Comments inserted:
Dismuke wrote:
--- phillip holmes <insuranceman@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Did you know I was thinking of Collectors' Records?
....... Did you ever meet John Stainze
there?
I would probably recognize him if I saw him - I never
really knew people's names there. Except for the
older gentleman in the back with the 78 whose name I
usually can remember but forget at the moment. He
passed away before the store closed.
John had a British accent and was an A&R guy at Vertigo (or?) who signed
Dire Straits. Great guy with great stories that moved to the US and
buys/sells records for a living now.
I think Louis is who you're talking about--the old guy in the back.
Read Lisa's blogs about Collectors (but not out loud--not for the
squeamish or the easily offended):
http://cathead9.blogspot.com/2007/02/my-old-job.html
http://cathead9.blogspot.com/2007/05/more-record-store-ies.html
http://cathead9.blogspot.com/2007/05/son-of-record-store-ies.html
By the way, that's not a picture of her on the page. I don't know who
that guy is.
Am I supposed to cry because the Virgin
Megastore left Dallas?
I wasn't even aware it left. I went to the Grapevine
Mills location once - and yawned.
They can all go out of business. Waste of time! Pop culture crap for
poseurs.
However, I was
sad when Tower died. They were the last CD Store to carry a deep
catalog and they even sold records, making it a record shop. Tower was
a
chain of real record shops.
I went to the one in New York City on Broadway not too
far from Greenwich Village a couple of years ago. It
was one of the only times in my life as an adult I
actually had to make a choice between which brand new
CDs of 1920s and 1930s reissues I wanted to buy as I
had already picked out about $200 worth of stuff. They even had British
releases of reissues that I was
not even aware existed. THAT store would have been
wonderful to have had in Fort Worth/Dallas.
The Dallas location was pretty good. They'd try to get anything you asked
for. The people were interested in selling records (CDs) and were pretty
knowledgeable.
On the other hand, when I was in Atlanta several years
ago I went out of my way to visit the Tower Records
there and found absolutely nothing of interest.
Perhaps people are just too stupid or have no taste.
Or they are victims of a popular culture that
introduces them to nothing but garbage. They don't
know anything better - because for so many years,
unless one was fortunate enough to have cultured
family members or other influences, it was almost
impossible for kids with limited spending money to
access other music. All that was there was AM/FM type
drivel. Thankfully, the Internet today gives kids who
are willing to explore new genres the opportunity to
do so. And, of course, there are always plenty of
those who pick their taste in music on the same basis
that they pick their taste in clothing - they are
mindless sheep who are trying ape their peers who are,
in turn, mindless sheep trying to ape everyone else.
Poor kids used to make music with their family and at church. They
developed a sense of taste and an "ear for a tune". Kids like that turned
into the great jazz, blues and rock musicians. Elvis was pretty poor.
Black folks in the South were at a disadvantage in every way imaginable,
but look at what music they created in spite of the prejudice and
racism!!! Now days, the kids play video games, especially the poor ones.
There are at least two groups of people: people who follow and people who
don't. In other words, there will be people that buy what everyone else
buys (for many reasons). Then there are people like me, contrarians ,
that wouldn't do what anyone else did (even if the Holy Trinity made the
record, and it was the best record in the history of the cosmos, I
wouldn't buy it if everyone else thought it was good). I've grown out of
that, and it's just as stupid as being a follower.
The selection at Target, Wal-Mart, and the like, remind me of that
little rack of cassette tapes they have at every mega truck stop. "Tammy
Wynette and "old possum face's" greatest duets" and the complete
works of ZZ Top.
There actually are people out there whose tastes and
approach to life never advances beyond that of "If
Wal-mart don't got it, you don't need it."
Don't get me wrong - I love Wal-mart when it comes to
buying things such as basic groceries and garden
hoses. I was about to say that cheap mass market stuff
has its place but not in the world of music. But then
I forgot - I LOVE the wonderful "dime store" dance
band music sold in the day's Wal-mart equivelents back
in the late 1920s and early 1930s. So there is nothing
inherently bad about mass market tastes, per se. It
all comes back to the pop culture. Taste and style
went out the window after World War II and fell into
the sewer in the 1960s and has yet to dry off, let
alone recover.
I worked at Wal-Mart while going to school. I hate Wal-Mart. Die,
Wal-Mart, DIE! For every good thing you can say about Wal-Mart, I can
find something bad.
So where is the store in Ft Worth? I go there to
buy surplus/used/military/aviation tubes and parts for
radio and hi-fi restorations.
It is on University directly across from the TCU
campus. I THINK it is called "Record Town" - but I
may be mistaken. Regardless, you cannot miss it as it
has a big 1950s vintage sign showing a record with an
RCA Victor label.
Oh yes. I've been there. But it's not even a shadow of Collectors. A
pale imitation of a ghost of a shadow. But they do try, and effort
counts for something. They really can't stock much in a store that small.
I still find decent things at Half-Priced books on occasion, but find the
best stuff at estate sales.
If you are a 78 buyer, have you bought from Jim in Austin?
Phillip