One of my favorite shops in DC and the closet to where I worked. One day I walked there at lunch and it was closed for good.
This pic was taken in 1962 or later. I can make out 2 LPs under the counter: Arch Oboler - Drop Dead! An Exercise In Horror! & Allan Sherman - My Son, The Folk Singer , plus the one with the guy who has a graduate's cap - it's a comedy record on Verve but I can't remember who it's by.
When anyone sees an interior or window photo of a vintage record store display, how often do you try to identify as many records as possible, even when they are out of focus?
This joint is a few blocks away from me in Brooklyn; on Ave. U. ...still has the same posters in the window. The Nine Inch Nails poster has been replaced with a generic image of Sinatra from the '60s. The best part of the place was the sign; which they've replaced with a crappy plastic one with no character at all. The Barber Shop next door has a Wednesday $7. walk-ins promotion. I don't think I've ever seen anyone in there. The guy; presumably the barber is usually sitting in a chair reading the Racing Form when I walk by. Across Ave. U is a produce store that specializes in discounted rotten fruit. I always marvel at the idea... if one cuts around the rot they're left with a $5. a pound peach. I guess it's only a bargain if you take your chances eat the whole thing and use the pit as a paperweight. There are 2 pizza places down the block on the Ave. and 2 more on the next block none of which are a Hut, a Dominos or owned by a father named John. It is Brooklyn of course and one thing we do right is neighborhood pizza joints. If you find yourself in the borough... don't forget to fold your slice. A highly recommended joint is Luigi's on 5th Ave. and 21st St. on the boarder of hip Park Slope and newly hip Gowanus ...of course still in Brooklyn. Difara's painfully is finished. This posting reminded me... I bought a 99 cent used Gin Blossoms cd a couple of months back... I was in a rush and didn't even look at it. It was a flip through the brown plastic new arrivals crate... throw a dollar and a quarter (tax added) on the counter and bolt. When I got home home I realized there was no cd in the case. Got to bring it back. It's a 50 -50 chance the guy who doesn't know me nor I him; will think I'm pulling a fast one. Remember we're in Brooklyn and it wouldn't be that extraordinary that someone would try to scam $1.25 from a store; a mom and pop affair or otherwise. Thanks for the reminder... a dollar and quarter is after all a dollar and a quarter. I can match it and get a slice at N&D.
With used vinyl, I sometimes examine the vimyl with a brief look by pulling the vinyl partway out. If it looks mint, I buy it. But sometimes, I get home and find it is the wrong record (but mint). Should have looked at the record. Empty CD cases are a frequent problem at garage sales and library sales.
Wasn't this image in the 1957 May issue of Vogue? '57 because GiGi was made in '58 and Julie Is Her Name was released in '55. Dig the angle of the lid of the third guy from the left. The Third Man! Collars-up baby! This is also a study of men's hands while window shopping for Records. Dig the prosthetic leg in the display case on the right.
I used to visit this store when I worked in Chelsea 5-6 years ago. Yeah, great for jazz and classical. They have a store in Brooklyn that's more geared toward the crazy music that the kids favor nowadays. I never have gotten to that one.
My favorite shop when attending NYU in the late 70s... Second Coming Records on Sullivan St. just off W. 4th St. Cutouts and bootlegs galore. Got shut down in the 90s because of the bootlegs.
Gary from Zig Zag & I opened the original Smash CD store on St. Mark's Pl. in 1986 or 87. I left shortly after but Smash was there for many years.
Second Coming kept a shop open in Boston/Cambridge after they closed their NYC shop. It was owned by a man I considered shady, named Andre. Andre was deeply connected to the European underworld of bootleg manufacture, which involved serious amounts of cash. I was a regular customer. One time, after not seeing him for many years, I bumped into Andre. He not only knew my first and last name, but many details about me that I don't think I revealed to him. That kind of spooked me, but I suppose it is useful for you to have a photographic memory if you are involved in a life of crime and underworld cash. One of Andre's workers managed to get his book of underworld contacts and started a competing business that drove Andre out. The bootleg business continued to thrive after Second Coming closed, until the internet world of torrent downloads killed it
Back in the day I can remember wondering how it was that he could sell this stuff out in the open the way he did. Even as a dumb kid, I knew full well that it was illegal to sell and probably illegal to buy. But buy I did. As a Beatles nut from childhood, I would get palpitations upon finding the only Beatles bootlegs I'd ever see (on vinyl, that is). I still have a bunch of them.
OK, I knew the name sounded familiar. Where was the Boston/Cambridge Second Coming? Was that the one below street level on Mass Ave, near the Dolphin Seafood Restaurant?
It certainly was in that neighborhood. I forget if it was below street level, but I think so. There was another below street level store too, name escaping me for a moment.
I know you are not a politician. They know "Never admit anything!" But where, exactly, in Ramsey, NJ do you store this contraband?
