growing up in southern california had its advantages. the liberal west coast of the '60s and '70s offered abundant sunshine all year, the pacific ocean with its glorious waves and some of the best music the planet had to offer. there were cool record shops where one knew the clerks and the clerks knew their customers, but no store could ever outdo the insane amount of fantastic records one could find at tower records. there was one on the sunset strip in LA. as a teenager, everytime i visited my godmother in pacific palisades i found a way of going to my musical mecca. tower was the first place i ever saw an import from the UK. they were strangely wrapped in heavy plastic sleeves as opposed to our US brand of thin crispy shrinkwrap. the store's never-ending bins held every section/selection of music under the sun. the place bred excitement. there would be spottings of movie stars or better yet, MUSICIANS. there were 'meet and greets' with groups who had come to play the forum that night. it was heaven. but it was a few and far between thing for me...until they opened a tower in my very own hometown! a dream come true i tell you! situated right across the street from the sports arena, the tower in san diego was almost as magical to walk into as the one on the strip. having access to all that vinyl in one place, in my own backyard was very, very special. years later another store went in just around the block from where i lived. i could walk to tower! they even had a ticket booth for concert purchases. it became positively dangerous. there were too many times i would rationalize a purchase at tower as being more important than paying the electric bill for the month! besides, i had quite a crush on the general manager and would go in just to catch a glimpse...
i had heard rumours. with access to purchasing music through cyberspace, the sales of material goods at the stores were dwindling. then i heard something disturbing. tower was filing for bankruptcy. but it was to be sold...new owners of an old landmark...could be ok.
or not.
when my partner and i landed in new york on our way home from europe we paid one of those obligatory visits to tower near lincoln center in manhattan. we saw big colourful signs from the outside but didn't register what they said until inside the store. we stopped dead in our tracks. STORE CLOSING. the part of the brain that refuses to register what it doesn't want to accept was seeing this as an isolated incident...until we went to the cash register and the clerk told us that all the towers were closing, all over the country. no! no! no!
it was documentation time. it was time to say goodbye. we had already snapped shots in manhattan. we went to the tower on sunset. we went to the tower on sports arena boulevard. we went to the tower in la jolla. and when we failed to make it to the original store in san francisco, a friend was kind enough to take some fotos for us - in abstentia.
here are some of the last days in pictures.
as our world continues its twenty first century changes i voluntarily adapt to the future, but nothing, for me, can replace the thrill of walking into tower records where i knew i would find any variety of music, and later video, that i ever wanted, all together, in one place, under one roof. LONG LIVE TOWER RECORDS!!!!!!
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