So This Really Is The End....


Hi All,

Just thought I'd take a minute to share. Since 1976, I've been a customer of a  record store in the University of Cincinnati area called Mole's Records. The store has been in existence for over forty five years. Tonight I've just come home from the party celebrating its final day. I'm sure the party is still happening but I decided to exit, as a flood of memories leaves me with the need to pause and reflect. Whenever I would catch a show at a small venue called Bogarts (Todd Rundgren, Butthole Surfers, Warren Zevon, etc...) I'd first stop in and B.S. with the owner. As a teenager, I never really had any money so I wasn't buying records or CD's until the mid 1980's but that was all -right by the owner and I know I was just one of many who would do the same thing. The store was small but they had a good distributor and I could buy boutique audiophile CD's and vinyl like; Audio Fidelity, MOFI, Analogue Productions, record store day releases, and used originals. If they didn't have it, then I could typically place an order and get it within a couple of weeks. My last purchase was the Analogue Productions Hybrid SACD of Steely Dan's 'Two Against Nature'. Great sounding mix by the way! Of course, we still have record stores in this relatively small mid-western town but Mole's was the oldest store still in existence. And I have to honestly say, I'm not exactly sure how these other record stores can financially make a go of it. I'm now at a place where I'm totally relying on  downloads, internet orders and Qobuz. Anyway, just feeling sentimental so thanks!

 

goofyfoot

I think the title of the post says an awful lot.

When Jim Morrison sang “….MUSIC is your ONLY friend….” In The Doors song “The End” I felt he was speaking directly to me. In high school I thought that more than once.

Flipping through the record stacks, drifting along, checking out the foxy girl one row over, listening to something new playing on the store stereo…..that was many a weekend days pleasure for me.

Browsing Discogs, or Amazon, etc. will never be a substitute.

As always, as the song goes, these are the good old days.

@mahgister ...*g*  Yeah, we can be North/South and be civil about, for sure....

*fist bump/hand jive/brobodbump/(and, of course) handshake.... ;)

The 'polarity shift' you've noted, the young/old~old/young thing gets one by the ears too often of late....

"..should I stay or should I go..."  is less of a question and more of a choice that'll get made regardless of how one feels about it...

In the meanwhile, I'll work at finishing that which will never be completely completed...

Best, J

I wonder if the Princeton Record Exchange is still open? I spent many hours there in my youth going through their inventory of CDs and records. The perfect setting for many  students and older audiophiles to hunt for recorded treasures.

I was just thinking yesterday, as I walked up the West Side in NYC, how much I miss Tower Records. It was a beacon beckoning with excitement to come in - explore and discover in a way that's just not the same with streaming. Those days were electric in NYC and I miss them.