Archetypal haughty record store owner

You're gonna make it after all.

 

I think I've told this story before, but the only one I can think of was the time my high school buddy and I finally found a copy of King Crimson's Earthbound. I'm pretty sure it was at RRRecords in Lowell, Mass., ca 1982 or 1983. It was one of those weird Spanish or Italian "History of Rock" series with a different cover.

We were both huge Crimson fans and over the moon until the clerk interrupted us to make sure we knew that our selection was "well known as King Crimson's worst album."

My buddy bought it anyway.

 

I was a student in Liverpool in the 90s. I actually lived on Penny Lane itself in my final year (94-95), only a few doors up from the record shop on the corner and made a number of purchases there including (but not restricted to) Led Zeppelin Physical Graffiti and Ozzy Osbourne's The Ultimate Sin

Ah the days when you could just have a record shop right next-door to where you lived!

 

Ugh, I've seen this seller/store on Discogs. Take a guess:

VG+/VG+ $1.30
VG+/NM $2.99
NM/NM $4.00
M/M Sealed, minor ding $6.50
NM/NM $7.14
NM/VG+ autographed $10.99
M/M sealed $12.99
M/M sealed with hype sticker $14.00
VG+/VG+ $69.98

I wish Discogs had an ignore feature like this site so I could stop seeing this crap. Can't tell you how many times I've seen something I sorta wanted priced at $200, went through the deliberation of "what price would I pay for it if it's going for $200?" and then see Forever Young and realize that the going rate is actually $15. Just look at the "price range" section:

178 Less than $5
503 $5 - $10
2,180 $10 - $15
1,287 $15 - $20
5,556 $20 - $40
20,086 More than $40

 

Yeah he is real bottom of the swamp prehistoric pond scum...avoid at all costs

 

He wasn’t haughty by any means, in fact, he was probably trying to be helpful and was painfully sincere, but I had a friend who worked at Tower near NYU in the 80’s, who would criticize peoples’ purchases, thinking he was doing them a favor. Both my son and I are autistic, and looking back, I think he may have been as well. He was an usher in my wedding but we lost contact and I haven’t heard from him in around 20 years. I don’t do social media, and I’d be stunned if he did either, but I’d certainly be interested in hearing from him.

Anyway, someone would bring an item to the counter that he found objectionable, and he would say something like, “you don’t want that- it’s terrible. They play it here all the time, and if you like the hit, the rest is nothing like it.” He’d then offer to make recommendations. The poor customer would be looking for something like the Outfield or Eurythmics and he’d try and talk them into the Minutemen. Needless to say, he wasn’t there very long.

 

Not all heroes wear capes.

 

yes that's right, I think it's needless to say that he did not spend very long even for the customer he would try to talk to them with Minutemen.

 

Quirky and weird owners, yes, but not haughty.

 

True! Spider-Man, Captain America, Wonder Woman - plenty of heroes who don't wear capes!