http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/40-sad-p ... ord-stores

Saw this link over at the Hoffman site. Sad reminder that an era has come to an end.

btw, my local Tower Records in Massapequa NY also closed in 2006 (I still can't believe it) and is now a Mens Wearhouse.

Wish it was easier to post pics. I'd love to share my memories of working at Tower Sunset. Some of the most carefree days of my life. But... working at Licorice Pizza was even MORE fun!

Between 1983 & 1988, during my high school & college years, I worked at three record stores in the Staten Island Mall: Music Factory, Record Town and Sam Goody (never at the same time, though). I haven't been there in almost 20 years, and I'm guessing all of them are long gone. I like to think I'm the only person to have worked in all three stores, especially since I spent all my free time in those stores when I wasn't working & I knew everyone who worked there.

Rich K

Easiest way to post pics:

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Simple!

I wish I could have worked in a record store but there weren't any in my small town (Whitestone NY) back in the 70's.
I had to ride my bike to SS Linds in North Flushing or to Flushing NY proper to buy records back then.

If I had grown up in Massapequa, I'm sure I would have tried to get a job at that Tower Records.

Wow - I was kind of stunned to see two stores I'd patronized in that set.

Pot O'Gold in Binghamton, NY. Not one I went to a lot, but when my sister-in-law lived in the area, I would go there. I picked up a bunch of Bob Newhart stuff at great prices. Saw some of the early Seger stuff there, too. Can't recall a whole lot else.

But the shocker was Sam The Record Man in Toronto. When I got married 127 years ago, we went to Toronto on our honeymoon and I fell in love with the place. We checked into our hotel, I pulled back the curtains and was greated by that giant neon record. Sam's was a must-stop every time I was in Toronto, and it's sad to think I won't get to go back there. Such a great variety of stuff - I picked up one of my favorite obscure finds there, a Derek & Clive album - "Derek & Clive Live", I believe. I think I've only ever had it on cassette, but I need to transfer it to CD. I had a chance to pick up the CD there and passed, I believe. I loaned my first copy to a buddy, and someone stole his radio from work with the tape in it. I used to hit a lot of record stores there.

Haven't been to TO in years, but it won't be the same. Anyone know if The World's Biggest Bookstore is still kicking?

Alan

I certainly hope you took care of business before succumbing to the lure of the record store across from the honeymoon suite.

The World's Biggest Bookstore was still kicking as of last June when I went up for the Cardinals-Blue Jays series. So was the big HMV a block down from where Sam's used to be, but Yonge Street is definitely not the same without STRM. What a great place that was; I always allowed a minimum of four hours within any trip to TO just to shop at that store. And sometimes that wasn't enough.

If I tried to list (much less remember) every record store I haunted in Manhattan from the late sixties through the seventies alone I'd explode. Small hole in the wall stores that sold the most amazing stuff dead cheap. Hell, I bought Patti Smiths first 45 in a bookstore. Gems like radio promo copies of Funhouse would show up next to Doug Clark and His Hot Nuts. The Great White Wonder was everywhere. Here are some I loved:
Interesting Records on 23rd St. next to the Chelsea Hotel. Found things like Dion and the Wanderers 45's, Stalk Forest Group, Big Star, HP Lovecraft for next to nothing.

Discophile on West 8th street. The guy who worked the rock section would write little pocket reviews for 45's and lp's that were informative and fun. Never would have heard Roxy Music if not for him.

Korvetts on 34th St. Best bargain bins in the world. Thousands of records for $1.99, would spend hours there.

Free Being on 2nd Ave. Crazed place, but they had a cool selection in the 70's. Best memory was some jock type in a football Jersey freaking over Eno's synth break on Virginia Plain. That's when I knew there was a God.

There was also a string of cheapo drug stores that had records in the back. Stuff like Silver Metre for 25 cents. Some warehouse in the west 50's where you could get Arthur Lee, Crazy Horse and tons of stuff for a half buck. Great days, indeed.

Korvetts (or was it Korvettes?) on Staten Island was the go-to place to buy records for me in the mid to late 70s. I think I bought all my Kiss records there. Ahh, the days when a department store actually had a great record department. Or any record department at all.

Your spelling is the right one. Don't know what I was thinking. Didn't they have letter codes for pricing?

I think the official name was E.J. Korvette, but as you know it was always known as Korvettes. And yes, they did have letter codes for pricing. I had forgotten that. I remember going there to buy Kiss' "Love Gun" LP in 1977 with what I thought was exact change (their regular price was probably $3.99 at that time), but discovered that they raised their price codes that day and it was $4.99. I was 11 at the time & didn't have any extra money on me, so I ran home & begged my neighbor's mother to borrow the extra money. An hour later I was listening to the record. What memories!

Yeah, it's a shame all of that is gone now. That whole thing of walking into these odd little stores and finding music and folks of similar bent was a big part of my musical education.

I used to visit stores on the smaller side, all of which are long gone now. Back in the day that I was a teen, the late-70's, it was virtually impossible to get a job in a record store. You had to have serious connections to get in and you had to be very knowledgeable when it came to music. In the later days of record stores, most employees were minimum wage twits who didn't give a damn about knowing the product or servicing the customer. I really miss the days of stores where you could ask a good question and have a better-than-average chance of getting an answer. The internet and all of its resources certainly help, but I miss the service from those days.

For me it started with Discount Records in Joplin, Mo. Every Friday they'd run an ad with a coupon for one 45 at 49 cents. Otherwise, they were 88 cents each. From there it went something like this (favorites only):

Ben Franklin record department in Monett, Mo. Run by a gloriously cool lady named Betty who always diverted me from my mainstream orientation to deeper, more exicting things. "David, why buy We're An American Band when you can get the Kink Kronikles?"

Kaleidoscope Records in Springfield, Mo.

Musicland in Springfield, where I worked.

Love Records in Kansas City.

Tiger's in Independence, MO (which was alleged to have been a front for either a drug business or a brothel but what a great selection and low prices!)

Sunshine Records in Kalispell, MT (where I worked)

Underground Records in Denver, CO (which ultimately changed hands and became Twist and Shout)
Wax Trax, Denver, CO
The Malt Shop, Denver, CO
Recycle Records, Denver, CO

ORWAKA Distributing in Denver (where I worked) -- at the time, one of the premier independent label distributors (Rounder, Flying Fish, Windham HIll, Arhoolie, KIng, etc.)

Western Merchandisers (WM Distributing and One Stop, in Denver, where I worked)

Rasputin's -- Berkeley, CA
Leopold's -- Berkely, CA
Tower - Berkeley and SF
Revolver Records-- SF

Eli's - Spokane, WA (where I worked)

And, finally, back to Denver where Twist & Shout gets all my money now and remains healthy and viable!

When I was a kid (before I had a car) my record buying excursions were mainly to Flushing NY (home of the NY Mets) and back then dept stores sold records. So I'd buy em at EJ Korvettes or Gertz or Alexanders or sometimes Woolworths. There was an independent store called King Karol Records and another small shop that I think was called Record Explosion.
That was back in the day that record buying was fun and memorable. I can still remember buying certain albums at certain stores.

But even those stores didn't last long even back then.

Then I started to work in Manhattan so I would load up during my lunch breaks down in Wall Street. J&R Music World was the center of the universe in those days. An absolutely incredible store. Bought my first Madonna 12" there. These days J&R is a shell of its former self but at least it still exists (and is essentially the only large record store left in Manhattan!). For me it is the only record shop I would make a trip for while in NYC.

Once I started to work on LI, it was weekly excursions to a Tower Records. We had two, Carle Place (a real large one) and then the Massapequa store when I moved to that town in 1991.
So I enjoyed the Massapequa Tower from 1991 to 2006. And that was the end of record shopping for me.
After that it was the internet.

This was one of mine...just closed this past December. Zig Zag Records, Ave. U, Brooklyn, NY:





The other was the late, great Titus Oaks. My local one was 3 blocks west of Zig Zag on Ave. U in Brooklyn, but I frequented the ones in Huntington and Westbury L.I. too. Can't find a photo of either of those though. R.I.P. to all.

I would also frequent occasionally the Titus Oaks in Westbury on Old Country Rd (almost in Levittown).

Zig Zag was my local indie growing up too. The inside looked pretty much the same back then, but it was all vinyl.

When I lived in Nashville in the late-70's, one of my favorite haunts was the Great Escape, which is still in business, though I think they've changed located a few times. I wonder how long they'll hang in there.



When I moved to the Boston area, I started frequenting Newbury Comics. At the time, they had only one location, on Newbury Street in Boston. Aimee Mann worked behind the counter during her early "Til Tuesday days, but she was a colossal bitch!



One of my all-time favorites though was a small place called "Disc Diggers" in Davis Square in Somerville, just outside of Boston. Al Kooper lived nearby and used to pop in regularly. He even performed at their closing party. Since Disc Diggers, I haven't really gotten attached to another store. Newbury Comics serves the indie purposes for me and otherwise it's chains or online.

A tip of the hat to Cellophane Square of Seattle and Bellingham. A wonderful store that knew its stuff during the punk / new wave era. They got bought up by a national as internet sales started hurting the local mom & pop stores. National management was the death knell. They went down hill, then they went away. I have fond memories of Saturday afternoons digging through the bins finding vinyl treasures and becoming aware of the whole UK import scene, singles in particular. Sigh...