Seeing the news and blog posts on the 50th anniversary of Woodstock made me think of this song. I bought the Woodstock triple album set in the late seventies or early eighties…this song I liked automatically. It’s catchy and is about as anti-authority as you can get. The imagery is fun in this song… Chicken flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer and Walking in the hall with his things and all
Smiling, said he was the Lone Ranger
This is the song that really got me into Arlo…though I had heard City of New Orleans. After hearing this I wanted to check out his music.
Arlo wrote this song and it was on his second album Running Down the Road. The great Clarence White played guitar on this song. Other musicians on the album were Ry Cooder, Gene Parsons, and James Burton. The song didn’t chart because it’s pretty clear why (Coming into Los Angeles, Bringing in a couple of ki’s, don’t touch my bags if you please
mister customs man)…but the album peaked at #54 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1969.
The best-known version is the Woodstock version.
Studio Version
Woodstock
Coming Into Los Angeles
Coming in from London from over the pole
Flying in a big airliner
Chicken flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man, yeah
There’s a guy with a ticket to Mexico
No, he couldn’t look much stranger
Walking in the hall with his things and all
Smiling, said he was the Lone Ranger
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man
Hip woman walking on the moving floor
Tripping on the escalator
There’s a man in the line and she’s blowing his mind
Thinking that he’s already made her
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man
Coming in from London from over the pole
Flying in a big airliner
Chicken flying everywhere around the plane
Could we ever feel much finer
Coming into Los Angeles
Bringing in a couple of ki’s
Don’t touch my bags if you please
Mister customs man, yeah, all right
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This is one of the Woodstock songs I think of first, too. Did you see Arlo’s posts from the Woodstock site this week? He was set to do a concert Thursday night on the spot where the old stage stood, but when he arrived they had instead set up the stage by the building at the far opposite end of the property, and not a sufficient sound system for the 5k tickets they had sold. WTH? Not sure what’s wrong with the people who did that!
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No I didn’t know about it…I thought everything was cancelled. I just started to look it up. I mean there is no excuse for the sound system not being up to par in this day and time…and if you are going to do it…do it right…have it on the same spot. It’s not like 5K is hard to maneuver around.
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The Woodstock 50 event by the original organizers (if you can call them that) was cancelled. I’m not sure it ever really got off the ground. But there were at least a couple of Woodstock artists who wanted to perform at the actual site on the actual anniversary. That went forward. Arlo and Melanie were there. It was unbelievably out of touch for the venue to not get the conditions perfect for Arlo’s performance. Inexcusable. I’m cynical about that lame, overhyped venue and about Woodstock in general, but sheesh, Arlo doing a 50th anniversary concert there was the real deal. It was THE 50th anniversary concert.
How did they not take it seriously?? I’m ranting, and preaching to the choir, I know.
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On the Woodstock film- this was a highlight- along with Arlo’s comment on the NY Thruway..
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Arlo’s a chip off the old block. His dad would be proud to hear his anti-establishment tunes. Alice’s Restaurant is a manifesto! Such a disappointment they didn’t have things right for Arlo to play 😦
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I know…that was so unprofessional. I agree his dad would be proud. You know I never have the urge to meet famous people…but Arlo…different story. I wold love to meet him.
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