Well, dear readers, let me jump ahead a little or, at the very least, let me jump afoot a little. Yesterday I happened to watch the new documentary about Tower Records, All Things Must Pass. It’s a very straightforward piece with no cutely “style” by a director trying to make it about him/her rather than just tell us the story. This director, Colin Hanks, just puts the camera down and lets the people do the talking and telling. There is some wonderful old footage sprinkled throughout, too. And ultimately it’s very touching. I hadn’t realized just how old Tower was – started in 1961 in Sacramento. Los Angeles was the third city to get Tower and once it arrived music lovers had a large and wonderful place in which to congregate. Of course, there were MANY record stores in Los Angeles before Tower, but it was Tower that captured the imagination because it was very much of its time and people of that time just made it their own.
When I grew up, it was still pretty much one-off stores in neighborhoods. I think, at least for me, it was the chain Discount Record Center that was the prototype for what Tower would do. I loved Discount Record Center – there was one on the corner of Wilshire and La Cienega (where the Great Western building monstrosity now sits – one time home of Hustler and Larry Flynt – it may still be for all I know). It was a huge store, filled to the brim with records, but it didn’t cater, as Tower would, to rock-and-roll and young buyers, even though I was a young buyer and they certainly had what I wanted there. I was a regular at Chesterfield Records in Beverly Hills and Phil Harris in Hollywood (there was a Discount Record Center just a block away from Phil Harris). Tower arrived in LA in 1972. I don’t think I was even aware of it until a year or two later, but once I was I became something of a regular there, although by that time I was living in the Valley and frequenting one-off shops there. I did love the size of it and that it had so many LPs in every genre. That was long before Tower Classical opened, of course.
But enough about me. The film is fun and you can just sense the uniqueness of the people who created it and how they ran it. And like everything, they had so much success that they just kept on trucking everywhere in the world, with huge success in Japan, but not so huge elsewhere. It all finally caught up with them and the banks came in and basically ruined it all, taking away the people who made the business tick and thinking they knew more about how to make things work. They didn’t. And they killed it. I remember being laughed at when I predicted Tower would be gone by 2006. We’d just started Kritzerland and I’d made the decision to forego conventional distribution because I didn’t want returns. I was certainly one of the first to do that, but I saw the writing on the wall and didn’t want to play that game. So, I simply told the vendors that if they took CDs from us, they owned them with no return privileges. I told them that if they were worried to just order five copies or ten copies, then reorder when they sold those. And it was a tough slog that first year or so, but my prediction, sadly, came exactly true – Tower was gone in 2006.
Something that’s not really covered in the documentary was the damage also done by all the Tower imitators – another case where, no, imitation is not the sincerest form of flattery – imitation is merely irritating but to be expected. So, we had the huge Virgin stores and the HMV stores, and they glutted everything and we all know how that went for all of them. It reminded me of when I started Fynsworth Alley (I’ve decided it’s perfectly fine to now mention that out of business label by name since – wait for it – the name was my creation, as was the company) – we did things no one had ever done. We were radical. Everything about us was forward thinking and unique. And within one year there were two other labels, maybe three, that simply ripped off our business model wholesale. It didn’t end there either. We get no credit for starting what we did and let me tell you, we deserve the credit. But you all know how that ended – the money people and a certain nefarious individual thought they were better than the guy whose reputation and talent the company was founded on. And their demise was swift – I believe they managed to stick around for two years and then they just began to fade. What did they expect? And when the banks got rid of the people who were the heart and soul of Tower the result was that you lost the heart and soul of Tower. What did they expect? Highly recommended by the likes of me.
Prior to that, I was up early after only six hours of sleep. I went and had an omelet and a bagel, then had a brief visit with Grant Geissman, where I explained my reservations about the cover he’d come up with, which was really excellent but which I felt did not convey what the title of the book meant or what the book was about. I don’t think he wanted to hear it, but in the end he’s a smart fellow and we’re going to do an alternate or two that will hopefully “sell” what the book is about. After that, I picked up one package and came home. I had a brief work session with Shelly Markham and Adryan Russ and heard the two songs they’ve written for the LA show, both very good.
Then I watched the Tower movie, then proofed some more of the book, the got ready to attend the birthday party. I arrived there at seven and sat with our very own Mr. Nick Redman and his ever-lovin’ Julie Kirgo. It was a film music-related birthday party and I knew several folks there, and we had fun for about an hour. Nick, Julie, and I then left and went over to Talesai, the local Thai place, for a proper meal. I had their Thai dinner salad with peanut dressing, shared a cup of won ton soup, and had the cashew chicken, which is a fairly small portion. We were there over two-and-a-half hours and we had a really fun time, with lots of laughs and good conversation. After that I came directly home.
Today, I shall proof and perhaps finish proofing, at which point I’ll get the book to my two online proofers (Adryan is proofing a hard copy). Then I forgot that I have to judge a singing contest – that used to be an early afternoon thing, but is now an evening thing. So, I have to be there at 6:45 and it will go till around 10:30. I’ll probably not eat and then get down there around 5:15 for good parking and I’ll have a little something to eat at one of the local eateries.
This week is in need of big miracles so send those excellent vibes and xylophones, please. The week will be filled with meetings and meals, cover design, sending the book off to be blurbed, and hopefully dodging all bullets and all merde hitting the merde.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, proof and maybe finish proofing, relax, eat, judge a singing contest, and relax. Today’s topic of discussion: It’s free-for-all day, the day in which you dear readers get to make with the topics and we all get to post about them. So, let’s have loads of lovely topics and loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, happy to have remembered the power of Tower.