In my youth, one of my favorite things to do was to go to record stores. It still is, actually. Everyone like me - which probably includes most people who read Pencil Storm - loves to go through the bins searching for that great record that you couldn’t wait to get home to play. I was a record junkie from a very early age, having gotten my start playing 45 rpm seven-inch records on a Close ‘n’ Play turntable. Here are some of my favorite stories about record stores and buying records—my record store stories, or “record stories.”
45’s at the Five and Dime Store
My first records came from a five & dime store called G.C. Murphy & Co. They had a rack of mostly top 40 singles and my Mom would let me get one about every other time she was there to pick up some household item or another (thanks Mom, RIP). I had a transistor radio I would listen to all the time on the AM dial and I would look for songs I had heard and liked. I recall one that I was very happy to get was Paul Simon’s “Kodachrome.” But my record story from G.C. Murphy is about the time I found “Smokin’ in the Boys Room” by Brownsville Station. My Mom left me by the records and went to grab something with instructions that I stay right there. No worries, I wasn’t leaving the record section. I chose The Brownsville Station single and when she returned, I was ready to go. Mom paid for the record without taking even a glance at it. I got the record home and popped it on, and it sounded great! Well, it didn’t sound great to my Mom. When she saw the title and heard the lyrics, she did not approve, and the record was taken from me with no chance to plead my case. That song is from 1973, so I would have been ten years old. The experience did not deter me from a lifetime of listening to rock n roll with plenty of depraved lyrics. And I think I still turned out fine.
E.J. Korvette Department Store
There was a department store near my house that we simply called Korvette’s. They had a full-blown record section with tons of albums in rows of racks that I spent hours combing through in high school, but my record story for Korvette’s goes back much further. This is the store where I bought my first full length LP record. I’m not sure how I old I was, but I was pretty young. I was ready to graduate from the aforementioned 45’s to the real deal. Somewhere I had heard “Louie Louie” as done by Paul Revere & the Raiders. The record I wanted was “Paul Revere & the Raiders Greatest Hits.” That is a 1967 album, but this had to be around 1975 or something. Anyway, I managed to save up five dollars or so in change and I got my Mom (thanks again, Mom) to take me out to Korvette’s, where I found the record and proudly purchased it myself with a pile of loose change. Little did I know that I would invest a small fortune on vinyl records over the next couple of decades that followed that day. And I wouldn’t change a thing.
Kemp Mill Records
There was a record store chain in my area called Kemp Mill Records. The one closest to my house was in Bailey’s Crossroads. I went to Kemp Mill many times in high school and when I was home from college. I have one quick Kemp Mill record story. Once, I went in and went through a number of bins, mostly imports where you could find the more punk records. I decided against any purchases and headed for the door. The girl behind the counter asked why I was leaving empty handed. “Surely there was something there you would like” she said to me. I said yes, but explained it was a little too expensive for me in my current financial situation. She asked me to show her my top pick, so I pulled out an import by The Stranglers called “The Raven” that had this crazy 3D cover and cost something like thirty bucks. She put it in a bag and told me to have a nice day. Huh.
Penguin Feather Records and Tapes
Penguin Feather was another record store in Bailey’s Crossroads. Truth be told, it was kind of more a head shop disguised as a record store, but it was one of my favorite places to go to buy records. Penguin Feather always had some new releases prominently displayed near the counter. I recall discovering The Lords of the New Church on display. The shop had put up a handmade sign that said “featuring Brian James from the Damned and Stiv Bator from the Dead Boys.” Sold. Another time, I saw this record by the band Holly and the Italians, called “The Right to be Italian.” I thought the record looked interesting and I asked the girl at the counter if she knew anything about it. She said, “I think it sounds like a female Elvis Costello.” Once again, sold. I’m not sure that description was very accurate, but I love this record. I love it almost as much now as I did in 1981 when it was released.
The Record and Tape Exchange – RTX
The Record and Tape Exchange, known simply as RTX was located in Arlington, VA in a house. I don’t recall the name of the woman who ran it, and I don’t know how I even discovered it. What I do know is that everyone in the D.C. music scene loved the place. There was another beloved store called Yesterday and Today Records, but that was in Rockville, MD, a little too far away for me. So, RTX was the coolest record store I ever frequented. It was jam packed with almost nothing but the newest punk and new wave imports you could hope to find. There was a period of time when I first discovered punk rock that all I wanted to hear, or hear about, were bands like the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, The Stranglers, The Buzzcocks, 999, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Generation X, Stiff Little Fingers and any other band from across the big pond that fell into that genre. RTX was where you went to find it. I got the import version of The Clash at RTX, which has a couple of different songs from the American version (“Cheat,” “Protex Blue,” “Deny”) that stands out in my memory as what I considered a priceless find. I just remember the place as such a mecca for like-minded music lovers and the vibe was so good in that old, unassuming house that looked nothing like any other record store until you walked through the front door. RTX, along with the old 9:30 Club on F Street, were the two places that nurtured my lifelong love of great rock n roll music.
Plan 9 Records and someplace in Charlotte, NC
After going to school in Charlottesville, VA for 5 years, I continued to live there for several more years. There was a mall record store that was unbearable; there was Back Alley Disc which eventually closed; and there was Plan 9 Records. Of my very large collection of records and CD’s, the largest majority were purchased at Plan 9. One day at Plan 9, I found a 12” cartoon picture disc by Dogs D’Amour. It was a single containing three songs. It came sealed in a gatefold sleeve. Cool, right? But when I opened it, it had one record inside, containing the three songs that were promised, but it had space for two records. The second space promised a future release. I had never seen anything like that before. I wasn’t disappointed, but then again, the package was incomplete, and I get a little OCD about these things. Also, you needed the picture on the record to complete the story in the comic. I put the record in one of my many milk crates full and didn’t think much about it after that.
I moved to North Carolina for a short time in 1990-91. It had been well over a year since I had bought the picture disc with the half-empty gatefold cover. I was rifling through the record bins at a store I can’t remember the name of one day, even though CD’s had become the music format of choice. Low and behold, I looked down and saw this cartoon picture disc wrapped in heavy clear plastic with no cardboard sleeve at all. I knew right away that it had to be the right one. At that point I would’ve paid big bucks for it, but the thing was only like two dollars. I bought it as fast as I could and drove home to see if I had the right record. Honestly, it had been so long, that I didn’t recall the songs on the original purchase and I thought I might have bought another copy of the same disc, just without the sleeve. I found the old record from Plan 9 and slid in the newly purchased disc. Perfect. Story complete. For kicks, I checked Amazon and Ebay just now. I can find both records, although always separate, never as a complete package. But keep in mind, the internet wasn’t an option when I made this find. And even now, most of them are over in England.
I am happy to say that while I have unloaded some vinyl records over the years for various reasons, I still have a good 500 or so, including all of the ones I have written about here. Happy record hunting!
(editor’s note from Ricki C.; This was such a great idea from JCE that I’m gonna have to rip it off and do my own version sometime in the next couple of weeks. And since the last ten years of my 45-year working life were spent employed at record stores I might do a separate blog about that experience.)