A memoir of 25 years (1975-2000) spent working in the world of records & music in Seattle, with occasional side trips into writings on Led Zeppelin and other adventures from my musical life.
my score from the melt pile was Albert King's " Born Under a Bad Sign" original Stax. Vinyl looked a bit worn, but plays great. Still own that gem. Kinda wished I would dove deeper into the melt pool and see what more I could of come up with. Then no real work would've gotten done.
Surprising what kind of stuff ended up in the melts - similar to your Albert King, I got an original Smokey & The Miracles “Going To A Go Go” that looks pretty bad but plays great! Still have that one too.
The melts! I can't even imagine where you guys were storing these in the old store. There was barely enough room to do regular business in there, let alone store thousands of LPs! The mind reels.
By 1980 there was a huge wall - I wanna say 20 feet high and at least 20 feet long - in the Bellingham store on Holly Street that housed most of them. You could climb a rolling ladder and uncover the treasures among the junk
Well, only about 16 feet tall by 20 long but yes, absolutely overwhelming!
Roy Brown built the shelves at Holly St. to accommodate them, which was one of my early lessons in carpentry (just figuring out how he did it, I didn't actually help).
At the Holly St. store I don't recall having a rolling ladder, but later when the Magnolia/Railroad Ave location was set up Wayne and I built a massive 2-sided set of shelves for the beloved melts and other backstock, and then we did get a rolling ladder.
Yes, it was at least partly a result of the oil crisis. It's apparently possible to recycle vinyl for LPs and produce a quality result, but that's not what was going on in the '70s.
my score from the melt pile was Albert King's " Born Under a Bad Sign" original Stax. Vinyl looked a bit worn, but plays great. Still own that gem. Kinda wished I would dove deeper into the melt pool and see what more I could of come up with. Then no real work would've gotten done.
Surprising what kind of stuff ended up in the melts - similar to your Albert King, I got an original Smokey & The Miracles “Going To A Go Go” that looks pretty bad but plays great! Still have that one too.
The melts! I can't even imagine where you guys were storing these in the old store. There was barely enough room to do regular business in there, let alone store thousands of LPs! The mind reels.
By 1980 there was a huge wall - I wanna say 20 feet high and at least 20 feet long - in the Bellingham store on Holly Street that housed most of them. You could climb a rolling ladder and uncover the treasures among the junk
Well, only about 16 feet tall by 20 long but yes, absolutely overwhelming!
Roy Brown built the shelves at Holly St. to accommodate them, which was one of my early lessons in carpentry (just figuring out how he did it, I didn't actually help).
At the Holly St. store I don't recall having a rolling ladder, but later when the Magnolia/Railroad Ave location was set up Wayne and I built a massive 2-sided set of shelves for the beloved melts and other backstock, and then we did get a rolling ladder.
Full stories all coming soon!
Was this practice after the 70s oil crisis (or was the melting down due to it)?
Yes, it was at least partly a result of the oil crisis. It's apparently possible to recycle vinyl for LPs and produce a quality result, but that's not what was going on in the '70s.
I contributed greatly to the backstock of melts!