# The Arlo Guthrie concert was great until... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 20, 2011, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035 "2011-04-20T02:05:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/41 "2011-04-20T20:15:25Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I think all performers face this issue, don’t they? I’m picturing a Ricky Nelson concert-goer leaving irately because Nelson didn’t play “Garden Party”. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/42 "2011-04-20T20:35:00Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > I’m picturing a Ricky Nelson concert-goer leaving irately because Nelson didn’t play “Garden Party”. Nice. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/43 "2011-04-20T21:30:41Z")
Arlo didn’t play “Alice’s Restaurant”? Friends, I think it’s a movement. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CaveMike](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cavemike/32/16379_2.png) [@CaveMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaveMike)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/44 "2011-04-20T21:36:20Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > Can you imagine Europe not playing Final Countdown or Big Country not playing Big Country? No, I cannot. I saw Europe as an opening act around 1988. They played The Final Countdown twice. I kid you not. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/45 "2011-04-20T22:10:01Z")
> [@CaveMike](#): > > No, I cannot. I saw Europe as an opening act around 1988. They played The Final Countdown twice. I kid you not. A medley of their greatest hit. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/46 "2011-04-20T22:43:35Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I once heard Joni Mitchell point out, to an audience, that no one ever asked a painter to, ‘do that again’, which is true, but she still played the song. I support Arlo in this thread. He doesn’t have to play it, an people don’t have to buy tickets. It doesn’t make him an asshole. Makes me respect him a little bit more. He’s good enough that he doesn’t have to be an “oldies” act if he doesn’t feel like it. But, I do not like Joni’s quote. I think she was talking about writing the same “kind” of song year after year, album after album. I don’t think she was saying that she didn’t want to play **Both Sides Now** more than one time… But painters are under great pressure to produce paintings in the same style year after year. Having an immediately recognizable style is pretty much a requirement for success in both fine art and commercial illustration. So if van Gogh was alive today, people would be telling him to “paint another **Starry Night**.” ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_A.Robrin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sam_a.robrin/32/14497_2.png) [@Sam\_A.Robrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_A.Robrin)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/47 "2011-04-20T23:50:38Z")
There were alternate versions of “Alice,” presumably as a bumper against boredom. I heard one called “Alice’s Restaurant: The Multi-Colored Rainbow Roach Affair” on WDAS-FM in Philadelphia in 1969, and never forgot it. It was, if you can believe it, funnier than the more familiar version. Why he didn’t work out several more of those, I don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2011, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/48 "2011-04-20T23:51:51Z")
Actually, she was responding directly to a request for a specific song shouted out from the audience, which she then played. Joni Mitchell distinctly did not produce any kind of song again and again, this was never an issue for her. She changed her song stylings often, and her audience never rebelled. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/49 "2011-04-21T01:29:53Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > \But then think about the Rolling Stones, I’ve seen them 3 times, and you know you’re not going to hear every song you want - they can’t do all their hits, after all. Did they do “Satisfaction” all three times? ---
**Author:** ![Schoaff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Schoaff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schoaff)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/50 "2011-04-21T02:02:54Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I recently saw Neil Young, which was awesome. So awesome we didn’t even notice that he didn’t play several standards we’d assumed we’d hear. All the way home it was, "Hey, we never heard ‘Rocking in the Free World’, etc. Of course he did do lots of his standards, just mixed in with his latest stuff. I saw Elvis Costello in concert back in the 80’s and he had a fun way of handling this. For his encore set he had a giant wheel on stage with the names of his hit songs written on it and had an audience member spin the wheel. Whatever song ended up on top they played. We got to hear 4 or 5 of his hit songs and he didn’t have to play the same ones night after night. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/51 "2011-04-21T02:10:38Z")
deleted ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/52 "2011-04-21T02:21:08Z")
> [@Schoaff](#): > > I saw Elvis Costello in concert back in the 80’s and he had a fun way of handling this. For his encore set he had a giant wheel on stage with the names of his hit songs written on it and had an audience member spin the wheel. Whatever song ended up on top they played. We got to hear 4 or 5 of his hit songs and he didn’t have to play the same ones night after night. If that was in Albany, New York, we were at the same concert. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/53 "2011-04-21T02:39:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Did they do “Satisfaction” all three times? I think they may have, but it’s going back a while now, and, well, er, sometimes my memory was impaired, if you take my meaning.😃 And, of course, ‘Jumpin’ Jack Flash’, 3 times without a doubt. That’s how you know the show is over, when you see the Rolling Stones. There will be an encore, but that’s the song it will end on. Maybe it’s a signal to the backstage crew, y’know, ‘Crack the Jack and warm up the Limo.!’ ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/54 "2011-04-21T03:15:19Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > Actually, she was responding directly to a request for a specific song shouted out from the audience, which she then played. Joni Mitchell distinctly did not produce any kind of song again and again, this was never an issue for her. She changed her song stylings often, and her audience never rebelled. I do believe your interpretation is the right one. I think I’ve got it wrong because (on Miles of Aisles) she says, 'paint A Starry Night again, man!" and I assumed it meant “a painting like Starry Night.” But probably she got the painting’s name slightly wrong (“The Starry Night” or “Starry Night” are the common versions), and was referring to an exact painting rather than a painting in a similar style. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/55 "2011-04-21T03:32:54Z")
If the promotional material for a concert says that they’ll play certain songs, then you should assume that they’re going to play those songs. If they’re on a tour with the same name as their most recent album, then you should assume that the concert will draw heavily from the songs on that album, including (if there is one) the title track (but no guarantee for any of the others). If you’ve got neither of those, then you should assume that the performers are going to do whatever the heck songs _they_ like the most. They’re the artists, and if you don’t trust their artistic taste, what are you doing at one of their concerts? ---
**Author:** ![TexasDriver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f04885/32.png) [@TexasDriver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TexasDriver)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/56 "2011-04-21T03:49:50Z")
> [@stpauler](#): > > The times I’ve seen Dylan, I rarely could tell what song he was doing. Not only the melody was changed but the lyrics were so mumbled that it compounded the identification into oblivion. I only heard Bob Dylan in concert once. He was double billed with Paul Simon who was the person I really wanted to hear. Dylan came on and “sang” something I could not understand or recognize even after I was told what song it was. (I think it was supposed to be “Mr. Tambourine Man.”) I thoroughly enjoyed Simon then actually left after a couple of songs by Dylan. Blech! I heard Arlo Guthrie in concert once in an intimate setting - I’d say no more than 200 people in the audience and I was on the front row. Yes, he sang “Alice’s Restaurant.” I loved it. I remember he taped his play list on the edge of his guitar and he explained it saying that sometimes he forgets which songs he wants to play. It was his cheat sheet. He told us he knew that everyone wanted to hear “Alice’s Restaurant,” but he did it last. I can certainly understand getting really tired of doing it over and over. I can’t imagine Paul Simon having to do the same songs over and over because he has so many much beloved songs. ---
**Author:** ![Caprese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9a28c/32.png) [@Caprese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprese)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/57 "2011-04-21T09:19:24Z")
> [@Schoaff](#): > > I saw Elvis Costello in concert back in the 80’s and he had a fun way of handling this. For his encore set he had a giant wheel on stage with the names of his hit songs written on it and had an audience member spin the wheel. Whatever song ended up on top they played. We got to hear 4 or 5 of his hit songs and he didn’t have to play the same ones night after night. This is a _wonderful_ idea, a humorous inspiration to all veteran bands. > [@snowmaster](#): > > Wow, too bad he didn’t play it. I saw Arlo Guthrie about 10 years ago and he did Alice with the Nixon tie-in and the whole bit. Also had his son and daughter on tour with him. Sounds like the tour he was on when I saw him; it was outside in the Denver Botanic Gardens and was a magical night. But I would have been okay if he had skipped Alice. I always play it at Thanksgiving time and that’s good enough for me. I’ve often thought that some performers, no matter how professional, might get sick and tired of playing the same song night after night. One of the last times I saw Warren Zevon live, he (prophetically) mentioned his dread of ending up in Las Vegas howling “Werewolves of London” night after night. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/58 "2011-04-21T10:43:42Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If the promotional material for a concert says that they’ll play certain songs, then you should assume that they’re going to play those songs. If they’re on a tour with the same name as their most recent album, then you should assume that the concert will draw heavily from the songs on that album, including (if there is one) the title track (but no guarantee for any of the others). If you’ve got neither of those, then you should assume that the performers are going to do whatever the heck songs _they_ like the most. They’re the artists, and if you don’t trust their artistic taste, what are you doing at one of their concerts? Absolutely this. Two of the best concerts I’ve been to in the last few years were Saxon and Porcupine Tree. Saxon played most of their new album, and a good but far from comprehensive selection of hits, Porcupine Tree played the whole of their unreleased new album, and a few other songs. Whilst it’s good to hear songs you know live, you can hear them any time - there’s studio albums, live albums, dvds and Youtube any time you want. I don’t know how many bands do this, but Saxon, when they’re touring a new album, usually play most of it, and on tours without a new album, focus on the back catalogue. Which reminds me, I must check the release date of their new album! ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2011, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/59 "2011-04-21T14:29:34Z")
> [@SuperNelson](#): > > Then he said that the next year was the 20th anniversary of the Massacree, so before the next tour, he planned to sit down with a record player (remember those?) and re-learn the song. Presumably he did, and we just have to wait for it to come around again. I saw him a year or two before the 40th anniversary. He didn’t play it then either. I didn’t care. I hadn’t actually ever heard the song until just before the concert. I had been listening to Arlo for years but never that one song. My boyfriend’s mom played it for me (from a record) after we got the tickets for the concert. Anyway, people told me it was because he wasn’t going to play it again until the 40th anniversary. I actually don’t think he mentioned it at all and none of the audience tried to get him to play it. I think by that point, none of them actually thought he would. That was an awesome concert. It was in a middle school auditorium - very small. We were in the second row but it didn’t matter. The place was so small that even the back would have been incredible seats. ---
**Author:** ![Schoaff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Schoaff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schoaff)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035/60 "2011-04-22T11:37:43Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > If that was in Albany, New York, we were at the same concert. Ithaca, NY, in the hockey rink at Cornell. So the same concert translated West 150 miles. 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-arlo-guthrie-concert-was-great-until/579035.md?page=4)