Tower Records LA California 1971 Video!!

http://www.waxpoetics.com/features/video/video-tower-records-sunset-los-angeles-1971

This video is making the rounds on the internet today! Amazing! Now I know what heaven looks like!

Wow! The Sunset Tower was a bit unique, with a large sign on the roof and many rock stars as its' clientele. It was not uncommon to run into Santana or some other star, and get an autograph while browsing. In those days, the store was very different than other Tower stores which opened later. The hand made signs, LP's and tapes were mostly foreign to later Tower stores.

Having lost many favorite stores, restaurants, concert venues, etc., I was nearly in tears when only two places closed: Tower Records and Korvettes. Their selections were truly astounding.

Tower's four Chicago area stores were easily three times as large as Tower Sunset. The 4th & Broadway NYC Tower had four levels in the main store and four buildings: main store, books, video and close outs. The other three were on the opposite side of the same block. Until it closed, 4th & Broadway was the largest volume single record store in the US!

RIP.

Some Sunset Tower stills:







Do I still have that outfit?

How sad this is:




For more info & memories, visit: http://towerrecordsproject.org/

Quad Linda said:

Wow! The Sunset Tower was a bit unique, with a large sign on the roof and many rock stars as its' clientele. It was not uncommon to run into Santana or some other star, and get an autograph while browsing. In those days, the store was very different than other Tower stores which opened later. The hand made signs, LP's and tapes were mostly foreign to later Tower stores.

Having lost many favorite stores, restaurants, concert venues, etc., I was nearly in tears when only two places closed: Tower Records and Korvettes. Their selections were truly astounding.

Tower's four Chicago area stores were easily three times as large as Tower Sunset. The 4th & Broadway NYC Tower had four levels in the main store and four buildings: main store, books, video and close outs. The other three were on the opposite side of the same block. Until it closed, 4th & Broadway was the largest volume single record store in the US!

RIP.

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Is this you Linda? What a doll!!!!!!




I bought my first CDs from there back in 1985. Genesis Live, Foxtrot, Nursery Crime, Quadrophenia & an Elton John. Wow. There was a great Sushi place with upstairs couches called "Sushi On Sunset" a little bit East of there. And Barney's Beanery(a pool & beer hall was right down the street.)

@PK: You must have gone there all the time, right?

DennisMoore Jr. said:

@PK: You must have gone there all the time, right?

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Not so much as I grew up in the 'burbs, a world away from Sunset Blvd...'85 oh man. Unfortunately by then I'm fully immersed in the adult work world...Does bring back memories of hanging out in record stores, just thumbing through albums. What a lost past time...

The Genesis CDs must've been Virgin imports? I bought those as The domestics were not out for another couple years.


From QQ deep space

Oh man, the mere mention of old record albums brings back so many memories. I loved the cover art on those vinyl records:worthy and those albums had another purpose "back in the day"...they separated the stems and seeds from a certain herb by just tilting the album cover and letting gravity take it's course:spot...I just wish they would have invented some way to produce vinyl that didn't have the mandatory "click and pops"...I bought enough disc fluid and brushes to fill a warehouse(not really but you get the idea).

LP records did not need to have pops & clicks IF they were properly respected. Sheffield Labs, Mobile Fidelity, Telarc, Nautilus and other audiophile labels produced LPs without pops and clicks. Japan, Britain and Germany rarely made LPs that sounded like popcorn. US labels in the '70's made crap for the most part.

The problems stemmed from the record labels' greed. Many of the domestic LPs were pressed on recycled vinyl. If Lawrence Welk didn't sell, it was melted and repressed as Zeppelin records, or whatever title was hot. The quality of the PVC (vinyl) itself also added to the noise on US pressings. There are other aspects of the manufacturing process that might create lots of pops. It was usually very far from the "clean rooms" that made CD's in the 80's and beyond.

And then there was RCA's Dynaflex. Despite RCA's touting this as a technological breakthrough, it was simply a way to use far less vinyl and feist crap on the public. It wasn't coincidental that this garbage was introduced during the first energy crisis.

So, for so many of us, as our reproductive gear got better, the vinyl got worse.

timbre4 said:

The Genesis CDs must've been Virgin imports? I bought those as The domestics were not out for another couple years.


From QQ deep space

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Hi Tim,

IIRC the three I listed were among the first wave of US commercial releases. I needed to wait longer while ATOTC & W&W & Seconds Out & finally The Lamb trickled out as Virgin imports. There was a wonderful CD store on Melrose ave that had a better import section than Tower, which is where I found the "2nd wave" of Genesis. I still have many of the cardboard inserts that came with the double length plastic CD protector...

Its crazy to learn that the industrial dye used to make the pits on the CDs is failing. Many of our old CDs will be unplayable. @: Man, I spent thousands of dollars on CDs...:yikes



@PK. Dude, I had a job as well. @: But I was working the night shift so I could always check the new CDs during the day. Then at work at night I walked over to The Pantry; down town LA, and enjoyed a nice fillet mignon for diner! :sun

http://www.pantrycafe.com/

Turtle Blues - Big Brother w/Janis Joplin has all kinds of actual background sounds from Barney's Beanery. From the Cheap Thrills album. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xiX1ZnyceNI


Lonesome LA Cowboy - New Riders of the Purple Sage mentions Barney's Beanery. It is on the wonderful Adventures of Panama Red, released on SQ/Q8. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVrkBB6kj_0

"Bet your woman is up in bed with old Panama Red..."

DennisMoore Jr. said:

...And Barney's Beanery(a pool & beer hall was right down the street.)...

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Hey. I was so fortunate enough to visit a ways ago whilst attending a wedding there. My friends couldn't understand my absolute need to go there. I felt like akid in a candy store! I picked up a Japanese vinyl of Deep Purple FIREBALL. While I haven's played my cherished vinyl in ages, I still hold on to my 2 crates of Japanese and Original Master gems. I would love to sell my collection, but don't know of what avenue to take. Thoughts??? Thanks.

How about starting here, Patrick?: https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?6-QQ-Swap-Meet

I was lucky enough to go to that store a few times in the late '70s-eary '80s. Every time I had to go to LA for work, the area record stores were my after hours entertainment. Loved Tower and some others I can't recall the names of. There were still some Q8's at some places, some QLP cut outs and such. Great area for checking out record stores in that time. Best part of going to L.A. for me, and also the very large Margaritas!

Clint Eastwood said:

Oh man, the mere mention of old record albums brings back so many memories. I loved the cover art on those vinyl records:worthy and those albums had another purpose "back in the day"...they separated the stems and seeds from a certain herb by just tilting the album cover and letting gravity take it's course:spot...I just wish they would have invented some way to produce vinyl that didn't have the mandatory "click and pops"...I bought enough disc fluid and brushes to fill a warehouse(not really but you get the idea).

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Oh was I ever meticulous with cleaning records and needles so I hear ya...no clue as to your other reeferences

DennisMoore Jr. said:

@PK. Dude, I had a job as well. @: But I was working the night shift so I could always check the new CDs during the day. Then at work at night I walked over to The Pantry; down town LA, and enjoyed a nice fillet mignon for diner! :sun

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Right on...there's a song in here somewhere

A strange musical influence.

On Speed
http://www.filesnack.com/files/cdn363jt

AmpPsych
http://www.filesnack.com/files/c71c8thr

Ah, business travel! Traveling on vacation! Either way, visiting the record stores was the best thing about the trip. Being introduced to new record stores with friends and clients made it just that much sweeter. In the electronics business, it seemed that everyone knew where the great stores were. Record store clients were even more fun.
Discounts!! :bounce:bounce

JonUrban said:

I was lucky enough to go to that store a few times in the late '70s-eary '80s. Every time I had to go to LA for work, the area record stores were my after hours entertainment. Loved Tower and some others I can't recall the names of. There were still some Q8's at some places, some QLP cut outs and such. Great area for checking out record stores in that time. Best part of going to L.A. for me, and also the very large Margaritas!

Click to expand...

PK said:

Right on...there's a song in here somewhere

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[video=youtube;FfLvjJ8RIuE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfLvjJ8RIuE[/video]

Word has it that the biggest sale ever rung up at Tower Sunset was Elton. That may have been the exact day.

Quad Linda said:

Word has it that the biggest sale ever rung up at Tower Sunset was Elton. That may have been the exact day.

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Notice those prices...geeze...those were the good old days...Captain Fantasic on sale for $3.99!

First trip to TOWER RECORDS in San Diego, CA - June 1973
All Capital / EMI / Island records on sale for $2.99! I got Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon, Pink Floyd - Obscured By Clouds, Traffic - Shootout At The Fantasy Factory, Free - Heartbreaker and Mike Harrison - Smokestack Lightning

Many pilgrimages were made to the Q8 tape wall - Tower had just about everything released, sometimes not enough quantity on the hits. June 1975 - my best friend and I walk in and buy Jeff Beck - Blow By Blow on Q8 tape. We go out to the parking lot and put it in the Lear Jet Q8 player (in '67 Mustang - seen in my QQ pictures). We sat there and listened to the WHOLE thing without moving the car! It was a joy to visit in the quad days but it dried up and so many things changed. Tower got big into video and eventually opened another location across the street for tapes and laserdiscs.

Mighty good times going through that Sports Arena Blvd., almost always before a big concert across the street in that damn hockey rink.