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June 20, 2006
baby i was never cool enough to get a job in a record store
here's something you may not know about me - i really love walking around downtown. and it doesn't really matter the size or the shape of the city, if there is a downtown i'll be there with my face pressed against the glass of local shoppes - or perhaps enjoying a malted beverage at the five and dime. i don't know what it is about this whole process that i find so appealing - but one of my favourite places in the whole wide world is downtown hollywood, fl. which is kind of absurd - because if you've ever been to hollywood you would know that there really isn't anything noteworthy downtown - just a bunch of random shoppes and scads of homeless people. but then when you take a closer look you find there are few hidden treasures to be had - the cafe that served as robert de niro's ice cream shoppe in the movie cape fear. the pawn shoppe with the totally bad ass guitars - and of course the used bookstore that never ever seems to close...probably because people tend to get lost in there, which might have something to do with the fact that there is no rhyme or reason to the categorization of books; just shelves and shelves of things that can only be found by happy accident...but now i'm getting carried away talking about hollywood. i'm also getting homesick...
what i really wanted to talk about was the little record store i stumbled upon this afternoon in maryville, tn. i rolled into town an hour early for my afternoon appointment so i thought i would stroll the streets looking for buried treasures. and suddenly it appeared before me, standing open armed and shiftless like a long lost lover who tries in vain to pretend that they are not happy to see you: roy's records and there in the windows were these lovingly hand crafted signs announcing the store's closing along with a thank you letter to all the customers who have shopped there for the past 40 years....40 years! how could you not walk into a place like that. and i have to say it was so amazing. the dim lighting - the musty carpet...and yes it was a record shop and there were bins filled with 45's and lp's from every era and genre imaginable along with some smaller bins with cd's, cassettes, and eight track tapes. but they also sold sound equipment and instrument cases and guitar strings - ancient record players and super eight movie projectors...
it's hard to describe the feeling you get walking into a place like that. it's like this sudden rush of overwhelming happiness - and at the same time it feels like your heart might be breaking. it really made me sad to think that roy and alma were going to close down that shop and then one day it just wouldn't be there anymore...forty years is a long time - especially when you think about some of the music that must have passed through those doors when it was fresh and new and nobody had ever heard it before. i had this sudden compulsion to empy my bank account and buy as much as i could afford - i never did get around to doing that which is probably a good thing but the thought did cross my mind.
it seems funny to me that places like that effect me the way that they do. how can i be nostalgaic for little mom and pop shops when i grew up in a giant city replete with megastores and chain restaurants - when every record i ever purchased as a teenager came from the specs music store at the mall across the street from our church. the very same specs store that never seemed to want to offer me a job in high school - and if you don't think that was absolutely soul crushing i'm here to tell you that it was...
maybe it doesn't matter that i grew up never knowing the experience of a record shop like roys because i've never not been swept up in the robust romanticism of pop music and all that it entails - the way it sits there on the shelf gleaming with promise and great artwork and songs that might tempt to finally kiss that girl, or pick up that guitar in the back of the closet and learn how to play...and maybe there will be a lyric hidden in there somewhere that will tell you something about yourself that you never really realized before...i worry about the generation that is coming up now and those that will follow - that maybe they'll miss some of that magic - because technology has made music into a few kilobytes of data that can be broken down and stored on a hard drive or an i-pod somewhere waiting to be shuffled into existence. not that i'm anti-technology - my computer is filled with downloaded music. but there is something in me that will always treasure that moment perched on the edge of the bed with a lyric sheet unfolded across my knees lost in the moment of hearing a song for the very first time. i don't know that there's anything better than that in this whole wide world. i'd trade all the first kisses and chocolate ice cream in the world for that feeling. i love music.
| By young_christopher | 5:38 PM