Comments inserted:
Dismuke wrote:
> --- phillip holmes <[log in to unmask]> 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
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