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Thread: RIP Russ Solomon

  1. #1
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    RIP Russ Solomon

    I'm not a big fan of these "RIP" threads but I thought Russ Solomon deserved one. He was the founder of Tower Records and a true giant who probably touched many of our lives certainly mine. Tower was huge part of my youth and musical education. HBO had a great documentary about Russ and Tower a few years ago and it's well worth seeking out. RIP Russ and thanks for the music and memories!

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    Member rcarlberg's Avatar
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    Yeah, the documentary paints him as quite the character.

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    Wow, I have that great documentary, All Things Must Pass, on DVD and had just watched it again over the weekend. A great lesson on the rise and fall of the brick and mortar record store business. It must have been so cool to work in that biz back in the glory days of the 60s and 70s as it was building in that loose atmosphere under Russ. A very fascinating and funny documentary.

    I cant say Tower was a huge influence itself on my record buying youth, because Tower never had much of a footprint in the Midwest, it stuck mostly to the coasts.(We had Peaches, Streetside Records). I made a few visits and purchases at the Chicago store but that was in the 80s or 90s. But Tower certainly had a huge influence on the record buying youth of the 60s and 70s. RIP.
    Last edited by DocProgger; 03-06-2018 at 12:19 AM.

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    Member Steve F.'s Avatar
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    The first time I went to a Tower, before they expanded out of the West Coast, I was 17 and on the last trip my family took as a family (before we all got old and started doing it again).

    I couldn't believe how big and thorough it was. It (seemed to) have everything!
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    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    I definitely spent a sh*tload of money and time at Tower on West 4th Street in Manhattan. I even saw Marillion do a performance in the store! (That's also where I was when I learned Fish had left Marillion because they had that issue of Kerrang! that announced it on the cover.)

    My two negative memories of shopping there (just because they also amuse me) were not being able to find Bo Hansson's "Lord of the Rings" album without help because it was INTENTIONALLY filed in the OLDIES section (what the heck even WAS the OLDIES section?), and complaining at the Customer Service counter because they had priced one of those live Camel CDs released by Camel Productions as an import, when it clearly was not.

    It's funny, when I think of many albums in my collection I can envision where in the store it was or would have been located. I actually can't quite remember how they integrated both vinyl and CDs in the racks though, but I know they did somehow.

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    Shot many a paycheck there in the mid-80s. Place would be packed no matter what hour of the day or night...nowhere like it. And at the height of MTV mania, it was a welcome sight to see things like Pendragon and Marillion albums stacked dozens deep in the import section.
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    Jazzbo manqué Mister Triscuits's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    I couldn't believe how big and thorough it was. It (seemed to) have everything!
    One of the first memories that springs to mind when I think of Tower in the '70s is browsing the massive Anthony Braxton section where they stocked releases on all these obscure labels like Byg, Freedom, America, Sackville, Emanem, Moers Music, Delmark, Ictus... The main Tower store in San Diego was right across the street from the Sports Arena, so you could go there after shows. I also worked just around the corner from it for a couple of years in the '80s. Spent many a lunch hour browsing the racks!
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  8. #8
    I was surprised to learn from the All Things Must Pass documentary that Tower didn't expand to NYC until 1983 when they opened up that 4 story Greenwich Village location at East 4th and Broadway, would have thought it would have been sooner. I think they had expanded to Japan before NYC. And the doc goes into how there was literally nothing around that location at the time in 1983 except empty buildings--that part of Manhattan built back up around the store.
    Last edited by DocProgger; 03-06-2018 at 10:40 AM.

  9. #9
    The second store on Watt Ave. during the mid 70's had bands once in awhile (sometimes made up of guys who worked at Tower) playing the parking lot, occasionally the stuff was pretty head warping and generally not to the liking of some nearby homeowners. Every night near the entrance someone was selling their prints of concert shots, (FZ, Wishbone Ash, Rory Gallagher, Tull, ELP, Mountain, TYA, Bowie, Slade, Miles Davis... just about anything that came through the west coast). The real windfall though and best source of sensory overload was the annual parking lot sale... inventory from pretty much all the Tower records stores in the whole damn world that had sat around too long or just needed to go ended up at the West Sacramento warehouse. Once a year on Friday, Saturday and Sunday this stuff would en masse go for 10 cents to $2 a copy. One year after spending every cent i could scrounge up on Friday, a Saturday hunt for soda bottles and aluminum cans brought me back to the parking lot w/ $7. I had a stack of about 50 records that was impossible to in good conscience edit down. I asked the clerk to just pick out $7 worth and i'd put the rest back. His response was something like just give me the $7 and take all those *^%#ing records out of here. In following years sometimes the sale would be held at the West Sac warehouse. Amoeba's great but Tower was the apex.
    Last edited by Bake 1; 03-07-2018 at 01:11 AM.

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    RIP. I too remember Tower in it's hey day - huge selection, import prog rock selection, separate large rooms devoted to Jazz, Classical etc. It was an amazing place once upon a time. I fear we shall not see its like again.

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    The Tower in Boston (there was one in Cambridge across the river, but not as big as the Boston store) was huge. A good 3 or 4 stories. When they first opened, they even had copies of the Manson album, Lie, on the original ESP-Disk' label. It was a great place. They had a huge video rental section and a ticket outlet. Out in front, embedded in the sidewalk were stars of local acts that made good, like the Cars, J. Geils, New Kids on the Block, the Remains, etc. It's a CVS now.
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    W.P.O.D. Dan Marsh's Avatar
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    Tower, to me, was part of my growing up....Buena Park/Sunset Ave in So Cal

    All three (or was it 4) Sacramento stores in the late 70's/early 80's.

    Tower Books was always fun.

    RIP Russ

  14. #14
    Member LASERCD's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by DocProgger View Post
    I was surprised to learn from the All Things Must Pass documentary that Tower didn't expand to NYC until 1983 when they opened up that 4 story Greenwich Village location at East 4th and Broadway, would have thought it would have been sooner. I think they had expanded to Japan before NYC. And the doc goes into how there was literally nothing around that location at the time in 1983 except empty buildings--that part of Manhattan built back up around the store.
    The opening of the store on 4th and Bwy was a tipping point for the development of the East Village. At that point in time lower Broadway was a bit funky. Not really dangerous but there wasn't really any reason to head over there. Lots of commercial buildings - if I recall there were a lot of printers down that way and not a lot else - maybe some junk stores. NYU had some buildings around there but basically there was nothing after that. Once Tower opened the entire neighborhood gentrified like wildfire.

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    Member dropforge's Avatar
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    I couldn't tell you how much money I blew at Tower Records back in the day. Tower's totem status was earned. RIP Russ.

  16. #16
    Member wideopenears's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LASERCD View Post
    The opening of the store on 4th and Bwy was a tipping point for the development of the East Village. At that point in time lower Broadway was a bit funky. Not really dangerous but there wasn't really any reason to head over there. Lots of commercial buildings - if I recall there were a lot of printers down that way and not a lot else - maybe some junk stores. NYU had some buildings around there but basically there was nothing after that. Once Tower opened the entire neighborhood gentrified like wildfire.
    Growing up a bit upstate, I recall the first time I set foot in that store--must have been 1984 or 1985, before they had re-organized to CD's from vinyl. My mind was blown. I spent a lot of time and money there, in the mid-80's, esp. after they prioritized CD's, and much of my early CD collection comes straight from that store. Now, all we have is Amoeba. Sad times, even with the vinyl fad currently underway.
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    Lots of great Tower memories. I have related some in previous threads. My first experience at the 4th & BWY store: I had only recently heard of Canterbury bands (this was 1983) so I thought if anyone had Soft Machine and Caravan in stock, it would be there. The only 2 SM LPs they had were (bizarrely) 4th and 7. But they had 5-6 copies of each. Why those? I was on the lookout for a supposedly great one called THIRD. Oh well. 4th and 7 it was. I also bought LoG&P. The only Caravan LP that was in stock.

    I couldn't get into 4th for over 10 years. Finally clicked one day in the mid-90s in grad school. Been a favorite ever since.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by Steve F. View Post
    The first time I went to a Tower, before they expanded out of the West Coast, I was 17 and on the last trip my family took as a family (before we all got old and started doing it again).

    I couldn't believe how big and thorough it was. It (seemed to) have everything!
    That was my impression when I went to the Sports Arena Blvd store in San Diego, and that was actually one of the smaller stores! That's where I bought my second ever Djam Karet album, I think I bought the Gongmaison album there, as well, and also where I got my cassette copies of the first three Firesign Theater albums (why cassette? I don't remember, now). I also remember seeing the Magma, section, I think, and being shocked to find out how many albums they had done (actually, now that I think about it, they must have had multiple copies of each, because I don't think there were that many Magma records in existence, circa 1992).

    About 6 yeras later, I went to the NYC store, which was like a four story record store!!! Astounding! And that didn't even count the video store which was one block over, and I think they also had a cut outs store that was a seperate building, too! That whole thing blew my mind.

    I saw All Things Must Past last year, thought it was a great film. Elton John reminiscing about shopping at the Sunset Blvd store is great!

  19. #19
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    You know another memory no one mentioned for me at least was pulling all nighters at Tower lining up for concert tickets. They would usually go on sale at 10 AM on Sundays and being in the front of the line almost always meant seats in the first ten rows... at least in the 70's/early eighties!

  20. #20
    Member Burley Wright's Avatar
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    Before the Atlanta store moved from behind Lenox to Piedmont it had a separate glassed-in room for classical which I thought was very cool. It was actually pretty acoustically isolated from the outer room. Tower's closing was a dark day. There aren't very many stores any more but I still go to 'em and I'm thankful to those who run them.

    Edit: and the folks who put on the record shows.

  21. #21
    Quote Originally Posted by Burley Wright View Post
    Before the Atlanta store moved from behind Lenox to Piedmont it had a separate glassed-in room for classical which I thought was very cool. It was actually pretty acoustically isolated from the outer room.
    That's the way the classical section at the NYC store was. I might be remembering incorrectly, but I love the one floor was half classical, with the other half of the floor being any kind of jazz music you would want.

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    Definitely helped Towers bottom line at the Tower Records branches nearby. It wasn’t my go to store for popular records and cds because they were a bit pricey, but if I was looking for something new or obscure, Tower was the place. Much of Christmas shopping was done at Tower and Barnes and Nobel which were in the same shopping center

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    Tower South Street Philadelphia classical annex building had a wall of box sets operas complete symphonies etc. spent hours there and a lot of money.


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    W.P.O.D. Dan Marsh's Avatar
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    One of Tower's downfalls was selling all non-sales items at list price.

    I am enjoying reading about stores which I have been to (San Diego/Boston/New York/Atlanta).

    I traveled a bit in the late 80's and early 90's....if there was a Tower in town, I'd be there.

    The only foreign Tower I visited was Piccadilly in London....now THAT was a store!

  25. #25
    Quote Originally Posted by Dan Marsh View Post
    One of Tower's downfalls was selling all non-sales items at list price.

    I am enjoying reading about stores which I have been to (San Diego/Boston/New York/Atlanta).

    I traveled a bit in the late 80's and early 90's....if there was a Tower in town, I'd be there.

    The only foreign Tower I visited was Piccadilly in London....now THAT was a store!
    That's one of the impressions I had when I went to the Chicago location a few times. Their regular prices were a bit steep. Of course, then you eventually had Best Buy, Borders, and even the Kmarts and Targets etc undercutting them on the popular titles. The All Things Must Pass doc also details how ill prepared they were for the digital revolution, napster etc, which was the beginning of the end. They also thought the gravy train was virtually infinite, and they started way overexpanding and building up huge debt in markets they really didn't know much about (Latin America etc), thinking their success in Japan was something they could duplicate everywhere. So as fast as they built the thing up in the 60s, it started coming down even faster in the early 2000s.

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