Post #152870 by johntiki on Thu, Apr 14, 2005 6:55 AM

In my opinion what obviously "did-in" the great record stores was the damn CD... don't get me wrong I like CDs but I absolutely love vinyl! When it comes to reggae, my favorite of all music genres, the LP, 7" and 12" were and in a lot of cases continue to be the primary medium for selling this music to the masses. A lot of great reggae was originally pressed on plastic and will never see the light of day on CD... there is just too much of a backlog of music and clearly not a large enough interest or financial reward to re-release albums. It's odd but I've noticed that a lot of Jamaicans really have no regard to their musical legacy and if it isn't the latest single, on the latest riddim, with the newest DJ du jour then it isn't worth listening to. I've heard horror stories of when songs had reached their "expiration date" people would just toss them in the trash. I've even heard of people taking their old records, minus their sleeves (cardboard once was a hot commodity in Jamaica and they recycled everything to make album cover - I even have an older LP whose cover was a laundry detergent box) and stacking them in a leaky out-building on their property and letting the heat and humidity do their number on god knows how many forgotten classics. I think older/vintage reggae would be extinct if it wasn't for the British who always enjoyed and respected the music more than Americans did and who held onto these records as the treasures they are. Damn I've gotten way off topic....

Anyway my friends and I would take a trip to Philadelphia every spring and fall to buy reggae vinyl. They had the closest Tower Records, when they still sold records, and another small store called 3rd Street Jazz. I remember when we first stopped at 3rd Street and I got out of the car thinking, "this place isn't gonna have anything." Oh...my...god! I had died and gone to heaven! They had a massive, I mean MASSIVE, reggae section - a good 8-10 bins wide and the coolest thing was the majority of it was used and dirt cheap! I remember leaving after the first trip with, I'm not exaggerating, 50 records... at the time it was the largest check I'd ever written to pay for it all but it was one of the most fulfilling experiences in my life! Well we quickly abandoned South Street's Tower and drove directly to 3rd Street on every trip! I had started noticing an influx of CDs and to make a long story a little less longer than it already is... one of the last times we went the reggae vinyl was clearly picked over and everything that remained was marked down. The last time we set foot in 3rd Street Jazz the only vinyl that remained was their namesake... paradise was lost. Sure they had a decent CD selection but who wanted to pay $12.00 for an album you could have gotten on vinyl for $4.00? I miss that place!