Groovy old 1970 pic of Tower Records, San Francisco, CSN&Y "Déjà Vu "just released, only $2.88!

Yes. Ramones, Costello & Kate Bush - all heard first in a record store.

 

Coleman, I remember what is important to me to remember. And your words were.

When my brother and I get together with his son, my nephew (now 17), and we trade stories of those days, my very cool nephew looks at us and says: "You juys don't know how lucky you are."

 

Does she come with a record?

 

Love this story and I love Debussy, so guess what I just bought (on SACD), thanks to you and that beautiful young gal, who used to work at TOWER!

http://www.amazon.com/Debussy-Compl...d=1360366170&sr=1-2&keywords=Walter+Gieseking

 

I spent many hours (and dollars) in the early 90's at that Tower. Anyone remember the Tower Outlet on 3rd St. in SOMA? I bought many MFSL, imports and gold discs with nasty saw marks from there. Also found a lot of great stuff at the Camelot in Embarcadero 2.

 

I remember the Tower outlet, but not the Camelot. I remember the Wherehouse at Sutter & Kearny though....

 

I remember the Tower Warehouse somewhere near 3rd and Townsend. The only thing I found remotely of interest there was Beatles 3" CD singles from Japan. The rest did not look very interesting to me (one person's junk...)

 

Since Peaches Records was mentioned a few time in this thread...it appears you can still get record crates with their logo (among other things) - Ha!

http://www.peachesrecordcrates.com/

 

Oh man, I remember those! I remember when Peaches opened in my area (suburban MD) - I believe in the late 1970s, several years before Tower DC opened. Peaches was cool - but IIRC they didn't have anything like the depth or breadth of stock that Tower did. Peaches, to me, wasn't much better than the other local chains and not as good as the area independents (anybody from the DC area remember Waxie Maxie's, or Joe's Record Paradise?).

 

I seem to remember Quadrophenia and Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, both coming out on the same day, both double LPs, both on MCA and the vinyl quality being really noisey. Quadrophenia especially. Maybe I just got unlucky, but sometimes I couldn't tell where the sound of the sea ended and the sound of the vinyl began. That was also the era of the RCA dyna-flex records, which I don't remember sounding particularly bad, but they were a little disconcerting to pick up and play. It was like trying to put a flour tortilla on the spindle. Perhaps a slight exaggeration...

 

I remember right around 1970 at Tower SF there were several times I'd get in line and hand my stack of LPs to the clerk and they'd just put it in the bag and take a couple of bucks from me. I didn't even know them at that time. I'd say it happened three or four times to me and some of my friends !?! Do I feel guilty? Not really since over the years they've gotten thousands and thousands of dollars from me. Like everyone else who was a regular, they are sorely missed. A least the late 60s, 70s, and 80s version of the store.

 

I agree that Tower outlet was a bit junky

 

Look at all those groovy cats!

 

Let's call it all-the-way junky.

If there were MFSL titles to be had there, they were long gone before I ever found that place.

 

I used to frequent the Tower Outlet in Sherman Oaks. I would often leave with nothing, but occasionally you'd go there and find a bunch of cool stuff. The general feel was junky, though.

Best deal on Tower Outlet was when they closed the Tower Outlet stores in New York City. I drove in for that sale: Everything in the store was $1 on the final day, and they were bringing stock up from the basement that hadn't been on the floor in a long time (if ever)...Bought hundreds of titles that day.

 

I BEG YOUR PARDON ???

 

Junky is a kind word for the place. I started going there weekly right after it opened. It was hit-and-miss but some of my hits were Woodstock MFSL, Joe Cocker Mad Dogs MFSL, Blues A Summit Meeting MFSL, Miles Plugged Nickel Box and a bunch of Mastersound longboxes one day.

 

That was sensational!!

 

Yes, a priority indeed.

In my teens (and well into my 20's) I used to make decisions on other things that I would buy thinking "How many LPs could I get for that amount of money?". Kind of a "vinyl standard" for dollars.

And I miss those days frequently. From where I take a break from work, I see a highway that I always associate with weekly trips to a large record store called Caper's Corner. When I look at that stretch of highway I usually have a good memory of record shopping.

 

Funny that a few of you have brought up CAMELOT MUSIC! Their old headquarters and main warehouse used to be located about 5 miles from my house. Back around 1987, I used to do many of their national radio commercials in a small studio that was located inside their headquarters! One of the other two guys that did those same national spots with me, was Geoff Mayfield, who went onto being a big writer for BILLBOARD Magazine, while I went on to a thirty plus year career being a radio personality, with a front row seat to watch the end of radio as we know it today! CAMELOT MUSIC was a great company, started by the late Paul David, who honestly started the company out of the trunk of his car and ended up selling the company for millions to a company called TRANSWORLD, who came in, changed the name to FYE and basically downsized and ruined the company within a short time! I understand that there are actually a few FYE's still left out there in the big world and they're probably selling used copies of Steve Perry CD's, that nobody wants?

 

I just messed around on Google Maps looking at the location of the Columbus/Bay Tower Records. The street view is from March 2011, but it wasn't yet a Walgreens. At that time it was something called sfgreenclean.

 

Loved Camelot - used to shop at the one in Charlotte, NC on Independence Blvd all the time. They had a lot of import lps, 12" and 7" singles, too. Later they changed to a Grapevine Records in that location, which was even better!