In the 80s I was going downtown to buy records once or twice a month - one of my favourite places was a used record store on Dundas East. The staff was the least intimidating of the too-cool-for-school approach to sales out of all the other smaller record stores. I'm not sure if folks here used to go to Record Peddler when it was on Carlton and even before that, but they are legendary for rudeness. Anyway. I got Do They Know It's Christmas as a gift and I took it to the Dundas to sell along with some other records. They took everything but that one and I was still green enough to feel embarassed to have even admitted to owning it. I'm sure I said I got it as a gift, but I still felt lame for bringing it in there.
In the 90s my record buying went from casual to married for life. The first sign was quitting my beloved library job in the suburbs to work at a now gone record store chain (A&As) downtown. Later, I worked a cash job across the street from a record store and went to school around the corner from Play de Record. That basically sealed the deal, killed my bank account and had my mom asking "why do you need so many?".
Oh yeah, it was all about my man Chino at Funk-O-Mart (back when you had to go downstairs to get to it and the stairway was all tagged up.) Also, DJ Todd-1 at Armand's.
I used to pop over there when I was working at the shitty Wherehouse here on Kearny...since leopolds was part of the franchise I got a discount on the new 12"s. In '94 that came to 3.33 per new sealed joint. 100 bucks = 30 singles! I remember grabbing all the beatnuts joints, kmd, show and ag, hiero shit, prt, etc etc etc. Another spot of course was the tower in stonestown with the 4.44 joints....I remember grabbing the Tribe Oh My God 12" at Rough Trade on haight, hells yeah. (although they had this shitty "working DJ" card policy if you wanted to hear anything first on the listening tables)
Star Alley was the shit too...they had so much rap music on vinyl, so much that a lot of out of print gems would linger in the racks...and they had the 25 cent room.
And ZEBRA records man...they would get all the ill white label and indie joints that NONE of the other stores would get 'cause so many DJs worked at the spot, lots of west coast and NY underground stuff would pop up in there...I copped my Half a Mil Productions "Any Day Can Be Your Last" 12" there...still one of my favorite records.
Chris at the Groove Merchant also had a lot of indies in the mid 90's...he made a point to heavily stock all the Fondle 'Em joints at that time, I got a LOT of that shit from there...Siah and Yeshua, MF Doom, etc...thanks Chris!
My favorite spot to check out 12"s and hear dope stuff was the skating rink. All the classic shit and freestyle/electro/miami bass was my shit. A friend of mine ended up getting the skating rinks ENTIRE record collection for FREE when they decided to upgrade the system w/ CDs. I couldnt believe that shit..every essential party 12" from the late 70s to early 90s. Before that, it was mostly just the pop lps and 45s bought from major retailers(back then, I remember seeing records for sale in weird places, that you would never imagine today). As soon as I got a hand me down tape recorder, it was all about tapes. Listening to the radio with your finger on the record button(using the pause method for that quick start up). Around the same time I realized my local flea market was the hook up for the shitty xeroxed copied cover bootleg cassettes..Public Enemy,NWA,Geto Boys,Too Short,Ice-T..$3 or $4 a piece I think it was. It was like Christmas day every weekend going to get a new tape from there. Here I am, 20 years later slangin' mixtapes(cds) at the flea market on the weekends. Funny.
For me, my introduction to music and records was mid-70's and early 80's, before I went bonkers. Almost every department store had a decent record section, and that included 12" singles. At least that's how it was in Honolulu, when I could store to stores like GEM, Holiday Mart, Sears, and even JCPenney way back when had a record section. Supermarkets had cut-out bins too, so if there wasn't a record store nearby, I'd browse in the cut-out bin to see what was there. Generally, the Thank God It's Friday[/b] soundtrack and a lot of Pickwick stuff.
In the early 80's, as rap music was becoming more popular and the CD made its introduction, damn... I remember the 12" section at Tower being two aisles long. For me, it seemed like if the 45 was too basic, you would go for the 12" single. 12" single for me was wanting to hear the extended version, to hear more than what the album had. I remember my mom giving me money to buy the 12" for Earth Wind & Fire's "Saturday Nite", even though I had the Spirit[/b] album. I just wanted to see what a four minute song would look like on one side of a record. Oh yeah, I was corny even back then. I don't remember how I obtained it, but there was also a 12" single for Ram Jam's "Hurricane Ride", and it too was a four minute song stretched over one side. The grooves were wider, and it was a lot louder too. I wasn't into the specifics of that, I think I still have the record somewhere.
Anyway, one of my spots as a kid was a store I've talked about over the years, Music Box Records in downtown Honolulu. This used to be my mom's place to buy 45's after school, and apparently the same lady who sold her records was also the same lady who introduced me to promotional 45's (6 for a dollar), 12" singles, and giving me an awareness of what lurked in "the room". Had I not moved, I probably would have worked there. The backroom had all original pressing 45's, and I know I talked about wanting the 45 to Chicago's "Feelin' Stronger Every Day". I expected the Columbia Hall Of Fame label, but it was an original 45. I still remember what she said: "this is an original 45, not an Oldie But Goodie one, but I'll charge you regular". To know that she was giving me something I thought was special, c'mon. I was hooked. She was always the little old Japanese lady, one day I'll find out who she was, but I'm grateful for talking about the music and knowing who the Ohio Players and Led Zeppelin were. If any store in town didn't have a certain Hawaiian album, she would have it.
Records were plentiful, and that was that. I wish I knew then what I know now, I would have bought doubles and triplicates of everything I ever put my hands on, but we can all say that.
It was fun too, I was always known as "the music guy" at school, and while everyone was getting into what they could hear on the radio, I was looking for stuff that most people hadn't heard.
I did have toys as any other kid did, but once music hooked me, that became what I had to have. No cavities? Record. Good report card? Record. Getting the belt from my dad, and being good for the next two weeks? Sure, here's a record. It was the anticipation, that 15 minute drive to get music, 5 to 10 music for my dad to browse through, then a 15 minute drive back home, generally interrupted by a stop at McDonald's for fries and a milkshake. That's 10 to 15 minutes as the record was in the bag in the car. Five more minutes home, and then it was music time.
Tower, House Of Music, DJ's Sound City, even the Woolworth's record section was great to be at. If my mom was shopping in Woolworth's, I was safe in the record section.
It was possible to record new songs off of the radio, but having the actual LP and cassette made it "official". Before double cassette decks were around, I made my own tapes by plugging a Panasonic portable to my dad's Sony cassette deck (the one with the wicked pause button), and friends and family would always whisper "is it okay to talk?" The reason is because back then, most people thought you had to stick a microphone in front of the speaker to record something. I had to say "yeah, these cords do it directly, the microphones shut off so it doesn't get your voice".
Oh.
That was fun too, and of course done initially in real time. Then the double cassette decks came out and you could dub a tape... holy shit... IN DOUBLE TIME.
OH FUAKA THAT'S AWESOME, BRA!!!
It was always great to look through the 12" single and see not only the remix, but a possible non-LP track. Or to find an imported album and see that it had a different cover, it was on a different label, or for Beatles stuff, it was in mono. I always wondered why Japanese pressings were more expensive than British or French pressings of albums, and I would later find out why. I was impressed that Japanese albums had cool obis.
I was just fascinated by all of that, and that lead to me wanting to know more about the music, and eventually a collector. Then everything else.
Tapes man! cassettes that's where is started for me... Every Tuesday we'd be at Second Ave Records in Portland to see what was new. The place was super tiny at the time and you could only browse through the vinyl. The tapes were behind the counter in boxes, you had to ask the dudes for the "hip hop box" and look at it right there in front of them. They had a play copy of every new joint and we'd have them play whatever was new. I started buying vinyl because of the 12"'s, they always had non-album tracks and remixes. I bought so many classics at 2nd Ave, Yo Bum Rush the Show, Raising Hell, Saturday Night, Paid In Full, Radio, Strictly Business, Criminal Minded, NWA and Posse and so on and so forth. I still have records from back then, would have had more but I did a big purge of vinyl before college (went the CD route for a couple years before coming back into the vinyl fold). Time machine is right! I know my 2nd Ave had some killer reggae, but I wasn't checking for the deeper sounds back then, just a little Bob Marley here and there.
Mr. Johmbolaya told my story, and here's some excerpts:
Records were plentiful, and that was that. I wish I knew then what I know now, I would have bought doubles and triplicates of everything I ever put my hands on, but we can all say that.
Like you, everytime I'd go in a grocery store or Woolworth's or Turnstyle (which had new records as well) with my mom, if there was a cutout rack with old records, that's where my moms left me while she looked around elsewhere. Don't get me started about the now-rare shit I saw but didn't have the foresight to get (what the hell, I was only ten). I did get records from those cutout bins, but it was usually something that was common by our standards, like Motown or Ray Charles or something.
But one time I DID manage to get something in a Woolworth's cutout bin that was fairly adventurous for a grade-schooler: Leon Haywood's It's Got To Be Mellow LP, on Decca. What possessed me to buy this? Well, Haywood had a small string of hits in the seventies ("I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You"), and even at that age, I was sophisticated enough to make the connection: "oh, this is the 'Something Freaky' guy before he got big." (Evidently he'd had a few hits in the sixties, so his seventies hits on 20th Century was more or less a comeback, even though he never left.)
And another thing, too: most kids bought records based on whether they knew the SONG...I figured as long as I had a good idea of the ARTIST or even the GENRE I was good to go. I wasn't hard to please. And in this case I was dead-ass right - it's a good album. Here I was, a kid in 1977, and I'm buying a $1.99 album that came out in 1967.
Yes, I still have the album. It's playable - I could DJ it out - but it's not in pristine eBay condition. Matter of fact, I'm looking to upgrade to a cleaner copy at some point. But remember how old I was when I bought it.
It was fun too, I was always known as "the music guy" at school, and while everyone was getting into what they could hear on the radio, I was looking for stuff that most people hadn't heard.
I did have toys as any other kid did, but once music hooked me, that became what I had to have.
Same here. I played with View-Masters (still have some leftover reels!) and Hot Wheels cars and even was a serious comic collector, too. But I knew the comix days were ending around age 11 - there was a place called the Nostalgia Shop on Clark near Grand (it's now a memorabilia shop for the blues club next door). They sold old records as well as comics. As soon as I started spending more time amongst the records than perusing the comics, I knew a chapter was closing.
Hip hop. 1980 I was taking courses at PCC in NE Portland. For my gym credit I took a dance class at Jefferson High School across the street. The kids were listening to and singing along with Rappers Delight. I went out and bought it. I think I found it used at Park Ave records which was a Portland store before it was a Seattle store. I bought the lp of course because I was already versed in classic rock which worshipped the lp and disdained the single. About the same time my roommates were listening to Tom Tom Club Wordy Rappinghood, so rap was on the radar.
When I saw Grand Master Flash I bought that too.
By 1983 or 4 I was in Seattle. There was a store on Broadway that was owned by a South African guy. He was importing SA records and had an African section so I was scooping those. I had loads of original Lady Smith Blackmabaso while Paul Simon was still trying to leave his lover. 2 clerks from that shop opened skateboard/punk record shop down the street called Fallout. I bought some good hip hop 12"s there including Roxanne Roxanne on red vinyl (what year was that?).
In both Portland and Seattle I was totally disconnected from any hip hop scene. All my Seattle friends were rigid folkies. If it didn't have a banjo they didn't want to hear it, and none of that 3 finger shite, it had to be clawhammer. So I listened to my records alone. When I went out to hear blues bands (all the time) I went alone or with a non-folkie girlfriend or an out of town friend. Because these folkies only listened to acoustic blues and only if the the guy was Black and had picked cotton.
I started buying records buy the arm loads in 1979. I already had a nice record collection, Beatles, Dylan, Little Feat, Muddy Waters, Bob Willis, Robert Johnson, John Hurt... But in 1979 I started buying James Brown, Meters, Otis, Aretha, Sam Cooke. Portland had Park Ave, Birds Suite and Djangos all downtown all full of used records. The only records that were more than $4 were 50s rock and roll and early 60s NW garage rock. Papas Got A Brand New Bag $4, Pain In My Heart $3.00, I Never Loved A Man $2. I don't remember seeing or buying much obscure stuff. It was on Stax or Atlantic I bought it. Only LPs.
In 1982 I went to a 4 week course at Galudette in DC. On weekends I would stay with my parents in Chevy Chase and visit my friends from high school. On the way back to school in NE I would stop at this liquor store that had one bin of cut outs. Each week I would buy one record for $1.99. I bought Pass The Peas, Lynn Collins, Smokey Quite Storm? and a Funkadelic which I can't remember the title.
Tapes man! cassettes that's where is started for me... Every Tuesday we'd be at Second Ave Records in Portland to see what was new. The place was super tiny at the time and you could only browse through the vinyl. The tapes were behind the counter in boxes, you had to ask the dudes for the "hip hop box" and look at it right there in front of them. They had a play copy of every new joint and we'd have them play whatever was new. I started buying vinyl because of the 12"'s, they always had non-album tracks and remixes. I bought so many classics at 2nd Ave, Yo Bum Rush the Show, Raising Hell, Saturday Night, Paid In Full, Radio, Strictly Business, Criminal Minded, NWA and Posse and so on and so forth. I still have records from back then, would have had more but I did a big purge of vinyl before college (went the CD route for a couple years before coming back into the vinyl fold). Time machine is right! I know my 2nd Ave had some killer reggae, but I wasn't checking for the deeper sounds back then, just a little Bob Marley here and there.
They really didn't have that much good reggae. From time to time, the owner would bring in something decent (I begged him to sell me those African Dub records from his personal collection). They carried all the new stuff on Greensleeves/Ras like Scientist and Hugh Mundell but there wasn't a whole lot more. On top of that, there were no reissues to speak of (save a few Trojan comps), so the only way I heard anything like Lee Perry or the Abyssinians was from this Rasta dude who lived at the coast.
they stopped carrying vinyl here at tower in about 94 i'd say. i kick myself for all the rap records i passed up over the years there even after i was into records but just didn't collect rap records that much only cds and tapes. d'oh!
i remember getting into an argument with some dude that worked at wherehouse cause i was returning some geto boys tape for a gangstarr - step in the arena tape. i always liked east coast shit better, but he was saying "geto boys are SOOO much better than gangstarr, how can you return it ?"...i always roll my eyes when i think of that one. i still have that gangstarr tape and actually still listen to it amazingly.
anybody remember the return policy at wherehouse ? used to buy one cd and i'd keep dubbing onto tape and returning the cd until a 12.99 purchase led to about 7 or 8 albums! days before mp3s...! you could just return shit for any reason you wanted to.
Oh yeah, it was all about my man Chino at Funk-O-Mart (back when you had to go downstairs to get to it and the stairway was all tagged up.) Also, DJ Todd-1 at Armand's.
Tat used to work at Funk-o-mart too... that was before he started deejaying for Steady B so I don't know, that might be before your time, TT. That was the spot in Philly for all the break records and pretty much anything else.
Bought my first rap 12" in 85 which was Step Off/The Message for 99p ($2.00) from a local shop called Sounds Nice. That was me hooked on breakdance music (that's what we called it then). I subsequently bought all the Grandmaster Flash/Melle Mel 12's from that point.....all UK presses as I couldn't afford US imports. A few mates with decent pocket money would get imports from a great shop called Hitsville. Stuff like World Class Wreckin Cru, Knights Of The Turntable, Hashim, MC Shy D, which I ended up with (and still own) when they packed in breaking.
Now these 12's in 1985 cost ??5.48 ($10+)....that was so much money then. I think that explains why UK and Europeans have arguably more appreciation for some of this stuff from that period. These records weren't available for 99 cents and were thin on the ground so these were treasured items and not so disposable/throwaway as they have been in the US. Glad to say I never bought cassettes....buy the vinyl then record to a cassette was the obvious way to go.
My favourite period was 90 to 92 when I was working so had a bit of money to drop on the weekly US arrivals. Can you imagine the joy of a record shop visit when the new releases that week consisted of Main Source, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, KMD, Black Sheep etc etc (and as the Soulman has just posted....Baritone Tiplove )
Oh yeah, it was all about my man Chino at Funk-O-Mart (back when you had to go downstairs to get to it and the stairway was all tagged up.) Also, DJ Todd-1 at Armand's.
Tat used to work at Funk-o-mart too... that was before he started deejaying for Steady B so I don't know, that might be before your time, TT. That was the spot in Philly for all the break records and pretty much anything else.
Yeah I think I remember Tat working there. Maybe it's because I recognized him when going in there or just cause I heard him talk about that shit before.
There's something to be said about being able to get the latest rap 12" and also being able to pick up some cut, green apple bags, a couple scales, starter pistols...
Big_Stacks"I don't worry about hittin' power, cause I don't give 'em nuttin' to hit." 4,670 Posts
DAMN. You are really takin' me back with this schitt! I'd forgotten I even had one of those schitts!
Yeah Phill,
I had a whole bunch of drum machines along the way like the TR-606 and the Dr. Rhythm. Then, I went all samples, which was unheard of down in Fayetteville (NC). I'd always get the question, "What kind of drum machine do you use ?" Cats didn't know what "God Make Me Funky" was. It was weird to be on the cutting edge, and pretty much the only kid around the way rockin' breakbeats. It was the time when you went to record shops the only people there were the staff and a bunch of old hippie record collectors. There were records for days back then. This was waaaaaaaay before record collectin' was "cool" and Ebay. I had my pick of old records for $0.25 to $3.00 each, shit like S.O.B. and Carl "Sherlock" Holmes for a pennies on the dollar. I was on some Fonda Rae shit, "Over Like a Fat Rat." You young dudes will never know, unfortunately.
Damn I totally forgot about that place. If I would have known about disco 12's at that time I probably could have come up.
I think my dad bought me my first record (Rick James "Street Songs") at a spot on 22nd and Union. The first records I bought on my own were "The Show" and "Do the Fila" at Music Menu. I didn't really have regular money to buy records until high school. Tower and Orpheum were the best spots to get 12's and Music Menu and Beverly's were good for the hard to get west coast shit.
In Montreal, we had a spot called "WOW Records". I got a lot of my stuff there. That was one expensive shop. Back in 87/88, they were charging 20.00 per cassette, 30.00 per CD. They were the only spot where you could get stuff like NWA, Cold Chillin' releases, Geto Boys. HMV didn't carry any of that & when they did get it, it was always 6 months after the American releases. "Death Certificate", for example, hit the shelves in the big stores almost a year after its release. If you didn't pay the WOW price, you didn't have many options outside of hitting up border US towns like Plattsburg NY. In my hood, there was a small place called "Mike's Discount" that opened a couple years after WOW. They were a little cheaper. 15.00 per cassette, 20 per cd. Every week Mike would drive down to NYC to scoop up the newest albums. That place had deadstock hip hop gold, right up until it closed in 2000. RIP
Birds Suite and Djangos all downtown all full of used records.
Two great stores, pulled a decent amount of stuff from both over the years.
Did you call it Duh-Jangos, like all the other teenagers I knew? That always irked me. Word up to Dudley's as well. Downtown had it going on.
I think I always knew it was called "zjhangos", but everyone else called it Dajangos. Dudley's had the dope pink bags, I went there all the time but barely ever bought anything, a little to much on the Joy Division/Bahaus/Depeche Mode/New Order steez for my taste.
my high school situation was 1984 - 1987, and there was just about zero hip hop anywhere. were were buying black flag etc at the local cool college rock type record store. they did carry rap but there was sooo little to choose from. basically run-dmc. it was a big deal to find public enemys 1st LP. i do recall buying 'NWA and the posse' at a MALL record store. no idea how it got there.
my college situation was in baltimore, 1987-1991. we hit the stores hard for the rock stuff when we could get rides to the various suburbs. i think it was 'music machine' waaaay out in the sticks that had the sick UK imports, weird misfits bootlegs, etc. in another area was the great "vinyl discoveries". i remember getting my "it takes a nation of millions" LP there, with the gold promo stamp so it was "used", for $4.49.
but for rap, i lived in the city, a few blocks from "12 inches dance records", and would go there despite the large amount of disco/gay/house type stuff, because they got *all* the new rap stuff. i bought Pauls Boutique, It takes two 12", epmd strictly business, and many others there. De la soul "3 feet high", and all the 12"s from it incl buddy, eye know etc. also got "...is dead" there. i remember seeing tons of cassette mixtapes there for sale, but didnt cop because i didnt know what they were. i wish i had a clue back then, god knows what i missed out on.
i used to ride my bike or get drove up to the store if i was quick enough inside. i had great vinyl stores growing up and my father already had a huge collection as well.
its where all my money went til i was at least 27/28...one of those type.
my town really had a ton of great record stores so it was crazy growing up seeing all the budget bin shit that later turned into things people wanted. i my town we had a street comparable to bleeker in the 80s, like 6 vinyl shops on that street alone besides all the other ones scattered around the city.
i miss it but these days i think of all the time i took doing that stuff. even after i was past my only buying new stuff stage i would still hit thrifts and used spots 3-4 days a week till i was at least 33/34 years old.
Birds Suite and Djangos all downtown all full of used records.
Two great stores, pulled a decent amount of stuff from both over the years.
Did you call it Duh-Jangos, like all the other teenagers I knew? That always irked me. Word up to Dudley's as well. Downtown had it going on.
I think I always knew it was called "zjhangos", but everyone else called it Dajangos. Dudley's had the dope pink bags, I went there all the time but barely ever bought anything, a little to much on the Joy Division/Bahaus/Depeche Mode/New Order steez for my taste.
Don't remember when I learned who Django was and how to pronounce his name but it was early on. In fact about that time I was going to hear Everythings Jake at the Braserie Montmarte most weekends and they played in Django's Hot Club style.
Not sure I remember Dudleys, where were they and when did they open? Were they the one that was charging Goldmine prices while everyone else was $3?
Remember when Dave opened Rockport in Old Town? It was in a narrow little place and he was renting records but the RIAA shut him down.
The most legendary PDX store was Thor's short lived Singles Going Steady. I often went in there but never bought anything because I wasn't into punk or even rock.
Birds Suite and Djangos all downtown all full of used records.
Two great stores, pulled a decent amount of stuff from both over the years.
Did you call it Duh-Jangos, like all the other teenagers I knew? That always irked me. Word up to Dudley's as well. Downtown had it going on.
I think I always knew it was called "zjhangos", but everyone else called it Dajangos. Dudley's had the dope pink bags, I went there all the time but barely ever bought anything, a little to much on the Joy Division/Bahaus/Depeche Mode/New Order steez for my taste.
Don't remember when I learned who Django was and how to pronounce his name but it was early on. In fact about that time I was going to hear Everythings Jake at the Braserie Montmarte most weekends and they played in Django's Hot Club style.
Not sure I remember Dudleys, where were they and when did they open? Were they the one that was charging Goldmine prices while everyone else was $3?
Remember when Dave opened Rockport in Old Town? It was in a narrow little place and he was renting records but the RIAA shut him down.
The most legendary PDX store was Thor's short lived Singles Going Steady. I often went in there but never bought anything because I wasn't into punk or even rock.
I always thought Django would be pronounced like the movie "Django"
Not sure I remember Dudleys, where were they and when did they open? Were they the one that was charging Goldmine prices while everyone else was $3?
They were right across the street from the central library, next to Fantasy's (the card and novelty shop). I probably first went there in like '84 or so but don't know how long they had been open by that point. Their prices were expensive but they mostly dealt in new/import stuff.
Comments
rip...
In the 90s my record buying went from casual to married for life. The first sign was quitting my beloved library job in the suburbs to work at a now gone record store chain (A&As) downtown. Later, I worked a cash job across the street from a record store and went to school around the corner from Play de Record. That basically sealed the deal, killed my bank account and had my mom asking "why do you need so many?".
yes
I used to pop over there when I was working at the shitty Wherehouse here on Kearny...since leopolds was part of the franchise I got a discount on the new 12"s. In '94 that came to 3.33 per new sealed joint. 100 bucks = 30 singles! I remember grabbing all the beatnuts joints, kmd, show and ag, hiero shit, prt, etc etc etc.
Another spot of course was the tower in stonestown with the 4.44 joints....I remember grabbing the Tribe Oh My God 12" at Rough Trade on haight, hells yeah. (although they had this shitty "working DJ" card policy if you wanted to hear anything first on the listening tables)
Star Alley was the shit too...they had so much rap music on vinyl, so much that a lot of out of print gems would linger in the racks...and they had the 25 cent room.
And ZEBRA records man...they would get all the ill white label and indie joints that NONE of the other stores would get 'cause so many DJs worked at the spot, lots of west coast and NY underground stuff would pop up in there...I copped my Half a Mil Productions "Any Day Can Be Your Last" 12" there...still one of my favorite records.
Chris at the Groove Merchant also had a lot of indies in the mid 90's...he made a point to heavily stock all the Fondle 'Em joints at that time, I got a LOT of that shit from there...Siah and Yeshua, MF Doom, etc...thanks Chris!
etc etc
Before that, it was mostly just the pop lps and 45s bought from major retailers(back then, I remember seeing records for sale in weird places, that you would never imagine today).
As soon as I got a hand me down tape recorder, it was all about tapes. Listening to the radio with your finger on the record button(using the pause method for that quick start up). Around the same time I realized my local flea market was the hook up for the shitty xeroxed copied cover bootleg cassettes..Public Enemy,NWA,Geto Boys,Too Short,Ice-T..$3 or $4 a piece I think it was. It was like Christmas day every weekend going to get a new tape from there. Here I am, 20 years later slangin' mixtapes(cds) at the flea market on the weekends. Funny.
In the early 80's, as rap music was becoming more popular and the CD made its introduction, damn... I remember the 12" section at Tower being two aisles long. For me, it seemed like if the 45 was too basic, you would go for the 12" single. 12" single for me was wanting to hear the extended version, to hear more than what the album had. I remember my mom giving me money to buy the 12" for Earth Wind & Fire's "Saturday Nite", even though I had the Spirit[/b] album. I just wanted to see what a four minute song would look like on one side of a record. Oh yeah, I was corny even back then. I don't remember how I obtained it, but there was also a 12" single for Ram Jam's "Hurricane Ride", and it too was a four minute song stretched over one side. The grooves were wider, and it was a lot louder too. I wasn't into the specifics of that, I think I still have the record somewhere.
Anyway, one of my spots as a kid was a store I've talked about over the years, Music Box Records in downtown Honolulu. This used to be my mom's place to buy 45's after school, and apparently the same lady who sold her records was also the same lady who introduced me to promotional 45's (6 for a dollar), 12" singles, and giving me an awareness of what lurked in "the room". Had I not moved, I probably would have worked there. The backroom had all original pressing 45's, and I know I talked about wanting the 45 to Chicago's "Feelin' Stronger Every Day". I expected the Columbia Hall Of Fame label, but it was an original 45. I still remember what she said: "this is an original 45, not an Oldie But Goodie one, but I'll charge you regular". To know that she was giving me something I thought was special, c'mon. I was hooked. She was always the little old Japanese lady, one day I'll find out who she was, but I'm grateful for talking about the music and knowing who the Ohio Players and Led Zeppelin were. If any store in town didn't have a certain Hawaiian album, she would have it.
Records were plentiful, and that was that. I wish I knew then what I know now, I would have bought doubles and triplicates of everything I ever put my hands on, but we can all say that.
It was fun too, I was always known as "the music guy" at school, and while everyone was getting into what they could hear on the radio, I was looking for stuff that most people hadn't heard.
I did have toys as any other kid did, but once music hooked me, that became what I had to have. No cavities? Record. Good report card? Record. Getting the belt from my dad, and being good for the next two weeks? Sure, here's a record. It was the anticipation, that 15 minute drive to get music, 5 to 10 music for my dad to browse through, then a 15 minute drive back home, generally interrupted by a stop at McDonald's for fries and a milkshake. That's 10 to 15 minutes as the record was in the bag in the car. Five more minutes home, and then it was music time.
Tower, House Of Music, DJ's Sound City, even the Woolworth's record section was great to be at. If my mom was shopping in Woolworth's, I was safe in the record section.
It was possible to record new songs off of the radio, but having the actual LP and cassette made it "official". Before double cassette decks were around, I made my own tapes by plugging a Panasonic portable to my dad's Sony cassette deck (the one with the wicked pause button), and friends and family would always whisper "is it okay to talk?" The reason is because back then, most people thought you had to stick a microphone in front of the speaker to record something. I had to say "yeah, these cords do it directly, the microphones shut off so it doesn't get your voice".
Oh.
That was fun too, and of course done initially in real time. Then the double cassette decks came out and you could dub a tape... holy shit... IN DOUBLE TIME.
OH FUAKA THAT'S AWESOME, BRA!!!
It was always great to look through the 12" single and see not only the remix, but a possible non-LP track. Or to find an imported album and see that it had a different cover, it was on a different label, or for Beatles stuff, it was in mono. I always wondered why Japanese pressings were more expensive than British or French pressings of albums, and I would later find out why. I was impressed that Japanese albums had cool obis.
I was just fascinated by all of that, and that lead to me wanting to know more about the music, and eventually a collector. Then everything else.
Tapes man! cassettes that's where is started for me...
Every Tuesday we'd be at Second Ave Records in Portland to
see what was new. The place was super tiny at the time and you
could only browse through the vinyl. The tapes were behind the counter
in boxes, you had to ask the dudes for the "hip hop box" and look at it
right there in front of them. They had a play copy of every new joint and
we'd have them play whatever was new. I started buying vinyl because of the
12"'s, they always had non-album tracks and remixes.
I bought so many classics at 2nd Ave, Yo Bum Rush the Show, Raising Hell, Saturday
Night, Paid In Full, Radio, Strictly Business, Criminal Minded, NWA and Posse
and so on and so forth. I still have records from back then, would have had more
but I did a big purge of vinyl before college (went the CD route for a couple years before coming
back into the vinyl fold).
Time machine is right! I know my 2nd Ave had some killer reggae, but I wasn't checking
for the deeper sounds back then, just a little Bob Marley here and there.
Like you, everytime I'd go in a grocery store or Woolworth's or Turnstyle (which had new records as well) with my mom, if there was a cutout rack with old records, that's where my moms left me while she looked around elsewhere. Don't get me started about the now-rare shit I saw but didn't have the foresight to get (what the hell, I was only ten). I did get records from those cutout bins, but it was usually something that was common by our standards, like Motown or Ray Charles or something.
But one time I DID manage to get something in a Woolworth's cutout bin that was fairly adventurous for a grade-schooler: Leon Haywood's It's Got To Be Mellow LP, on Decca. What possessed me to buy this? Well, Haywood had a small string of hits in the seventies ("I Wanna Do Something Freaky To You"), and even at that age, I was sophisticated enough to make the connection: "oh, this is the 'Something Freaky' guy before he got big." (Evidently he'd had a few hits in the sixties, so his seventies hits on 20th Century was more or less a comeback, even though he never left.)
And another thing, too: most kids bought records based on whether they knew the SONG...I figured as long as I had a good idea of the ARTIST or even the GENRE I was good to go. I wasn't hard to please. And in this case I was dead-ass right - it's a good album. Here I was, a kid in 1977, and I'm buying a $1.99 album that came out in 1967.
Yes, I still have the album. It's playable - I could DJ it out - but it's not in pristine eBay condition. Matter of fact, I'm looking to upgrade to a cleaner copy at some point. But remember how old I was when I bought it.
Same here. I played with View-Masters (still have some leftover reels!) and Hot Wheels cars and even was a serious comic collector, too. But I knew the comix days were ending around age 11 - there was a place called the Nostalgia Shop on Clark near Grand (it's now a memorabilia shop for the blues club next door). They sold old records as well as comics. As soon as I started spending more time amongst the records than perusing the comics, I knew a chapter was closing.
i try not to think about this stuff anymore because it depresses the hell out of me
When I saw Grand Master Flash I bought that too.
By 1983 or 4 I was in Seattle. There was a store on Broadway that was owned by a South African guy. He was importing SA records and had an African section so I was scooping those. I had loads of original Lady Smith Blackmabaso while Paul Simon was still trying to leave his lover. 2 clerks from that shop opened skateboard/punk record shop down the street called Fallout. I bought some good hip hop 12"s there including Roxanne Roxanne on red vinyl (what year was that?).
In both Portland and Seattle I was totally disconnected from any hip hop scene. All my Seattle friends were rigid folkies. If it didn't have a banjo they didn't want to hear it, and none of that 3 finger shite, it had to be clawhammer. So I listened to my records alone. When I went out to hear blues bands (all the time) I went alone or with a non-folkie girlfriend or an out of town friend. Because these folkies only listened to acoustic blues and only if the the guy was Black and had picked cotton.
I started buying records buy the arm loads in 1979. I already had a nice record collection, Beatles, Dylan, Little Feat, Muddy Waters, Bob Willis, Robert Johnson, John Hurt... But in 1979 I started buying James Brown, Meters, Otis, Aretha, Sam Cooke. Portland had Park Ave, Birds Suite and Djangos all downtown all full of used records. The only records that were more than $4 were 50s rock and roll and early 60s NW garage rock. Papas Got A Brand New Bag $4, Pain In My Heart $3.00, I Never Loved A Man $2. I don't remember seeing or buying much obscure stuff. It was on Stax or Atlantic I bought it. Only LPs.
In 1982 I went to a 4 week course at Galudette in DC. On weekends I would stay with my parents in Chevy Chase and visit my friends from high school. On the way back to school in NE I would stop at this liquor store that had one bin of cut outs. Each week I would buy one record for $1.99. I bought Pass The Peas, Lynn Collins, Smokey Quite Storm? and a Funkadelic which I can't remember the title.
Did someone say if I only knew?
They really didn't have that much good reggae. From time to time, the owner would bring in something decent (I begged him to sell me those African Dub records from his personal collection). They carried all the new stuff on Greensleeves/Ras like Scientist and Hugh Mundell but there wasn't a whole lot more. On top of that, there were no reissues to speak of (save a few Trojan comps), so the only way I heard anything like Lee Perry or the Abyssinians was from this Rasta dude who lived at the coast.
i remember getting into an argument with some dude that worked at wherehouse cause i was returning some geto boys tape for a gangstarr - step in the arena tape. i always liked east coast shit better, but he was saying "geto boys are SOOO much better than gangstarr, how can you return it ?"...i always roll my eyes when i think of that one. i still have that gangstarr tape and actually still listen to it amazingly.
anybody remember the return policy at wherehouse ? used to buy one cd and i'd keep dubbing onto tape and returning the cd until a 12.99 purchase led to about 7 or 8 albums! days before mp3s...! you could just return shit for any reason you wanted to.
Tat used to work at Funk-o-mart too... that was before he started deejaying for Steady B so I don't know, that might be before your time, TT. That was the spot in Philly for all the break records and pretty much anything else.
DAMN. You are really takin' me back with this schitt! I'd forgotten I even had one of those schitts!
Now these 12's in 1985 cost ??5.48 ($10+)....that was so much money then. I think that explains why UK and Europeans have arguably more appreciation for some of this stuff from that period. These records weren't available for 99 cents and were thin on the ground so these were treasured items and not so disposable/throwaway as they have been in the US. Glad to say I never bought cassettes....buy the vinyl then record to a cassette was the obvious way to go.
My favourite period was 90 to 92 when I was working so had a bit of money to drop on the weekly US arrivals. Can you imagine the joy of a record shop visit when the new releases that week consisted of Main Source, Pete Rock & CL Smooth, KMD, Black Sheep etc etc (and as the Soulman has just posted....Baritone Tiplove
Great days and something I really miss.
Yeah I think I remember Tat working there. Maybe it's because I recognized him when going in there or just cause I heard him talk about that shit before.
There's something to be said about being able to get the latest rap 12" and also being able to pick up some cut, green apple bags, a couple scales, starter pistols...
Yeah Phill,
I had a whole bunch of drum machines along the way like the TR-606 and the Dr. Rhythm. Then, I went all samples, which was unheard of down in Fayetteville (NC). I'd always get the question, "What kind of drum machine do you use
Peace,
Big Stacks from Kakalak
Two great stores, pulled a decent amount of stuff from both over the years.
Did you call it Duh-Jangos, like all the other teenagers I knew? That always irked me. Word up to Dudley's as well. Downtown had it going on.
Damn I totally forgot about that place. If I would have known about disco 12's at that time I probably could have come up.
I think my dad bought me my first record (Rick James "Street Songs") at a spot on 22nd and Union. The first records I bought on my own were "The Show" and "Do the Fila" at Music Menu. I didn't really have regular money to buy records until high school. Tower and Orpheum were the best spots to get 12's and Music Menu and Beverly's were good for the hard to get west coast shit.
I think I always knew it was called "zjhangos", but everyone else called it Dajangos.
Dudley's had the dope pink bags, I went there all the time but barely ever bought anything,
a little to much on the Joy Division/Bahaus/Depeche Mode/New Order steez for my taste.
my college situation was in baltimore, 1987-1991. we hit the stores hard for the rock stuff when we could get rides to the various suburbs. i think it was 'music machine' waaaay out in the sticks that had the sick UK imports, weird misfits bootlegs, etc. in another area was the great "vinyl discoveries". i remember getting my "it takes a nation of millions" LP there, with the gold promo stamp so it was "used", for $4.49.
but for rap, i lived in the city, a few blocks from "12 inches dance records", and would go there despite the large amount of disco/gay/house type stuff, because they got *all* the new rap stuff. i bought Pauls Boutique, It takes two 12", epmd strictly business, and many others there. De la soul "3 feet high", and all the 12"s from it incl buddy, eye know etc. also got "...is dead" there. i remember seeing tons of cassette mixtapes there for sale, but didnt cop because i didnt know what they were. i wish i had a clue back then, god knows what i missed out on.
i used to ride my bike or get drove up to the store if i was quick enough inside. i had great vinyl stores growing up and my father already had a huge collection as well.
its where all my money went til i was at least 27/28...one of those type.
my town really had a ton of great record stores so it was crazy growing up seeing all the budget bin shit that later turned into things people wanted. i my town we had a street comparable to bleeker in the 80s, like 6 vinyl shops on that street alone besides all the other ones scattered around the city.
i miss it but these days i think of all the time i took doing that stuff. even after i was past my only buying new stuff stage i would still hit thrifts and used spots 3-4 days a week till i was at least 33/34 years old.
Don't remember when I learned who Django was and how to pronounce his name but it was early on. In fact about that time I was going to hear Everythings Jake at the Braserie Montmarte most weekends and they played in Django's Hot Club style.
Not sure I remember Dudleys, where were they and when did they open? Were they the one that was charging Goldmine prices while everyone else was $3?
Remember when Dave opened Rockport in Old Town? It was in a narrow little place and he was renting records but the RIAA shut him down.
The most legendary PDX store was Thor's short lived Singles Going Steady. I often went in there but never bought anything because I wasn't into punk or even rock.
I always thought Django would be pronounced like the movie "Django"
I think this is a dope theme song.
peace
h
They were right across the street from the central library, next to Fantasy's (the card and novelty
shop). I probably first went there in like '84 or so but don't know how long they had been open
by that point. Their prices were expensive but they mostly dealt in new/import stuff.