys, and that was the time that a couple of NYC area rock radio stations (WNEW-FM, WLIR) started playing Alice's Restaurant on Thanksgiving morning.

In '73 I went away to school, and my buddy couldn't understand how I would ever have a Thanksgiving without hearing Alice's Restaurant on the radio, so he called me and played me the entire song over the phone! People on both sides of that phone call thought we were nuts... and still do!

That was 32 years ago, and he still calls me every Thanksgiving, plays Alice's Restaurant, and hangs up the phone. If the call doesn't come in by noon, my family starts asking when Jeff will be calling. I saw him last week, I told him that this year he's got to find Arlo and bring him on over and ring my doorbell, sing a bar of Alice's Restaurant, and drive away.

That is a really neat story. If we happend to be with my folks when it's time for Alices to come on the radio I bug them to turn the radio on so we can all enjoy it as a family moment...

I first heard Alice's Restuarant in Jan. '68 at an Air Force base in Japan while I was on R&R from Viet Nam. It was playing on a Pioneer PL41 turntable--funny the memories that stick with you while other, important things, don't. I bought the album AND the turntable.

A few weeks ago, a friend called me and asked if I would like to go see Arlo. I laughed and, of course, said, "YES!" This last Thursday, we drove 200 miles back to Lancaster, Ca. (moved from there 3 years ago) and saw Arlo. My friend's wife is younger and was saying that we would owe her big time (something about having to take her to lots of chick flicks) for making her go see some old folk singer, but she had a great time as the rest of us did.

I posted on Classmates about having seen Arlo and found that Arlo used to hang with David Paradise with whom I went to high school in Long Beach, Ca.. Small world.

I first started listening to Arlo in the 8th grade. I guess that'd make me about 12. My girlfriend and her sisters, and her parents, were all into Arlo's music. Those records had been around for awhile, obvioulsly as I was only 12. There was more music playing in the Davis house hold, than TV. I remember the albums, A. Rest. , Running down the road, and Arlo. Then the Woody tribute with Will Geer ect..... on my Birthday I got a cassette player, and my girl bought me Alices' Rest on Cassette tape... We broke up after the 9th grade, altho we remained close friends. I had purchased 'Washington Co.' and my then friend, mentioned it wasn't his best work( i senced a tad of jealousy)..... Soon after I was invited to a gig, at a local college....being just 14, or 15 I wasn't old enough to drive, so I called and asked my ex girl friends mother. She not only gave me a ride, she had ticks herself, and her daugter was there, which seemed to reunite our relationship, for if just a season..... We remained friends, up untill her demise at the early age of 39..... But if you knew her, that's probley the way she would of wanted it....

Tx. Martha Davis, for turning me on to Arlo Guthrie......I've actually never met anyone as cool as you, Martha... Not everyone stays friends forever, in life, and on the other side....

Peace be with you / Bob Brown

Arlo didn't play Alices' that night, but somewhere between, Prologue, and My front pages, we were trapped under the bleachers.... We sure were great at blending in