Arlo Guthrie (born 10th July 1947, Brooklyn, New York ) is an American folk… Read Full Bio ↴Arlo Guthrie (born 10th July 1947, Brooklyn, New York ) is an American folk singer who is the son of folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie and his wife Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, a one-time professional dancer with the Martha Graham Company and founder of The Committee to Combat Huntington's Disease. He graduated from the Stockbridge School of Massachusetts in 1965, and briefly attended Rocky Mountain College.

His most famous work is Alice's Restaurant, a talking blues song that lasts eighteen minutes and twenty seconds (in its original recorded version; Guthrie has been known to spin the story out to forty-five minutes in concert). The song, a bitingly satirical protest against the Vietnam War draft, is based on a true incident. In the song, Guthrie was called up for a draft examination, and rejected as unfit for military service as a result of a criminal record consisting in its entirety of a single arrest, court appearance, fine and clean-up order for littering. In reality, Guthrie, though a carrier of the genetically inherited disease Huntington's chorea, was classified as fit (1A); however, his draft-lottery number did not come up.

Farrell O'Gara
Arlo Guthrie Lyrics

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Guthrie Arlo
The Last Of The Brooklyn Cowboys
Farewell O'Gara
(Instrumental)

Overall Meaning

As the title suggests, "Farewell O'Gara" is an instrumental track from Arlo Guthrie's 1973 album "The Last of the Brooklyn Cowboys." The piece evokes a sense of nostalgia and longing, perhaps for a time or place that can never be recaptured. The music starts slow and mournful, with a repeated melody on acoustic guitar, and gradually builds to a more uplifting and hopeful crescendo with the addition of a mandolin and a fiddle.

Despite the lack of lyrics, the title of the piece suggests that there is a story behind it. Farrell O'Gara is a common Irish name, and perhaps the music is intended to evoke memories of the "old country" and the struggles of Irish immigrants in America. It's also possible that the piece is a tribute to a specific person named Farrell O'Gara, who may have been a friend or family member of Guthrie. Regardless of the specific meaning behind the piece, it is a powerful and evocative example of instrumental music that can speak to the emotions of the listener without the need for words.

Writer(s): BURKE KEVIN

Contributed by Dylan V. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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