Quote:
Originally Posted by I LOVE Little Brown Asses
I grew up in the California desert, where good music was hard to come by. Starting at 14, I'd hitch a ride with my 16 year old friend to Hollywood every weekend to go music shopping. We'd always hit Aron's, Vinyl Fetish, a few others, and always Tower Records on Sunset Boulevard.
I went to the same high school as Frank Zappa, but had to drive 60 miles to find his catalog in a music store. I'd hear Bob Mould on a fuzzy connection on KLOS 95.5FM, but it took a trip to Tower to get cassettes. I still have a few autographed momentos from the in-store appearances and record release parties.
They were expensive, but it didn't matter. It was the thrill of the hunt. My friends and I would scour the rack for an hour trying to one-up each other with the gems, rarieties, bootlegs, and obscure side projects (this CD has a track that Tom Morello played guitar on when he was 7...).
Tower records was where I learned to be a music snob.
R.I.P.
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I still have over 2,000 wax LPs, including bootlegs, limited editions, autographed copies (mostly from in-store signings at Tower) etc., so I can relate.
The night John Lennon was killed, I went to Tower Records with my wife, where a number of other Lennon fans had gathered, and we shared memories.
And I remember when we had an in-store contest amongst the staff to see who could type fastest to download Ticketmaster tickets. The shit hit the fan when someone from Ticketmaster noticed that practically the entire first row of a Springsteen concert was occupied by Tower Records employees and their friends. They broke that up, but it was sure fun while it lasted.
As a musician, I love many forms of music, although it saddens me a bit that currently musicianship is being marginalized in favor of looks, dancing skills and pre-recorded/DJ spinning, in much of the popular music.
I suspect that the musicians will revolt, and fans will continue to seek out and support musicians, singers and songwriters that actually play, sing and write songs.
Thanks for starting this thread...
Long live rock and roll!!!
ADG Webmaster