Guitarists From The United States

"I've been wrapped around her finger Since the first time we went out. Every day and every night she's all I think about. I need that girl beside me When the lights go out. I think it's time to put a ring on the finger I'm wrapped around."

"I know she's not perfect but she tries so hard for me And I thank god that she isn't 'cause how boring would that be? It's the little imperfections, it's the sudden change in plans. When she misreads the directions and we're lost but holdin' hands. Yeah I live for little moments like that."

"When she's layin' on my shoulder on the sofa in the dark And about the time she falls asleep, so does my right arm. And I want so bad to move it, 'cause it's tinglin' and it's numb; But she looks so much like an angel that I don't wanna wake her up. Yeah I live for little moments When she steals my heart again and doesn't even know it. Yeah I live for little moments like that."

"Somewhere in my closet There's a cardboard box just sittin' on a shelf. It's full of faded memories And it's been there ever since the night you left.Oh, just forgotten photographs To remind me of the past. Oh, but I can still see everything just fine. Who needs pictures with a memory like mine? Yeah, who needs pictures with a memory like mine?"

"Yeah there ain't nothing not affected When two hearts get connected. All that is, will be, or ever was. Every single choice we make, Every breath we get to take, Is all because two people fell in love."

"To the world, You may be just another girl. But to me, Baby, you are the world."

"I know you need to go, But before you do I want you to know, that I Wish you the best. And I wish you nothing less Than every thing you've ever dreamed of. And I hope that you find love along the way. But most of all, I wish you'd stay."

"And then all of a sudden Oh, it seemed so strange to me, How we went from something's missing To a family. Lookin' back all I can say About all the things he did for me Is I hope I'm at least half the dad That he didn't have to be."

"'Cause it's a good night To be out there soakin' up the moonlight. Stake out a little piece of shoreline. I've got the perfect place in mind. It's in the middle of nowhere; only way to get there You got to get a little mud on the tires."

"And since the day I left Milwaukee, Lyncheburg and Bourbon, France Been makin' a fool out of folks Just like you, And helpin' white people dance. I am medicine and I am poison. I can help you up or make you fall. You had some of the best times You'll never remember with me... Alcohol."

"And we danced; Out there on that empty hardwood floor. The chairs up and the lights turned way down low The music played, we held each other close. And we danced.Like no one else had ever danced before. I can't explain what happened on that floor. But the music played, We held each other close, And we danced. Yeah, we danced."

"I'd like to see you out in the moonlight. I'd like to kiss you way back in the sticks. I'd like to walk you through a field of wildflowers. And I'd like to check you for ticks."

"Well I love her; But I love to fish. I spend all day out on this lake And hell is all I catch. Today she met me at the door Said I would have to choose. If I hit that fishin' hole today, She'd be packin' all her things, And she'd be gone by noon.Well, I'm gonna miss her When I get home. But right now I'm on this lake shore And I'm sittin' in the sun. I'm sure it'll hit me When I walk through that door tonight That I'm gonna miss her. Oh, lookie there, I've got a bite."

"Cause when you're a Celebrity, It's adios reality. You can act just like a fool. People think you're cool Just cause you're on TV. I can throw major fits When my latte isn't just how I like it. They say I've gone insane, I'll blame it on the fame, And the pressures that it goes with Being a Celebrity."

"If you're in a situation like that there's only one thing you can do and that's walk into the shrink wherever you are, just walk in say "Shrink, You can get anything you want, at Alice's restaurant." And walk out. You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he's really sick and they won't take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they're both faggots and they won't take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people walking in singing a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. They may think it's an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day, I said fifty people a day walking in singing a bar of Alice's Restaurant and walking out. And friends they may thinks it's a movement. And that's what it is, the Alice's Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come's around on the guitar!"

"I went over to the Sargent, said, "Sargent, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sitting here on the bench, I mean I'm sitting here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women, kids, houses and villages after being a litterbug.""

"They got a building down New York City, it's called Whitehall Street, where you walk in, you get injected, inspected, detected, infected, neglected and selected. I went down to get my physical examination one day, and I walked in, I sat down, got good and drunk the night before, so I looked and felt my best when I went in that morning."

"And I walked in and sat down and they gave me a piece of paper, said, "Kid, see the psychiatrist, room 604." And I went up there, I said, "Shrink, I want to kill. I mean, I wanna, I wanna kill. Kill. I wanna, I wanna see, I wanna see blood and gore and guts and veins in my teeth. Eat dead burnt bodies. I mean kill, Kill, KILL, KILL." And I started jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL," and he started jumping up and down with me and we was both jumping up and down yelling, "KILL, KILL." And the Sargent came over, pinned a medal on me, sent me down the hall, said, "You're our boy.""

"Group W's where they put you if you may not be moral enough to join the army after committing your special crime, and there was all kinds of mean nasty ugly looking people on the bench there. Mother rapers. Father stabbers. Father rapers!"

"...And it was about four or five hours later that Alice — Remember Alice? It's a song about Alice."

"And the meanest, ugliest, nastiest one, the meanest father raper of them all, was coming over to me and he was mean 'n' ugly 'n' nasty 'n' horrible and all kind of things and he sat down next to me and said, "Kid, whad'ya get?" I said, "I didn't get nothing, I had to pay $50 and pick up the garbage." He said, "What were you arrested for, kid?" And I said, "Littering." And they all moved away from me on the bench there, and the hairy eyeball and all kinds of mean nasty things, till I said, "And creating a nuisance." And they all came back, shook my hand, and we had a great time on the bench."

"I'm thinking that somewhere around the world, I remember after this 9/11 event back home, people didn't feel much like playing, singing, people didn't feel like going out. But then I thought you know, that somewhere in the world, somebody's hiding behind a rock or a tree, or a wall, or something, and somebody else has been shooting at them for quite some time. Somebody's dreaming, somebody's hoping that somewhere, somebody's singing. Somebody's smiling, and laughing, and life is good, and it's fun to be a human being, and it's all right. And I thought man we got to keep that spirit going, you know, and so we got back out on the road. But I think of that every time that we play now. It would be nice to go anywhere in the world to go and do these kind of things and have fun and live right and not be worried about stuff like that. That's my hope, that everywhere in the world that will happen soon."

"You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant You can get anything you want at Alice's Restaurant Walk right in, it's around the back Just a half a mile from the railroad track You can get anything you want, at Alice's Restaurant"

"Now friends, there was only one or two things that Obie coulda done at the police station, and the first was he could have given us a medal for being so brave and honest on the telephone, which wasn't very likely, and we didn't expect it, and the other thing was he could have bawled us out and told us never to be see driving garbage around the vicinity again, which is what we expected, but when we got to the police officer's station, there was a third possibility that we hadn't even counted upon, and we was both immediately arrested. Handcuffed. And I said "Obie, I don't think I can pick up the garbage with these handcuffs on." He said, "Shut up, kid. Get in the back of the patrol car.""

"This song is called "Alice's Restaurant". It's about Alice. And the Restaurant. But Alice's Restaurant is not the name of the restaurant, that's just the name of the song. That's why I called this song "Alice's Restaurant.""

"I froze in time! And I thought "My God......I'm free!""

"Alice doesn't live in the restaurant, she lives in the church nearby the restaurant, in the bell-tower, with her husband Ray and Fasha the dog. And living in the bell tower like that, they got a lot of room downstairs where the pews used to be in. Having all that room, seeing as how they took out all the pews, they decided that they didn't have to take out their garbage for a long time."

"We went back, afterward, after the show was over that night, I took my kids backstage and said, "You know what? I know my dad's songs...""

"I want tell you about the town of Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where this happened here, they got three stop signs, two police officers, and one police car, but when we got to the scene of the crime, there was five police officers and three police cars, being the biggest crime of the last fifty years, and everybody wanted to get in the newspaper story about it."

"It's about the time I was riding my Motorcycle, going down a mountain road at 150 miles an hour, playing my guitar."

"And they took twenty seven eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against us. Took pictures of the approach, the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography."

"We came to a side road, and off the side of the side road there was another fifteen foot cliff and at the bottom of the cliff there was another pile of garbage. And we decided that one big pile is better than two little piles, and rather than bring that one up we decided to throw ours down."

"[My mother] said, "Arlo, I was out in the middle of China. And they brought out these school kids, and they started singing us songs, and they started singing 'This Land is Your Land', and I said 'STOP! Stop the song! My husband wrote that song!" She must have drove them nuts! She was driving me nuts about it! It was weeks after she had got back she hadn't slowed down about it one little bit! And I just looked at her and I said, "You know, mom...California.....to the New York Island. What are they singing it for over there anyhow?" She just looked with one of those Mom kind of looks. She said, "Oh Arlo..." She walked away. I was left standing there feeling like my usual self. I knew she was right, but I just didn't know why. After a while though, it come to me. I could see it, just because it said "California to the New York Island", didn't mean it had to go the short way! I could see it going around back! Redwood Forests, Gulf stream waters, around that way! Then the whole world could be singing that song! Except America."

"Back around 1971, I was playing in a bar in Chicago one night, and after the show, I was packing up my guitar and stuff, and I was walking out the door, and a little guy stopped me. And he said, "Arlo, before you leave, I wanna sing you a song." I said "Come on man, I don't wanna hear no songs. I hate songs. I don't even like my songs! Why should I like your songs?" I was just tired, I wanted to get out of there, I was being a butt-head. He said, "Arlo, I just wanna sing you one song." I said, "Tell you what. Buy me beer. I'll sit here and drink it. As long as it lasts, you can do whatever you want." He said, "That sounds like a good deal." I said "It does?" It turned out to be one of the finer beers of my entire life."

"For one minute, think of the last guy. Nobody's got it worse than that guy. Nobody in the whole world. He's so alone in the world, that he doesn't even have a street to lay in for a truck to run him over."

"Be serious. Folk songs are serious. That's what Pete Seeger told me. "Arlo, I only wanna tell you one thing. Folk songs are serious." And I said "Right.""

"I'm a lightweight, easy to fall easy to break."

"Got my mind on your body and your body on my mind Got a taste for the cherry, I just need to take a bite Don't tell your mother Kiss one another Die for each other We're cool for the summer"

"If happy is her I'm happy for you"

"So young when the pain had begun Now forever afraid of being loved."

"And I'll just keep changing These colors, colors, colors, colors I'm not in the same place That I was, I was, I was, I was But if somebody tells me I'll go back to my old ways I'm gonna say, no way I'm out of the doorway I'm hearing them all say I'll go back to my old ways Not going back to my old ways (ways...)"

"I don't fall easy often I never had a love like you before."

"Why be afraid to make an honest mistake?"

"I can be manipulated only so many times Before even 'I love you' starts to sound like a lie."

"I knew better than to let you break my heart The soul you'll never see again won't be showing scars You still love her I can see it in your eyes The truth is all that I can hear every time you lie."

"I can't set my hopes too high 'Cause every 'Hello' ends with a 'Goodbye'."

"Now I know who you are Yeah, I see I should have known it from the start."

"I'm gonna love you like I've never been broken."

"You have a hollowed out heart, but it's heavy in your chest I try so hard to fight it, but it's hopeless You're hopeless."

"I won't change anything in my life."