What a fantastic documentary! And some Stones content, a great portion of the film with Can't You Hear me Knocking. A wonderful story, very interesting, and also a bit sad to see what happened to the record industry. Well worth the time to watch. It is currently making the rounds on Showtime.

I caught the last half hour last night and am looking forward to seeing it in its entirety. Tower grew much too big too quickly but the documentary only mentions $18.98 CDs in the Napster era in passing. The industry left Tower, et al, between a rock and a hard place.

Terrible Title. All Things Don't Pass. Everytime I see a record shop go down it's always replaced by a Subway sandwich shop or a bank. They don't go away. But the tiny bit of art in a neighborhood that was left, is long gone, replaced by crap. Comic books were the rage when I was a kid. You kid sit in a drug store on the floor and go through the racks until somebody shooshed you off. I'm lucky enough to have a comic book store in my area, but that's because it's Burbank and we're near the entertainment industry.

Tower is genuinely missed. For the listening posts to check out new albums. For the back catalogue. For the magazines and the doo-hickeys. It's all gone. No place to check out new music DVDs or movies. (Well, we have Amoeba, the giant store, but come on, this is Los Angeles and there's only one record/DVD store of its size in a population of millions.

For all the advantages of downloading, and contacting people all over the world (like here ), the internet has taken more than its share away from culture.

Although I can't speak to Tower Records stores, I will lament the disappearance of local record stores in my own way... Yesterday I wanted to go to a store to buy Peter Wolf's new album... I couldn't find a single store (in Knoxville, TN) where I could walk in and buy the album and take it home with me. I miss that part of my youth.

Peace,
Mr DJA

Yes, fantastic documentary, what a business story. We rented it awhile back.
The Tower Record store in my CA town back in the day

We have been blessed with several great music related documentaries in the last few years!

I saw it this past weekend. Liked it didn't love it. Seemed like an out of control business as time moved on. Being in the Midwest (Wis) I didn't have any frame of reference for Tower. Now if this would have dealt with Peaches or 1812 or Mainstream then I would have felt differently I imagine.

Well I live near Kalamazoo MI, and have just returned to the US after living overseas for 17 years. And I am so happy to see record stores again. In Kzoo there are two great record stores. And in Ann Arbor as well, several great stores. I was thinking about opening a store and interviewed several owners and they all say business is the best it's been since the early 90s, with a lot of younger fans buying vinyl. I think the documentary was fascinating and really had me reminiscing about being a teenager and hunting down vinyl and learning from record store clerks. It is good to see some independent record stores thriving now.

Did they have a store in central London around 1977-1981? I only remember buying my records at Virgin Records located on Oxford Street between Marble Arch...



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i miss the tower records that was here in Richmond but like was mentioned in this thread some cd's were over $18. no reason for non import single cd's to ever cost that much. bad business model

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Come On
Did they have a store in central London around 1977-1981? I only remember buying my records at Virgin Records located on Oxford Street between Marble Arch...

See [en.wikipedia.org] for info on the UK Tower Records stores. I remember the Piccadilly store being quite expensive compared to HMV and Virgin.

Ahhh....they opened 1984 in London...then my buying record-in-London-era was over...

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Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016-04-14 04:36 by swiss.

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whitem8
Well I live near Kalamazoo MI, and have just returned to the US after living overseas for 17 years. And I am so happy to see record stores again. In Kzoo there are two great record stores. And in Ann Arbor as well, several great stores. I was thinking about opening a store and interviewed several owners and they all say business is the best it's been since the early 90s, with a lot of younger fans buying vinyl. I think the documentary was fascinating and really had me reminiscing about being a teenager and hunting down vinyl and learning from record store clerks. It is good to see some independent record stores thriving now.

Peaches Records, which started in Carrollton, LA 41 years ago, moved into the Tower Records on North Peters Street in the French Quarter after Hurricane Katrina. I bought several things there. But their prices were quite high so I didn't go very much.

The rent was high. And it went up (even International Meal Company, a company that took over the Margaritaville restaurant businesses in the US and elsewhere, said the hell with the French Quarter and let the lease go for Margaritaville on Decatur Street in the old Storyville Music Hall, which used to be the Storyville Jazz Hall). H&M moved in on the same block. So Peaches moved upriver into the old Woolworth's on Magazine Street. Although it's possible to get shot anywhere these days in New Orleans, going to Peaches in Uptown will be much easier to get to.

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whitem8
Well I live near Kalamazoo MI, and have just returned to the US after living overseas for 17 years. And I am so happy to see record stores again. In Kzoo there are two great record stores. And in Ann Arbor as well, several great stores. I was thinking about opening a store and interviewed several owners and they all say business is the best it's been since the early 90s, with a lot of younger fans buying vinyl. I think the documentary was fascinating and really had me reminiscing about being a teenager and hunting down vinyl and learning from record store clerks. It is good to see some independent record stores thriving now.

I'm afraid they won't last long if they treat the customers like suckers. Charging $25 for a vinyl record is outrageous. If this continues people will use record stores like the use Best Buy appliance now, checking out the physical merchandise and then buying it cheaper on Amazon.

I know, but it is tough too. Amazon is able to sell and close to cost. These guys have to pay rent, utilities, and wages.. so they do have to mark up a bit.

I am excited about going to Record Store Day this weekend. Lots of cool stuff on the list.

I wouldn't buy vinyl by mail. There's too much chance of warp-age. But then I see little point in buying vinyl at all if it's not old and used. It's digitally mastered, so might as well get the CD if going the physical media route.

Not necessarily that new vinyl is digitally mastered. A lot of stuff is from original analog tapes. And a lot of new bands releasing vinyl are using analog source for the mastering. Which is what the Stones should do with their vinyl releases! The Beatles stuff is all from original analog source tapes.

Keith used live above in NYC as I recall.

I always used to pass by Tower Records on Sunset whenever I was in L.A. Those cats sure didn't get much time off.......