If something seems missing from your life, maybe you just haven’t been to a music store in too long.
Used to be lots of them in Seattle’s U District: Cellophane Square, Tower Records, others names I forget.
When I go to Bellevue and drive past a certain strip mall by Bel-Square, I remember the little music store used to be there where I heard the Clash for the first time, “White Man In Hammersmith Palais” blasting over the stereo as I walked in. Never heard anything like that! Didn’t know it was that group the Clash I’d been hearing all about.
A little ways away was another record store where The Undertones did a meet-and-greet a few months before I became acquainted with them– a missed opportunity I’ve always keenly regretted. Out toward Crossroads, the heavy metal record store frequented by the folks who kept Lake Hills at the forefront of the metal world.
In this room I have albums in a crate that reminds me of Peaches, a record store in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where my older brother and I bought Zeppelin’s “Houses Of The Holy,” among others, in the ’70s. We had record crates from Peaches. Where my wife and I got Spirit, our first chinchilla, once was a Peaches.
Now we have Half Price Books, where I get most of my CDs, used, slowly walking past the big box, scanning up and down the sections. Why are these the Guided By Voices CDs you have? Those were the ones they had at Half Price Books.
Yesterday when I went up north to pick up George, in the back of Grampa’s car, I saw a CD case from Amoeba Records in San Francisco, so I had to tell Grampa all about Amoeba Records at the top of Haight-Ashbury by Golden Gate Park. Only place I’ve ever found vallenato CDs!
Portland has Powell’s, about as excellent a place as one could ever hope to go, but if I had to choose between that and Everyday Records, just up Burnside, I’ll take Everyday Records.
Northgate isn’t exactly Seattle’s finest neighborhood, but they do have a Silver Platters.
Driving home from work on a Saturday, I’ll think of something sometimes and stop by there. Maybe I go to the back, to the jazz and country sections and look through all the names, trying to remember people and bands I’ve read about in jazz magazines and newspaper articles. An entire row is all metal, all the fascinating subgenres, groups never heard of that I’ll probably never hear, all types of music and musicians I someday hope to hear.
Maybe in the videos there’ll be something new I haven’t heard about– maybe someone has found a complete film of a Yes concert from 1973, or a complete film of “The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway” when Genesis toured that.
I wish a presidential candidate would make a promise to listen to a new CD every week as president. Presidents never seem to care about music, although Bill Clinton and Vaclav Havel went to Reduta Jazz Club in Prague one time and Clinton played the saxophone there.
“Did you find what you were looking for?” the Silver Platters clerks usually ask. A store full of music– I’m always happy to find that!