I'll Take Manhattan In A Garbage Bag With Latin Written On It That Says `It's Hard To Give A Shit These Days'

Just popped in Lou's 1989 masterpiece New York. It's hard to believe this is almost twenty years old. At the same time, it seems a heck of a lot older. The New York he sang about here is gone. And many would say good riddance. Anyone who reads me on a regular basis knows I'm a little more conflicted on all this.

I'm not going to regurgitate my ramblings on gentrification or the fact that there are thirty two Duane Reeds between 70th and 100th Street on Broadway.

Instead I'll just crank "Romeo Had Juliette" and remember when I'd pop that on, fire up a Marlboro Red and get wasted roaming the streets pretending I was anyone but me.

While the exteriors have changed, some of Lou's lyrics still hold true. "Give me your tired, your poor, I'll piss on them."

And even if the buildings are a lot bigger, a lot uglier and a lot richer, the underlying themes Reed wrote of are still in play today. "Manhattan's sinking like a rock into the filthy Hudson, what a shock." It's just a lot cleaner on the outside. Not prettier, but cleaner. We're still all fucked up on the inside.

Great music. Too bad he's such a tool.