All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

way back when,

when young teenagers had

a collection of 45 rpm records,

to me that was

kind of exciting.

that was almost better

than having

a big collection of cds,

albums, and everything else.

but imagine, 45 records,

45 rpm records

a better quality

and less breakable than the 78

of ten years before,

but with all the music

you ever wanted.

and you could carry it around

in a little box.

that's what tower was about.

believe me.

it was the music

that was meaningful

to young people's lives.

and we were how they got it.

the first record

i ever bought was

bob wills,

new san antone rose.

it was like 35 cents.

the year was 1941,

and my dad had a drug store

called tower drugs.

it was in

the tower theater building.

the drugstore was tiny,

and yet they had

everything in there.

he had toys, he had liquor,

he had magazines,

cigarettes, perfume,

cosmetics, candy,

heh, you name it.

so we had a soda fountain

in that store as well,

and on the soda fountain

we had the jukebox.

one day, my dad said,

"why don't we sell

used records?"

he asked the jukebox

operator bring in

his used records,

which he brought in

and sold us the records

for three cents

and we turned round

and sold them for a dime.

we sold 'em out right away,

so my dad said,

"if we can sell used records,

we ought to be able

to sell new records."

went in to san francisco

where you could buy

all the records wholesale.

200 records cost about

less than a couple

a hundred bucks.

so we said, "fine,

we'll spend the 200 dollars,

give us a franchise,"

and bang,

we're in the record business.

during that period,

my dad actually broke th rough

the wall of the drugstore

into the empty space next door,

a little empty storefront,

and he said,

"we'll put the record

department back th ere."

so we decided to call it

tower record mart.

he couldn't complain too much

because he was getting

some free labor,

but at the same time,

he didn't like the idea

that i should've been in school.

and we realized

right off the bat

that this was a big deal.

i went to my dad, i said,

"well, i want to expand.

i want to go in to this

rack-jobbing business,

expand our jukebox,

and get this and that. "

all kinds of wonderful things

i wanted to do.

he says:

"no way, absolutely, no way.

" don't bother me.

"you want this thing,

"you buy

the record store from me,

and then you do what you want,

but i'm not financing it."

i said, "all right."

he says:
"fine,

it's yours tomorrow,

"and here's the deal:

"you have the inventory

and you have the bills that

the company owes, goodbye."

and overnight,

i was the owner of this thing.

everything he did

influenced me.

it's, how do you say,

that one imparts

a whole style of life

just by being close to you

and you pick it up

he was a skinny guy

who liked to have

a lot of fun,

loved music, loved dancing.

there was always music on

in our house.

it seems like every evening

my parents were dancing

and partying.

i'm sure there was

some drinking.

i probably started

when i was five years old.

i would go in to work with him

and sort singles.

it was quite a family affair,

so my mother would be there.

i think she was doing

the bookkeeping at that time.

my father had a fantasy

and a dream

and a desire to open up

a supermarket of records.

he then opened a record store

at watt and el camino,

it was a tiny little store,

about a thousand

square feet, maybe.

my wonderful friend

who had been doing advertising

for the drugstore,

mick mickelson,

he said, "well,

we're changing your name.

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