I need that record (Full story)

Maybe I exaggerate a bit, but, especially when talking about vinyl, you are talking about a dying breed, manufactured today only as a gimmick or for very few DJ`s or freaks.

Back in the days, and I am talking 60`s, 70`s, 80`s, in Israel, where I come from, Buying an album was a ceremony. First and foremost, when you bought a locally manufactured record, you would get a real shitty product, with a faded colored sleeve, and the record itself usually sounded like s… after 3 times you`ve listened to it. So you had to choose an import, that was real expensive, but most times had this 4 sided chromo sleeve, and came with a booklet attached with lyrics, photos and credits and we would sit and learn it like it was the the bible, and memorize it all. We knew who was making tea, if it was mentioned. And then, the content of it, an album was a complete story, I am talking of Bowie albums, Pink Floyd, Genesis, where these days, many artists release a single and work on material to fill in the space. Stories like ‘Wish you were here’, ‘Lamb lies down on Broadway’ and ‘Ziggy Stardust’, were not complete if you didn’t listen to it up to the last note.

We grew up in a relatively small town up north, and when we wanted to go for vinyl hunt, we would travel to the big city of Tel Aviv, that had few cutting edge stores, with those filled with attitude salesmen, oh man, these guys were the worst, and when they realized you came from the suburbs, they would patronize you… They could go like, oh, I bet you are here for the new… (and they would name this cheesy horrible local artist my mother wouldn’t listen to). My first purchase in the Big city was Hendrix`s Smash hits.

For my 13th birthday, my mother went to a record shop and asked for the craziest they got. They gave her Deep Purple`s Burn, not that it was that crazy, but the cover was considered weird at the time.

When I turned 17, I started working at a local record shop, and at the end of each month, when paycheck was due, the owner would come up to me and say; Hmmmmm, it seems like you owe us xx pounds… (I used to order all those imports while working there, and it ended up I have spent every month more than I have earned).

I remember this girl customer that apparently had a crash on me. She would come by every day and I would passionately recommend all those older Bowie records to her: Alladin sane, Hunky Dory, Diamond dogs, Heroes, Lodger, The man who sold the earth, Station to station, and so on, and she bought them all. After awhile the store owner comes to me and says: ‘Dont you feel for this poor girl, cant you see she has a crash on you, and would buy whatever you sold her ‘…, I thought about it for awhile, and realized he was right;I have sold her 3 ‘Heroes’….embarrassing.

I remember back in NYC, while I got married, my manager at the time took the bride and the groom for a fantasy day on the town. He had rented a white stretch limo and we were traveling around, drinking chilled champagne, and then he says; “Today is your very special day and I am very happy for you and wish you all the best. Today, everything is on me. If you see something you like, stop the car and I`ll be more that happy to buy it for you”…. It was very generous of him but we didn’t want to take advantage of his kindness in any way. Few minutes later, though, we passed by Tower records. I have stopped the limo, went in and went wild, I came out with 20 albums, and was the happiest groom around.

Another vinyl memoir. One Christmas I came back home, and saw a Christmas tree filled with gift wrapped records, all for me. That was the best Christmas gift I have ever received.

Back in Israel, the heavy duty record collectors were such characters. There was this one guy, real tall and looked like he never left Woodstock, and hasn’t had a shower since then, but he really knew his music, walked around carrying a brown paper bag with a scotch bottle inside, although there was need to hide alcohol bottles in Israel, but I guess years of habit did it to him. His apartment walls were covered shelves filles with records, most of which I have never heard of. He had introduced me to lot of great stuff, besides drugs(LOL). Steve Hillage, Van Der Graaf Generator, Stomu Yamashta`s Go, Gentle Giant, Adrian Belew, Einsturzende Neubauten, and many more.

And I remember all those wonderful record shops in New York, my favorite store was ‘House of oldies’ down on Carmine street, where they had the most amazing basement collection you have ever seen, and you would go in and all you need was catalogue number and lots of money in your pocket, cause rare records didn’t come cheap. ..” The House of Oldies has been owned and operated since 1968 by Bob Abramson. The store now has over 1,000,000 vinyl records in stock..” says their web page

Record shops and aisles were designed to fit those album sized stands, and when the first CD`s came out, it was very hard for record companies to push the product in such vinyl inhabited spaces. What has ended this very significant era was that Sony, the largest CD players manufacturer, had Bought CBS, the largest record company in the world, and by that enforced this strategy turnaround on the market.

The reason for me writing those analogue memoirs of mine, was a wonderful Pitchfork documentary that I have seen, titled’ I need that record’, that talks about a dying breed and era, about old farts like me trying to explain how significant record stores were to them, as important to music lovers and musicians as comics book stores to geeks. They are showing all those great and important record shops closing down, just because the generation is changing, and consumption habits are changing too, and it is a sad moment for me.

Records I will always keep on vinyl: (Its not a best of list. Its just classic albums that I would always own as I remember buying it. The order is meaningless)..

Talking Heads – Remain in light