Rock And Roll Museum

Youngtown Rock 'n' Roll Museum well worth visit

Omemee, that town in north Ontario, you know the one. I was there on the weekend and took the opportunity to visit the Youngtown Rock 'n' Roll Museum. If you have the opportunity, take it. Actually, make it. And all you folks excited to see Elton John at the General Motors Centre Sept. 9 should make it too. Because along with a jaw-dropping collection of Ol' Neiler memorabilia and collectibles the seven rooms in the house at 45 King St. E. are packed, packed, packed with other rock icons, including Elton. The lobby is Neil, but as one moves through the rooms one moves through a meandering history of modern music with tangents leading one to The Strawberry Fields Festival held at Mosport in 1970 and to clothing from Ozzy Osbourne, Gene Simmons, Johnny Cash, Dean Martin and Ronnie Hawkins personally donated items. There are posters, tickets, instruments played, rare records, books; it is an unbelievable collection that covers The Beatles, Rolling Stones, Beach Boys, The Who, Jimi Hendrix and Lynyrd Skynyrd, who famously sang, Southern Man don't need Neil Young around anyhow. Oshawa's Sparrows, who morphed into Steppenwolf, are represented, as is Chad Allen, who kick-started the Guess Who. Neil Young has been to the museum as has Garth Hudson of The Band. Trevor Hosier is the man behind this love affair with music and a trip through the museum, through the old tellys and record players and radios, the stickers and buttons and an actual fieldstone from Woodstock, reminds one just how cool rock 'n' roll was (is?) and, yeah, one gets nostalgic for a time when rock music was such a rallying cry to the kids. But the museum also reminds one that rock 'n' roll is about individual artists who, in their own way, in some cases their own lonely way, created those three minutes of three-chord wonders. And when you turn a corner and there behind glass is a dress Janis Joplin wore spread out like a phoenix rising, well, it takes your breath away. Fans of Elton John will undoubtedly experience the same response and fans of Neil Young, well, plan to be there for the entire day. William McGuirk is a freelance writer and longtime Oshawa resident. He can be contacted at wmacg@yahoo.com.