The Spartans of East Lansing went all the way there. They made it past the bouncers, they got to the stage, but in the end they got the gong. But they went farther than everyone else.
I have some good memories of East Lansing. My dear friend Keith used to, ahem, go to school there in '73-'75, or '76. He lived a modified version of the punk lifestyle at MSU, so very cool at 19, 20, 21, when all that stuff was exploding around him. I remember going for a visit, prowling the halls of various dorms, swigging from whiskey bottles like we were Johnny Rotten. One time I distinctly remember passing the closed doors of some auditorium, asking who was that singing on stage. "That's Loudon Wainwright III" (Rufus' dad, y'know) I cracked open the door & remarked. "he ain't too 'Loud', is he?" My g-g-g-generation, what can I say.
Some of my ex-in-laws lived up there, still do, and there were plenty of great memories with those folks. My daughter graduated from MSU what seems like a hundred years ago, now that she's a wife and mother.
I saw The Stones in 1994 when Spartan Stadium was just remodelled, or just re-somethinged. I remember some decent record shops, like Flat Black & Circular. And then there was Dooley's, a bar big enough to throw the biggest party in town, and of course Beggar's Banquet, the bar where someone wrote "leave the stones alone" on the wall outside. Someone would paint over it & it would always show up again. And Larry's Shop-Rite for great prices on booze. And the always questionable chocolate cheese from the campus dairy.
And then there was the bar whose name I can't remember, where The Ramones and Patti Smith played. Chances Are maybe? And the street musician King Swami. Maybe not so much street.
Anyway, a lot of memories that can wash away any defeat thrust upon that great city.
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