Requiem for a Record Store

Gather round, kids, and let Uncle Chas tell you about ... (gets misty eyed) the Good Old Days of the early 80s. Ah yes, those were the days ... my friends and I would eagerly haunt any and all record stores in the area. Due to our ultra-refined tastes, however, we were mainly interested in any store that carried "offbeat" or "import" albums (we'll get to what "albums" are in a minute, kids).

We would very often buy these things sound unheard, based on the cover or the label (if it was Stiff or Sire or IRS or Factory or Beggar's Banquet, you knew you probably had a good 'un), pay upwards of $12 for it (don't laugh -- this was a long time ago and that was like $25 at least in today's dollars) and take it home to see if we got a dream (ahhhh) or a dud (awwww). I personally discovered loads of great bands this way -- Lene Lovich, the Romantics (hey, the first album kicked ass and remains a classic, ok?), Heaven 17, Roxy Music and many more.

There were a bevy of these little record stores, mini-havens from the crap that littered the mainstream music bins of the malls -- the king was of course Record City in Fern Park, followed closely by Waxtree, Retro Records, Rock n Roll Heaven, and even the closest one to our neighbourhood at the time, East-West records on S. Orange Avenue. Heck, we'd even deign to check out Peaches from time to time thanks to their dedication of maintaining a separate "Imports" bin (though their prices were always too high).

What brings back this flood of wasted-youth memories is that East-West Records, after 34 years in the biz, is officially gone. The last Going-Out-of-Business cd is gone, the racks are gone, most of the signage is gone. Naturally, E-W moved over to CDs a long time ago, but the last time I checked the Orange Avenue store, they still had oodles of interesting discs, indie labels and bargains ... if you looked hard. The mainstay of the store was, of course, the crap and mediocrity that have long since flooded the industry, along with a healthy dose of nobody-wants-these sale discs (East-West was one of the few indie record stores that still bought CDs).

With CD prices now completely out of line with reality, I rarely purchase new CDs anymore, and limit my purchases of reissues to those I can find on sale. For me -- and I think I speak for a lot of my friends on this one -- $10 or seems to be about the right "price" for a new CD. I mean, come on. These things, all expenses included, cost about $2-3 to make. Charging nearly $20 as they do now is nothing but highway robbery. Who out there remembers that when the first CDs came out and were outrageously priced at $15, the record companies promised the price would come down as soon as their investment in CD-creating factories was recouped. Insert your own bitter "HA!" at being taken for such a fool.

Consequently, I focused my CD buying mainly to one store -- the indie store closest to me now, Park Ave. CDs. Those of you reading outside central Florida, this is a great shop, the best I've found in the state for used and bargain CDs, collector's edition CDs and a surprising array of music styles, from alterna-shit to classical. They even have new vinyl (indie record companies, you gotta love em)!

For vinyl, you actually have more choice in trying to avoid the evil corporate rock shops that you do in CDs. Aint that a kick in the pants!

Rock N Roll Heaven are good friends, good people and one of the all-time best record stores ever. The place is dripping with vinyl and pop-culture memorabilia. Retro Records keeps a very low profile, but you find em at record-collector shows -- the owner's a true believer. And of course, somewhere between the Golden Era and the mid-90s, there was Don Gilliland's legendary Murmur (later Alobar) record store. Don was a clerk at Record City and struck out on his own -- and hit gold. We loved that place. I once saw Love Tractor there on a freezing November night.

Anyway, this is meant to be a tribute to East-West Records and Tapes, but of course you can't really separate all these other elements -- at least in the minds of people my age. In a nutshell it was thanks to independent record stores like EW and the others -- so many of whom have been forced out by the corporate whores, sorry stores -- that spawned one of the last generations of kids for whom music was the #1 thing in their lives. I thank them for their help in shaping me into the person I am today -- and the 1500+ CDs directly behind me bear witness to their former power. Fare thee well.