"That Late Night Record Shop"
The lowly record store - an endangered species nearing extinction. Like seniors hustled off to nursing homes, vinyl too suffers an indignity, filed away in the bowels of some second hand store to gather dust and await it‘s ultimate demise. Both are from another era, no longer respected or appreciated - soon to be forgotten.
The future belongs to the digital download.
I feel sad for the today’s youth who will never know the joys of going to the local record store to browse through the bins, to check out the cover artwork, credits and liner notes. To let your fingers flip through the stacks and finding that gem that just happened to pique your interest. To hear albums playing on the stores speakers enticing you to check out that artist you had never heard of when you entered. That joy of adventure and discovery…
(I’ve already lamented enough over the transition of various media formats in a previous post now reproduced in my blog.)
My favourite second hand record closed a number of years ago.
Peter Dunn’s Vinyl museum was like no other. On entering the doors of this record emporium, this temple to vinyl, this monument to the 33&1/3, one was greeted walls wallpapered by orphaned record covers of familiar friends. From ‘Cream’ to ‘Deep Purple‘, ‘Cat Stevens’ to Petula Clark, Frank Sinatra to Duke Ellington, 'Iron Butterfly' to…..well you get the idea. Yes even
Lightfoot - racing to the stacks after work in hopes of finding another ‘Two Tones’. Previously enjoyed records in bins as far as the eye could see! Peter Dunn’s would find these treasures and lovingly clean and restore the vinyl before placing it into a new antistatic sleeve. The outer record cover would also now protected by a heavy duty plastic sleeve bearing the store’s logo. A second hand store offering first rate treatment for those beloved platters. How I miss that store.
I also miss Canada’s own
‘Sam The Record Man’ owned and operated for years by Sam Sniderman. Sam started selling records from the trunk of his car as early as 1937 but only opened his flagship Yonge Street store in 1961- just in time for the music of that explosive era. Sam Sniderman operated more than a record store for it was a place for music lovers to meet and musicians to congregate. Sam assisted numerous musicians over the years. His store has had visitors such as
Gordon Lightfoot, Ronnie Hawkins, the members of Rush and even Elton John. Sam’s store is referred to in the Barenaked Ladies Tune ‘Brian Wilson’ as “that late night record shop”. The iconic spinning record sign has appeared in countless movies including David Cronenberg’s ‘Scanners’ and the quintessential Canadian film ‘Going Down The Road’. In fact, Cronenberg worked at Sam’s Yonge Street store as a teenager. Sam Sniderman became a member of ‘The Order Of Canada’ in 1976 and was also awarded a ‘Juno’ for special achievement in the recording industry. Sadly Sam’s couldn’t compete with digital downloads and closed the doors for the final time last year. The neon record signs above his store are being restored and protected as historically important.
I spent a good deal of my youth and an even greater amount of my wages in those record stores. How I miss those stores, whether offering new pressings on virgin vinyl or old treasures waiting for someone to rediscover them and offer one more spin on the turntable…..
Yuri