I have always loved browsing the shelves of independent
record stores and talking to the staff. Record shops have almost met their
demise, on the high street, as a result of competition from the internet.
Record Store Day, which originated in the USA in 2008, is part of the fight
back to help keep record shops as part of modern cultural life.
Even though I was given an advance list of the music on sale,
I went with the intention of just browsing and listening to the live music. The
main feature of the day was row upon row of old style LP and 45 records. I was disappointed not to see more people taking
part.
Not many were combing through the records or even glancing
at the covers. LP sales are on the up and in the UK last year 800,000 shiny new
vinyl records were sold. Young people are meant to be leading a revival of
music sold on solid and tangible media. But I did not see much evidence of it.
What I did see was a fair number of enthusiasts who were
interested in buying collectors’ items and I spoke to a number of people
looking for records from the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and Bob Dylan.
The live Band, “The Get-Go”, was drawing crowds of people to
the store front, but the audience stood on the outside instead of joining in.
What were they afraid of? The Band was hitting some great blue notes and what
better backdrop was there for browsing the shelves?
Perhaps, latter day music buyers are reluctant to get
involved with an unfamiliar and old fashioned way of finding out about music
and buying it. Has internet surfing
replaced social interaction by a form of shy individuality? Have headphones and
MP3 players detached so many of us from the sociability of listening to music?
I could not resist buying a couple of LP records even though
they were very expensive. It was £25 for “The Jimi Hendrix Experience Live at
Monterey “. And, it was another £25 for
a numbered and purple coloured edition of Don Van Vliet and the Magic Bands ‘,
“Son of Dust Sucker – The Roger Eagle tapes from 1977.
Don Van Vliet was also known as Captain Beefheart and he had
a very powerful blues voice with a 4 ½ octave range. He regularly broke
microphones with his voice in the recording studio. I remember seeing him live
at the Drury Theatre London in 1974. It was music and performance art at its
best.
The live Band was doing so well that it drew complaints from
the adjoining shops about the noise. My ears weren’t ringing so I suspect that
it was just sour grapes that all the shoppers had drifted away to hear music
rather than open their wallets.
There was time to buy a 45 rpm or two before the music
stopped. At £10 each, these were even more expensive pro rata and by the minute.
I chose a 1969 Marianne Faithful single - “Sister Morphine” with “Something
Better” on the flip side. I also bought a Norah Jones 45 rpm - “She’s 22”.
Ry Cooder, one of America’s finest guitarists, played some
great slide guitar rifts on the Marianne Faithful record and he also featured
on the Captain Beefheart “Safe as Milk “Album”. The rock music family is very
small.
The live Band was forced to stop playing. This was a little
churlish, I thought, as Record Store Day only happens once a year. I
commiserated with Stuart Farnham, the lead guitarist, and congratulated him on
his use of the blue note. “Yes” he said,
“you don’t get that with classical music”.
Before my wife arrived to stop me spending more, it was time
to buy a copy of the Band’s music on vinyl but no such luck; it was only
available on CD.
As we left the shop someone, who had worked in record retailing,
asked me what I had bought and how much I had paid. “Too much; it’s all a big
rip off” he said. But, for me, it was
worth every penny and the Captain Beefheart record is not going up for sale on EBay.
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