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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Steve Hoffman, Feb 6, 2013.

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  1. chicofishhead

    chicofishhead Forum Resident

    Location:
    Chico, California
    You're right, that Tower Books was huge. There was also a Tower Outlet store across Broadway for awhile around a decade ago. You could get great deals on music and especially books. One thing I regret is passing on the Beatles Anthology albums on vinyl there, for some reason. There was also a used record store a few doors past Tower Books called Esoteric Records.

    Back in the 70s Sacramento used to also have a Tower of Shoes and a Tower of Clothing. Those stores actually had towers, and used to advertise on TV a lot. Thus my dad would always say "Tower of Records."

    On one visit with my mom when I was about 14 we also went to the neighboring Tower Posters (this was Watt or Sunrise). I was naive and didn't even see, but my mom noticed all these pipes and scales under the glass counter. Afterward she said "How can you patronize a place that sells that stuff?" A year or so later, paraphernalia was outlawed in the county. Annapurna in Berkeley became a popular destination.

    I probably went to the one off Sunrise the most back when I lived down there. Now it's a Dimple Records, and it's pretty cool.

    Here in Chico I can see Tower's former site down the street out my window at work. Robin Marie's Shoe Closet was there, but recently closed. It really added insult to injury when the Tower Books spot got at tattoo parlor (because of my personal feeling about body art), but that place was short lived.
     
  2. Vidiot

    Vidiot Now in 4K HDR!

    Location:
    Hollywood, USA
    We never had a Tower Outlet on Sunset here in LA, but I think there was one briefly across the street from the Ventura Blvd. store in Sherman Oaks. I never found anything good there -- most of it was junk cutouts, and I can't recall ever seeing many books there. Lots of weird B-movies on VHS tape and oddball LPs and CDs. We're talking late 1980s or so.
     
  3. jpgarry1

    jpgarry1 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Glendale, AZ. USA
    Being an east coast guy, I loved going in the Tower Music store in downtown Manhattan. It had several floors filled with all sorts of great stuff. I could stay there for hours. I truly miss those days.
     
  4. pool_of_tears

    pool_of_tears Searching For Simplicity

    Location:
    Midwest
    I did not mean it that way :)
     
  5. Urban Spaceman

    Urban Spaceman Forum Eulipion

    That background music sounded a heck of a lot like Frank Zappa / Mothers to me (I think that's the lead-out guitar solo on Cruising With Ruben and the Jets - "Stuff up the Cracks" - is it odd that Zappa music was used in the background of a Tower ad for Capitol Records releases?)! These commercials are quite amazing. To think Wonderwall Music got such an enthusiastic radio plug blows my mind (and sad to say it is currently Out of Print in any format today - travesty!).
    -------- Chris
     
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  6. kozy814

    kozy814 Forum Resident

    Peaches was just cool to walk into. The one we had in Fraser was a big wide open space. I agree -- the selection wasn't all inclusive. Almost like they planned to add more stock given the floor space... IIRC, it was on the expensive side, which was a deal breaker for me.

    We had a small shop next door to a 7-Eleven, The Record Cellar, which was a buck less for new releases. It was bike riding distance too. I remember buying a bunch of Elton John and Wings records there. The lady that owned the place was a rocker at heart. Real nice to a couple punk 13 year olds that just got our first real guitars and drums. She turned us on to Pink Floyd and showed us which Stones and Kinks albums to buy. And steered us away from the Monkees section :D..
     
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  7. JeffMo

    JeffMo Format Agnostic

    Location:
    New England
    Growing up on the west coast I was lucky to visit many of the stores mentioned in this thread. The ones I visited the most were probably the Seattle one on Mercer St and the Mountain View one when I lived near each of those for many years. The SF one in the OP was special but not as convenient so I frequented it less. I had completely forgotten about the Sacramento one until this thread but that was a cool location next to the Tower Theater.

    In '93 or so Duran Duran broadcast a live show from the Sunset store and several of the songs have been released as b-sides.
     
  8. peter

    peter Senior Member

    Location:
    Paradise
    There is a nice scene shot inside the Tower Records in Manhattan in the 1986 Woody Allen film, "Hannah & Her Sisters." The scene has Woody Allen and Dianne Wiest in it. Worth catching if you haven't seen it. That Tower was at 4th & Broadway and was the first place I ever saw the 1986 JPN. red vinyl mono Beatles' LP's. The singles were $24.95. The White Album I do not recall seeing. When I saw them, I thought "who wants a mono record?" Times sure change...on many levels.
     
  9. Meatface

    Meatface Forum Resident

    I remember them all! Phantasmagoria and Kemp Mill Records too. Joe's is still here & larger than it used to be.
    http://www.joesrecordparadise.com/
     
  10. Runt

    Runt Senior Member

    Location:
    Motor City
    I remember that Peaches store well, Mark...I swear it was as big as a supermarket. Did you buy LPs at the Korvettes on 12 Mile and Gratiot? Bought a ton there. Great prices and selection. They even had an import bin.
     
  11. tmtomh

    tmtomh Forum Resident

    Ah yes, Kemp Mill - they were great too! I remember when one of the Joe's guys left to start Phantasmagoria, but I was just going away to college and so I never got there.

    I bought my first Zeppelin bootleg at Joe's. Will have to pay them a visit the next time I'm in town.
     
  12. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    My ex girlfriend managed that store at that time!
     
  13. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    MCA had the worst pressings of that era. Not sure why that happened as the Decca's and Uni's etc. that came before usually sounded fine
     
  14. Yeah I remember Quad came out when I worked at the Wherehouse Records. We went through boxes and boxes of really funky copies. YBR too.
     
  15. kozy814

    kozy814 Forum Resident

    Yeah :cool: -- Korvettes. I almost forget about them. I think I got my original Fleetwood Mac/Rumours at Korvettes the week it came out.
     
  16. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    ah yes, I fondly remember those days!
    Gimbels, Alexanders, Korvettes all had great record depts believe it or not!
     
  17. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    I had went to many Tower Records in my day. Here are the ones I remember:
    San Francisco
    Berkeley
    San Mateo (old and new location)
    Mountain View
    LA locations:
    Westwood
    Sunset Blvd
    Sacramento locations:
    Tower #1
    Downtown (K St)
    Florin Road
    Watt Ave
    Sunrise Mall
    Washington DC
     
  18. and San Francisco had three stores. Columbus & Bay, Stonestown and Market @ Noe. Plus later the 4th @ Townshend outlet store.
     
  19. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    Wow I don't even remember a Tower at Stonestown
     
  20. Anthology123

    Anthology123 Senior Member

    Oops, I totally forgot those locations, and I did go to those other two. So that makes 4 Towers in SF I have been to,
    Columbus and Bay, Market @ Noe, Stonestown, and Tower Records Outlet on 3rd near Townsend.
    I went to the Noe location just twice, when I went to the Castro Theater to see Yellow Submarine in 1999 and in 2001 to see 2001: A Space Oddysey.

    The Stonestown and the San Mateo store were known as WOW (?) locations, that had both a Tower and a Good Guys together.
     
  21. It twas in that free standing building to the right of the Emporium /Macy's. A Good Guys was downstairs. It was a pretty good store at first. CD Days not LP time.
     
  22. chacha

    chacha Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    mill valley CA USA
    Ah yes now I do - señor momento
     
  23. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    Yup...Combined with a Good Guys, who had very cool (for that time) matrixed (CRT) monitors running with an effectively very large image on them...

    Not the best Tower ever. Not even close. But the only one in the SF area with plenty of free parking. And that was worth a lot.
     
  24. peter

    peter Senior Member

    Location:
    Paradise
    Six degrees of separation.
     
  25. peter

    peter Senior Member

    Location:
    Paradise
    The Tower at Stonestown was great for acuiring JPN. mini LP CD's long after they'd sold out elsewhere. I practically gave away my Floyds and Steelys on Audiogon. Steely complete; PF almost complete, missing only Ummagumma, I think.
     
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