With the news breaking that there was a seven hour gap in Trump’s phone logs on January 6, 2021, I got to thinking about the 18 minute and 20 second gap in the Nixon tapes, which, of course, made me think of Alice’s Restaurant: The Massacree Revisited. I wanted to quote the additional lyrics, but, much to my annoyance, even lyrics sites that claimed to have the lyrics to The Massacre Revisited, they all had the lyrics to the original Alice’s Restaurant.
So here, without further ado, is the ADDITIONAL lyric at the end of The Massacre Revisited.
Now I know this is a long song. Believe me, I know how long it is, and even on the record, when it come out, it was pretty long… what, 18 minutes like I said or something… and I’m not sitting here trying to make it any longer… but I can feel it… I know there’s people sitting in this very room tonight that don’t believe that songs can change the world… or that songs can change the destiny of nations… I don’t blame ya. I wouldn’t have thought so myself. Of course, I know somethin’ that some of you might not know… that I was reminded of it during the last election. See, I remembered back when Jimmy Carter was elected president, ’cause I got a’ invitation to his in-au-gu-ration, and I knew I had to go… ’cause I knew it’d be the only one I’d ever got… been right so far. But I went down to Washington DC—I’m not making this up, now, this is real—I went down to Washington, and it was just like you see on TV, people partying and stuff, and everything was fine until along toward evening, somebody come along and tap me on the shoulder, and I turned around and it was Chip Carter, the president’s son.
Arlo Guthrie
I said, “Hi, Chip!” I recognized him; he was about my age.
He said, “Arlo, I’ve been lookin’ everywhere for you.”
I said, “Chip, how come?”
He said, “Arlo… I’ve got something very important to tell you.”
I said, “Chip… what is it?”
He said, “Arlo… we were moving our stuff into the White House, and in the Nixon record library, we found a copy of your record, Alice’s Restaurant.”
I looked at Chip Carter. I looked deep into the man’s soul; I said “Chi-ip! Was it open?!?”
And in slow motion, he nodded yes, it had been opened.
And I want you folks sitting here tonight to know that I did not think about that for a LONG time, until just recently when we was all thinking about Richard Nixon when he passed away, and… I see some young people here that may not know, see but Richard Nixon was the President of the United States… and he used to like to tape stuff. I mean, if you can imagine a world before VCRs and cassette decks was everywhere, you can imagine a man who was truly ahead of his time! And he, he taped everything that went on in the White House and everything was fine until, one day, they started playing back the tapes! People found out what was going on in there.
But it wasn’t anything that was on any tape that got the man into trouble, so much as it was what he had erased from the tapes. And then there, there was one particular famous gap in one of those tapes, and I was thinkin’ about one night when I said to myself…
“Arlo… how many things in the world are 18 minutes and 20 seconds long?”
Heh. Well? How many things in the world are 18 minutes and 20 seconds long?
Probably just a coincidence…
… but it’s good enough for me.