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mediumokra t1_ixo1r1r wrote

It took me YEARS to realize the point of the song Alice's Restaurant. The hidden message in the song is that he tells the story and says he's REALLY here to talk about the draft, and the things he does to try to make himself undesirable to the military.... But then they find out he was arrested for littering and they wouldn't take him.

The REAL hidden message in the song is if you can get yourself arrested for a minor crime like littering, you can avoid getting drafted. That's the whole hidden message.

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therealganjababe t1_ixo7suh wrote

I have to disagree,. I believe the message is how fucked up war is, that they'd take murderers and rapers but not someone who got arrested for something silly. That he was unacceptable to go kill people, and the absurdity of the draft, the war, all of it.

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Desarme t1_ixotbj8 wrote

I believe rapers aren't the only type of musician they draft to war.

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richg0404 t1_ixofdsf wrote

> The hidden message in the song is that he tells the story and says he's REALLY here to talk about the draft

Well it's not really hidden given that Arlo says that exact thing in the song.

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BearsArrive t1_ixq5sr0 wrote

Not sure I'd say that's a hidden message as much as it's just the exact content of the song.

The 'message,' as Arlo tells it, is a sort of celebration of stupidity. Let's all be thankful that the assholes running our world are morons too, or there'd have been a lot more folks shipped out to Vietnam.

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