"All Things Must Pass"-Tower Records Documentary

Every week I took at least one trip to the Tower on the upper west side NYC and once there, would usually spend an hour looking and listening. Hard to walk out without buying something. Saw many Broadway performers, tv stars and rock luminaries shopping there among them:
Paul Simon
Stevie Wonder
Elton--who, as I recall they closed the store for. Great memories. Now I go to numerous smaller record stores downtown such as Other Music or In Living Stereo. For a big selection it's Rough Trade in Brooklyn but the whole experience is just not the same.

I liked the local (Austin) Tower store for its selection, its artwork on the building and its "instore" concerts (I took my kids to see/hear the Toeadies there). The store was in a building that housed a theater in earlier days (I saw "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" and "Stop Making Sense" in that same room). I miss it.

I lived on Broadway and 8th Street for 15 years and visits to that Tower Records store, as well as the used Record/CD shops on St Mark's Place, were essential parts of my week. Every week. Most days, in fact. It's a little sad that that ritual is gone forever.

I forgot about the in-store performances. I remember once seeing Marshall Crenshaw play a short set at my Tower location. That was very cool in every way.

at various times i lived or worked near the sf, chicago and broadway towers and they really were the epicenter of my existence. as a retailer, i always had my qualms--they were pricey and sorta big-box impersonal--but they had a fantastic selection and the in-stores were great. somehow i think they could have survived if they had been more customer-friendly and adaptable to the changing retail landscape--barnes and noble and best buy, for example, have hung in there by changing their model. in any case, tower's demise has left a big void--looking for musci on amazon or ebay just isn't the same visceral, tactile thrill.