The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 01, 1989, Page 4, Image 4
Flashback
Guthrie
By KELLY C. THOMAS
Assistant news editor
There were young people and old people and just all
kinds of folks crowded around the tiny tables at
Greenstreet s Sunday night, and they were all there to see
the '60s folk performer Arlo Guthrie.
There were people there in their 30s ? the people who
were around when the songs were first sung and could
recall the sentiment behind the words as if it had all happened
yesterday. And there were people there in their 30s
who were around when the songs were first sung, but
could not recall the sentiment because the sentiment got
lost somewhere when the dope and acid wore off.
There were college students there who had, at some
point in their lives, stumbled across some old Guthrie
tunes and loved them. They were there to take a closer
look at the man who had found a way to put their own
beliefs and ideals into words before they were even old
enough to believe them.
And there were college students there wearing strings of
plastic beads in the hopes that people would think they
were love beads. They were there because they see the '60s
as "cool" and want to be seen by people who actually
understood the ideas of the '60s.
Anyway, there were loads of people there, all to see
Arlo Guthrie.
The casual chatter of the crowd was disturbed by a split
second of silence and then the whole crowd ? the whole
mass of wall-to-wall people burst into a cheering roar as
Guthrie took the stage.
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Music education senior Billy Tidwell totes his tuba aero
Tuesday.
I 3 DAYS ONLY"!
1 "GOURMET"
? Chocolate fflmond Co
I# Very Rich W/Whole Almor
I# OPEN UNTIL 10:00 PM! 9S
\% COUPON EXPIRES 3/3/89
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We've Gotten Spring fever.
We've Played in the Snow..
We Beat Louisville III
NOW, COME AND C6LEBR,
Spring Break '89
"Be the Life of the Pc
Be the Designated Dri\
Wednesday. March I. 1989
7:00pm-&:30pm - HAPPY HOUR: N?'?R DO
and BRANDY RUCK?R - Comedy at the Gold
Hors d'oeurves and mocktails will be served,
catch your high flying freebie !! Co-sponsor
Kappa Alpha.
Thursday. March 2. 1989
y:30pm-7:30pm - Thursday's Alcohol fret
Club- Patio Cafe at Patterson Hall. Come c
while you dine, sip on your favorite mocktail
ocean view, soft music, and fly awcry freebie
sponsored by University Dining Services.
Office of Alcohol &. Drug Programs
Department of Student Life/Division of Stud(
The University of South Carolina
777-66S&
plays gui
Silence quickly ensued and the performance began.
And what a performance it was!
Guthrie sang and talked intermittently, catching the
crowd up in a personal, one-to-one conversation and
making them laugh at every turn. I'm not kidding ? the
man was hilarious.
The show was proceeding nicely when, during the middle
of the first set, this really annoying chick near the
lront waved her copy of the Alice's Restaurant album in
the air and shouted at the top of her little blonde lungs, "I /
don't want a pickle!" (For those of you who don't know,
"I don't want a pickle" is the first line to Guthrie's "The
Motorcycle Song.")
Guthrie, un fa zed, simply turned his head toward her,
said, "Good!" and continued to play, to the delight of
the rest of the audience.
Undaunted, the same annoying chick, during the middle
of the next song, cried out, "I don't want a
PICKLE!"
Guthrie stopped singing, kept playing, looked at her
and said, "We've got lots of time, we'll get there. Don't
worry."
The crowd cheered, and the girl shut up.
When he did get to "The Motorcycle Song," he told the
story of how it came to be.
It seems one day, Arlo was riding his motorcycle along
a mountain road. There was a mountain on one side and a
real steep cliff on the other. Arlo was playing his guitar.
Well, one of the strings on his guitar broke and wrapped
itself around a signpost. Arlo kept one hand on the
S Spring bn
Features editors
Ah . . . does it not seem like yester
this all started? Yet here we all are again.
You can 7 put your foot down wit
ing to pick it up again. Bummer. ? At
What to Do and HowFor this extra-sp
spring break occasion, we at the feati
have decided to include some extra-sp*
"What to Do" and "How to Do It"
ideas to ensure that all o' you folks have
a special wild spring break. We have cor
gyrations and rude finger gestures galore
untamed lands of repute to explore,
dudes and chicks all happy and sore; tl
this in store and even much more.
We've only got seven give-or-take-ato
raise hell, so, as we at the features de;
it up right.
How to Get Arrested This is one of
noble and time-honored spring break t
It is also an area of expertise at the feati
There are many ways to get arrested, so
than others, but it all depends on what
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guitar and one hand on the bike and promptly went over
the side.
On the way down, he figured he'd write one last song
so people could remember him. But he thought and
thought and no inspiration came to him. So he looked up,
and the words to the song were written in flames on the
clouds. So he wrote them down and learned them real
?ak: what to dt
day when
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types of Ulaacg
an extra- <20 ""
itests and charge you can manage to find looking for >
we have The most famous and perhaps least costly
We have to get arrested is the simple Public Drunker
here is all Being a public drunk is quite easy, and you
find that you can develop a knack for it.
few days drunk tank where they put you is full of o
>k say, do people just like you, too, and you can make s
interesting and entertaining friends,
the most Indecent exposure is another goody. It's air
raditions. as easy as being a public drunk and, says
ares desk. Gordon at the Columbia Police Departm
me better possibly cheaper.
kind of a In fact, Eva gave us the whole price list, f
dv . O type blood is rare
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quick (he was still falling, you know).
Anyway, to make a long story shorter, that was how he
came to write "The Motorcycle Song."
- But he didn't die, and one night he was in a bar and the
performer who was supposed to perform didn't show up,
and the manager asked him to play "until they could find
somebody good." He had no idea what to sing, so he just
sang "The Motorcycle Song," and they liked it, and he's
performed it ever since.
Of course, the story was much more fun the way HE
* told it.
Well, Guthrie finished one set and left, promising to do
another one real soon, and those of us watching stood up
to stretch our legs (or sat down to rest them) and talked
about how good the show was, and how much everybody
wished that chick up front would stop waving that album
in the air.
Soon, Guthrie reappeared and performed his new version
of "Alice's Restaurant."
After a few more tunes, Guthrie got up to leave and was
called back by a standing ovation. He performed one
more song and then left again. The second standing ovation
did not bring him back, and the crowd settled down
to the idea that Mr. Guthrie was not going to reappear.
And so ended the evening of musical festivity at
Greenstreet's.
Some people left, some stayed to talk and relive the
evening amongst themselves, and the real annoying chick
tried to get backstage and was promptly escorted out of
the building.
9, how to do it
cheapest to most-expensive, for spring break-ish
offenses. It goes like this:
sf Indecent exposure ? depending on the circumstance,
can run from nothing to more than
C $1000.
Public drunkenness ? $55
Disorderly conduct ? $90
=jrj Loud and unnecessary noise ? $111
?l) Disturbing a religious service ? if you happen
across some hippies holding hands and disturb
rou. them, $111
/^v im i o
way wpen container ? 3>no
less. Trespassing ? if somebody owns that beach,
may $211
The Simple possession of marijuana ? $218
ther
ome Safety and brain cells Operating any heavy
machinery over spring break is a no-no for us
nost features guys. The strain the average spring break
Eva places upon the average person's brain is far too
tent, intense to allow any sort of manual dexterity. So
stay away from cars, yo-yo's and shower curtain
rom rods.
+ American Red Cross
SC Regional Blood Services
Cruise Into Spring
at
The Traffic Liciht
Save
70%
f on Selected Merchandise
716 Saluda 765-9972
SENIORS!
to sign up for the organizations listed below. Sign
Placement Office, 6th Floor, H. William Close
dline is Thursday, March 2.
AIR CAP
INDUS I KltS
BROOKSTONE
DEPARTMENT OF
SOCIAL SERVICES
F.N. WOLFE
MAERSK
NORTHWESTERN
MUTUAL
RUSSELL STOVER
ZALES