Every year on Thanksgiving, radio stations around the country play Arlo Guthrie's 1967 track "Alice's Restaurant." But how did this 18-minute satirical song about littering and the Vietnam War become a Thanksgiving classic?

The song, based on a true story, is about Guthrie and fellow musician Rick Robbins.

鈥淭hey were home for Thanksgiving, and they were hanging out with their friend Alice and they had a big Thanksgiving dinner at this church where Alice lived,鈥� said Margot Chobanian, program director for The Colorado Sound.

A series of absurd events ensues, and the resulting song is both a chronicle of those events and a scathing rebuke of bureaucracy and 鈥渢he Man.鈥�

A few years ago, Margot unraveled the mystery of 鈥淎lice鈥檚 Restaurant鈥� for In The NoCo鈥檚 Erin O鈥橳oole. In the spirit of the most (and least!) Thanksgiving song we know, ITN revisits that conversation today.