Just finished reading "Record Store Days", which I recommend most highly, not just for the love letter to record stores, but the fantastic photos -- reminders of the clutter, the dust, the piles of boxes, the walls papered with posters and promo flyers -- that WAS the record store experience. The book offers hope that, like the independent bookstore, the record store still has a chance to live.
Here's just a few of my 'record store moments':
Puget Sound Records in Bellingham WA. My girlfriend and I are buying an album -- just one (college days, tight budget). She wants Jackson Browne's "Late for the Sky" and since I want her, that's what I bring to the counter. Co-owner suggests instead John Martyn's "Solid Air". Umm, who?? A few years later, my next girlfriend and I discover "Solid Air". Jeez, it's like the sky opened and the lightning struck. John Martyn was now the standard (and yes, dear reader, I married her.)
Working at Everybody's Records in Bellevue. I'm now Assistant Manager (or was it "Assistant TO the Manager"?) and as such, have to work late nights. Need to know: we made a tiny percentage of profit on LP sales, so we added high mark-up items, like, um, "smoking accesories" -- pipes, bongs, ornamental coke spoons -- because the profit was like 200%. So, I'm standing at the "accessory" counter, when a guy comes in, very frazzled, leans on the counter, and asks "Do you guys have NEEDLES!?" Me, stuttering, replies: "Gosh, we have pipes and bongs and stuff, but we don't carry needles!" His response: "I mean record needles, for my stereo, man!" (Cue apology from me..._)
Next would have to be my experience at Music Street in Mount Vernon. I'm hired because: A:I have experience, and B: I shamelessly tell the manager that I LOVE his band (story to come later -- one of my Top Five concert experiences -- but NOT because of his band). I'm working, straightening shelves, etc., the two women on the staff are smoking (yeah, I know -- inside the store!) and listening to the "Moondance" LP by Van Morrison. Album clicks off, so I go and turn it over to Side Two. Minutes later, astonishnent from the women: "What IS that?" Umm, it's Side Two of "Moondance"? "Wow! We've never turned it over!"
Ah, memories light the corner of my mind... More to follow.
Great stories from another time. In Port Angeles where I grew up, I was a frequent visitor to Budget Tapes and Records. I always appreciated the fact that if I was debating whether or not to buy a certain new album, they'd rip open a copy and play it for me in the store. I guess we do the same thing with mp3 samples today, but somehow it's just not the same.
ReplyDeleteThanks for loaning me the book.
So just for the record...(get it...)a very dear friend of mine just turned me onto your blog...Looking forward to reading with my husband...thanks for being here!
ReplyDelete