U of Goo mired in PC poo

Oh, how the times have changed.

My fat ass graced or disgraced the U of G campus for a few semesters back in the early eighties. I made my contribution to campus life by penning a few diatribes for the Ontarion and subsidizing the campus pubs to the best of my ability.

Alas, it seems that was not nearly enough.

According to reports from legit media sources, the Student Union at UG had collective kittens over a Lou Reed tune that has been an anthem among queerish folks for close to fifty years.

Take a walk on the wild side indeed!

What the fuck is wrong with these people?

Personality crisis

It was a late autumn afternoon in Guelph sometime in the mid 70's. The New York Dolls had just come out with an album that, I recall to this day, was pegged by one of the top rock & roll writers as a collision between the Rolling Stones and a semi-truck. I think it might have been Lester Bangs, but I'm not sure.

Anyway, I was so exquisitely drug-addled on that autumn afternoon that I decided, then and there, that I was heading to New York City to make my mark, come what may.

I was off to New York City!

Stood in front of my house out there on Hwy 86 with my thumb out and a knapsack slung over my shoulder.

A couple hours later I'd made it as far as the corner of Hanlon Expressway and College Ave. The drugs were wearing off. It was dark by now. Cold too, and rapidly getting colder.

Soon I was cold sober, ten miles from my house but still 500 miles from New York City.

That's when I remembered that my pal Higgins lived just a couple of blocks from that intersection.

Long story short, after I got cold enough, I made the fateful decision to walk a couple of blocks instead of hitch-hiking my way to NYC, unlike the protagonist in a famous Lou Reed song.

Higgins' place was warm! I pulled the forty pounder of CC out of that knapsack and me and Higgins made a night of it.

So if you're wondering why I never made it big in the NYC underground music scene, blame Higgins.

gone, gone...the damage done

It took me a long time to realize what a mensch Neil Young was.

Back in the day, I was busy buying records by Dylan and Deep Purple and Black Sabbath...

The damage done...

I knew a few guys who had gone down the H highway.

It was a great gig till it wasn't, and by then you were dead.

Got to thinking about that last week when it came out that Lou Reed had gone to his reward. Lou kept on keeping on, writing songs about the big H his whole life. Most of his listeners never figured out what he was on about.

I have to admit I didn't give Neil his due till the story came out that Bob had been sniffing around Winnipeg looking for Neil Young's boyhood home.

I'd once spent an entire day sniffing around Winnipeg looking for a house that was on the cover of a Guess Who album.

Never found it. Retreated back to my room at the Oxford Arms in the bleakest of black depressions. Had I known then that Bob Dylan would someday spend an afternoon looking for Neil's house, I would have kept looking for that Guess Who album cover house.

But that was then...