When the subject turns to musical children attempting to escape the shadows of their musical parents, examples don’t come much bigger than Arlo Guthrie. By the time Arlo embarked on what would turn out to be a Hall of Fame career of his own, his father, iconic Folk hero Woody Guthrie, was the kind of legend against which other legends are measured and come up woefully short.
How does the offspring of the man who wrote “This Land is Your Land” overcome that natural self-generated intimidation and go into the family business? Initially, Arlo concentrated on counterculture humor and sidelong dope references (“The Motorcycle Song” and “Coming Into Los Angeles”) in addition to social protestations in his father's vein, but he stormed the charts with his glorious 1972 version of Steve Goodman’s “City of New Orleans,” a song that ironically might have actually earned more money than Woody Guthrie’s entire recorded catalog to that point.
Of course, Arlo’s most prominent early achievement was 1967’s Homerian Folk epic, “Alice’s Restaurant,” his 18-minute song and debut album that even spawned a movie of the same name. (My favorite scene is when a clearly syphilitic skank beckons Arlo to her scabby, buggy flophouse floor mattress and he demurs with a polite, “No, baby, I don’t want to catch your … cold.”) The album was a huge hit and Arlo managed the almost impossible feat of establishing his own creative identity apart from his supernaturally famous dad.
While Arlo has only occasionally returned to the charts since the ’70s, he’s built a rock-solid career on a rabidly loyal fan base that rightly loves everything he does and follows his every move. Since his ’67 debut, the year that Huntington’s disease robbed the world of his father’s light, Arlo has released nearly 30 albums, backed any number of worthy social causes and watched as his own children (and grandchildren) have run the Guthrie flag a little higher up the music industry’s hill.
If you’re curious as to what Arlo is up to currently, well, you’ll just have to wait for the story to come around on the geetar. And it will.
Arlo Guthrie plays Dave Finkelman Auditorium (Miami University Middletown) Sunday, March 13.
