I remember once visiting the Tower Records in New York City, 4th and Broadway I think in 1991, which also was the last time I talked to Carlos Tabakoff, who was a music director at KZSC-FM, the radio station of UC Santa Cruz. He got a job at CMJ in Manhattan and moved there the same year I started working at Portland Stage in Maine. I was shocked to hear that he passed away recently. Back then I was delivering some sound equipment and called him to see if we could meet somewhere. I had to drive back to Portland with the company van that day so couldn't stick around and Carlos said he can't believe that I'm "dissing" him like that. I didn't even know what that meant at the time. Carlos was probably my same age, or possibly even a few years younger. I can still hear his Brazilian accent and see that coy smile/ smirk on his face. He was a sweet and charming fellow with an extensive knowledge of the international music scene. We would talk for hours about all kinds of music.
I moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1994. Boy was I glad to find a Tower Records store in the Lenox Square in the Buckhead area. It was conveniently located in a corner next to Bally Fitness, not too far from the exit off I-85, and close to Buford Highway, where we go for Vietnamese food all the time. I'd go there maybe twice a month, sometimes more when I was working on certain shows to get sound effects CDs, soundtracks, blank tapes, magazines, stickers and the free Pulse! magazines. I was in a couple of issues of Pulse! magazine-one of those DIDs (desert island discs) lists- and favorite world music recommendations. I remember like it just happened last year. How is it possible that twenty some years had just gone by in a blur?
Needless to say, I was extremely saddened when Tower Records went bankrupt and suddenly closed all their stores including the Lenox one in 2006. Seemed overnight, without any warning. One weekend we woke up, and there was a "Going Out of Business" Sale. Tonight as I was surfing the TV and came across a documentary on Showtime entitled All Things Must Pass, I could really identify with the heart-wrenching commentaries by the employees who were let go after working there for 30 years. Tower Records was like a close favorite faithful family friend to us music aficionados. Many fans of the store mourn its passing. We were devastated. It was the first time I heard the term No Music, No Life! Recently I heard my nieces and nephews saying No Wi-Fi, No Life and it amused me to no end.
But just as George Harrison sings All Things Must Pass, life must go on...
Nowadays, we could just peruse and get whatever we want/need online at the interwebs and you can do almost everything with a few clicks on Google. But you just cannot replace that tactile intimate feeling when you're in the store browsing the record albums, touching the cassette tapes, reading the books, the zines and the posters. You know, the good old golden days. Now I sound like a grumpy old man. GrandPa. Gramps. What I learned from the documentary was that there're currently 85 Tower Records stores still in operation in Japan today. Eighty five! And they couldn't keep just ONE store open here in America?
