Remembering Record Stores

[fredblue]

Flipside Records on Foster Avenue in Chicago was where I did most of my record buying in the 70's. I lived about a mile away and walked there whenever I could get my hands on some money, or more often just to hang out. It's where I used to buy my copies of Creem Magazine too. Boy Howdy! I found this picture of it from the 70's on the Internet. Memories!

View attachment 5151

There was also a record store on Howard Street in Chicago that I bought my first records at in the 60's. I can't remember the name. It was between the El and Ashland Avenue. Linda, perhaps you could help?

Then there was Rose records on Irving Park Rd. and later I made a killing when Coconuts on State Street was going out of business. This was in the 00's sometime and I bought every DVD-A and SACD they had at clearance prices while I was back in Chicago visiting relatives. A huge chunk of my MC collection came from that clearance sale.

They certainly had a thing for Elton! :banana:

I'm guessing the pics from '74

 

[DKA]

Another one bites the dust: Cutler's in New Haven is closing.

 

[Mats Lindgren]

I remember the one (and only) record store in Stockholm, Sweden that had a large selection of quad records. The name of the shop was Heavy Sound, and was located close to club Nalen on Regeringsgatan. It was such a thrill to go there a couple of times a year (since I didn't live in Stockholm) and buy a couple of quadraphonic albums. They were quite expensive since they were all imported from Japan and the US.

Mats

 

[John Svensson]

Mats: You don't by chance have a discography of all the quad records made in Sweden do you? I once had such a list that Nick Perugini had obtained from a Swedish quad collector....but, it was printed on a thermal copier paper and has faded to obscurity over the last 15 or 16 years. It probably had at least a dozen releases listed. John

I remember the one (and only) record store in Stockholm, Sweden that had a large selection of quad records. The name of the shop was Heavy Sound, and was located close to club Nalen on Regeringsgatan. It was such a thrill to go there a couple of times a year (since I didn't live in Stockholm) and buy a couple of quadraphonic albums. They were quite expensive since they were all imported from Japan and the US.

Mats

 

[Mats Lindgren]

I don't think there were about a dozen Quad records made in Sweden. I know only two. One CD-4 on the Interdisc label called "Laxblecket in kvadrat". Laxblecket was a brass band. The other one was a QS album with Lasse Samuelssons big band with singer Kisa Magnusson. There may have been a few more, but at the time (first half of the 70's) I was working in a record store I never heard of more than those two.
//Mats

 

[Quad Linda]

We don't realize how priviledged we are in the US. Stockholm is a large city and very advanced in many ways. Chicago is five times as populous. At that time, we had hundreds, perhaps over 1000 record stores, and many large departments within larger stores. Milwaukee, which is about Stockholm's size, also had well over 100 record stores. At the advent of Quad, I lived in a town of 7,000 people. We had three record stores, and another 4 stores that carried LP's & Tapes. One store in town had a great Quad department. The others didn't bother with it.

Today, there are few LP/CD stores around Chicago. There are less than 10 record stores carrying new product, and a few dozen more that sell used product. There are over 100 department stores/big boxes that carry CD's, though their selection is woefully little.

I remember the one (and only) record store in Stockholm, Sweden that had a large selection of quad records. The name of the shop was Heavy Sound...

 

[Mats Lindgren]

Of course there were (and still are, but not like in those days) many record shops in Stockholm, but only one I knew of that had a quad selection worth mentioning.
Mats

 

[Quad Linda]

1974 Korvettes ad w/ Pretzel Logic http://img31.imageshack.us/img31/1322/korvettes.jpg They were the world's largest seller of records & tapes.

 

[dmt]

If you see the upcoming movie "Rock Of Ages", there is a cute little song and dance scene inside the Sunset Blvd. Tower Records!

Brought back memories!

 

[Quad Linda]

If you see the upcoming movie "Rock Of Ages", there is a cute little song and dance scene inside the Sunset Blvd. Tower Records!
Brought back memories!

Here's my neighborhood Tower, just west of the gargantuan Woodfield Mall with over 300 stores in Schaumburg, IL:
and how it has been retenanted:

Last call at the largest volume individual store in the US, Tower at 4th & Broadway, Manhattan:
4 floors in the main store and three other buildings on the other side of the block!

 

[LizardKing]

....
View attachment 5283 .....

It's high time for a walk on the real side
Lets admit the bastards beat us
I move to dissolve the corporation
In a pool of margaritas
So lets switch off all the lights
And light up the Luckies
Crankin' up the afterglow
'Cause we're goin' out of business
Everything must go

 

[twocargar]

I was an assistant manager for Wherehouse Records (Wherehouse Entertainment) for a few years in the early 90's in the San Diego, CA area. Terrible company, unfortunately, but the first major US chain to sell USED CD's. I remember there was quite an uproar from record labels and artists like Garth Brooks, whose record company denied The Wherehouse the privilege to sell his new CD at the time. We were the largest music retailer on the West Coast at the time. I got out a few years before they went under.

When I first got hired, they were just phasing out records, and CDs were the dominant format. Shopping there when I was younger, I remember they had a mediocre selection, and we would always make the trek to Blue Meanie Records in El Cajon, CA, or once in a while up to Lou's Records in Encinitas, CA. There was also Licorice Pizza, that someone else mentioned, where I bought my first record, Creeping Death EP by Metallica.

Edit: Of course a trip to Tower Records was always a special treat!

 

[Fishhead]

Oh yes the record store memories, I do not remember the names of the record stores in Erie Pa. in the 60s. However the experiance as a teenager shopping for record albums was a big event. The art work and the artists were the draw for me. There was a record store in Stutgart Germany that I recall. It had a record bar where you could listen through headphones the albums you might like very cool at the time. Back then 1972 I had a AR turntable with a Sansui 6500 reciever. Lps were king and in my house today. Also alot of hip girls seem to always be there .

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Remember the prices of records? They used to be depending on artist in the late 60's, 70s anywhere from $2.98 or $3.98. Then they went up for $6.00 for an artist you just had to have that day. Which was a lot considering the minimum wage was $2.65 in 1975 here in California.

Sometimes Quad records and tapes were more if memory serves, I think.. But by the late 70s, 1980s they were giving practically giving the stuff away. That was the time to pick stuff up, but I was distracted with other things.

 

[Fishhead]

Remember the prices of records? They used to be depending on artist in the late 60's, 70s anywhere from $2.98 or $3.98. Then they went up for $6.00 for an artist you just had to have that day. Which was a lot considering the minimum wage was $2.65 in 1975 here in California.

Sometimes Quad records and tapes were more if memory serves, I think.. But by the late 70s, 1980s they were giving practically giving the stuff away. That was the time to pick stuff up, but I was distracted with other things.

I completly agree with you old quad guy on the prices and the distractions. I thoughly enjoyed your web site and will visit more often. Thanks for the knowledge you provide. Peace

 

[JonUrban]

When CDs first came out, there was talk of how they were going to go down in price once they became the standard.

I wonder if the whole MP3 deal would have affected the music business as much if the list price of a CD was $7.99 for a new release as opposed to $17.99. I mean, for 5 or 6 bucks on sale, I would always want the disc, even if someone offered me a copy, if it was something I wanted myself.

I used to walk into Record World and stores like that, see the Hotel California CD priced at $17.99, and think 'Who's going to spend that for that?"

 

[Quad Linda]

In the '60's, stereo LP's were on sale for $2.29 at Korvettes. When Quad came, they had Quad LP's on sale for $3.99. Q8's were a buck more.

I bought woefully few Quads as cutouts. As has been my habit for 40 years, I bought most titles as new releases.

Remember the prices of records? They used to be depending on artist in up.tuhe late 60's, 70s anywhere from $2.98 or $3.98. Then they went up for $6.00 for an artist you just had to have that day. Which was a lot considering the minimum wage was $2.65 in 1975 here in California.

Sometimes Quad records and tapes kwere more if memory serves, I think.. But by the late 70s, 1980s they were giving practically giving the stuff away. That was the time to pick stuff , but I was distracted with other things.

 

[kap'n krunch]

(I've mentioned this before...)
When I was growing up, it was nearly impossible to get LPs for less than $6.98, that's why , when I went to the US in Xmas 76 I went crazy...$2.98 for an LP???? Dang!!!

Then came the big swindle; the CD!!
Perfect sound forever, right.
This is when the record companies' greed was showing badly and have not let go YET...$16.98 (at least!) for ONE CD (they still charge that much in a lot of them!)...I would have understood for tfe first years, but , it only took then 2 or 3 years for CD manufacturing to be the same cost as LPs...but they never reduced the price.

To add insult to injury, the "record companies" complain that ,in Spain, "downloading" has taken a bite off sales (we used to pay a "tax" for all writeable media, CD-Rs, DVD-Rs..EVEN HARD DRIVES!!! they repelled it last year!)...
well,
when I arrived in Madrid in 1991 I went to ""El Corte Inglés" (kind of a Sears/Macy's all around dept. stores) to get Sting's "The Soul Cages"...only to find that it was 3,295 pesetas!!!!! (about $30 at the exchange rate back then)...obviously , it was left in the store...

and prices did go down, but all the new stuff remained at about $20!!!!!

Regarding BluRay...they have tried to push it here, but it hasn't taken off (especially with our anemic economy) and they have had to reduce the prices so much that it's ALMOST the price of DVDs, but people aren't biting....and I don't think it's going to take off here...

Just my side of the story!

 

[Quad Linda]

I bought many CD's as $20-$30 imports, only to find them later as $5-$10 domestics. I love the music and the "moosishuns," as my friend Airto refers to them. Many who have run the record labels are crooks. IMHO

 

[Bonzodog]

Surprisingly, we just had a new record store open up her in Los Angeles!

Mount Analog.

I wish them good luck.

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