I bought this record the week it came out, a used white label promo copy, priced $2.99 at the greatest record store of them all, the titan that was Titus Oaks on Flatbush Avenue off Church Avenue in Brooklyn, a few yards to the right of Erasmus Hall High School, famously attended by Barbra Streisand and Neil Diamond. It was only a 15-20 minute train ride from Sheepshead Bay to Flatbush, but it felt like an eternity.
This trip was a Saturday morning ritual for me and my cousin. I can still feel my heart picking up the pace. My stride started to cover twice the ground it had covered back in Sheepshead Bay the closer I got to the shop. I struggled between the importance of maturity and the need to look cool to my cousin, four years my senior, and my impending nervous breakdown if I didn't beat my cousin by two full lengths to the front door. If I wasn't the first to find the one copy of whatever we were both looking for, I'd hear about it for days with relentless teenage teasing. And if I was the first to grab that promo of "Diamond Dogs," that was even worse. It was lose/lose and my only solace was waiting in a bin with shrink wrap and a price tag.
I'm sweating just typing this.
Titus Oaks was one flight above a donut shop, and for years I'd associate the sweet smell of coffee, baked goods, sugar and butter with used vinyl. And they had a great policy- for every three used records you'd trade in, you'd get a brand new release for 99 cents. I can still see the faces of the staff. Quiet Jerry who we called John Cale because of the resemblance, was the toughest with your trade-ins. Mario, curly mop and chubby face, always smiling and laughing and always stoned, was the most generous. And Jenny with the long blonde hair was the equalizer. She wasn't going to take just any of your shitty records like Mario, but unlike Jerry, if you looked pathetic enough, she might just add that "Les Variations" LP you read about it Creem, dropped the precious dime for, and hated with enough intensity you almost cried on your inner sleeve, as the third trade-in.
But I digress.
I've had "Frampton" in one form or another for 45 years and only today did I notice that he is wearing a Steve Marriott t-shirt. Really. Never picked up on that before today.
This record aged really well, by the way, even if I haven't.
14 comments:
Damn - never noticed that either. If there was a scintila of justice in the music biz, Steve's career would have, at a minimum, been as financially successfully as Frampton's.
The record store I lovingly grew up with and eventually got to work at for a couple of years, Kaleidoscope, had a head shop upstairs and records/tapes downstairs and beautiful hippie girls throughout. The stories I could tell...
Kaleidoscope didn't buy records but would give out an orange ticket for every record/tape bought which you could redeem for a freebie with 16 tickets. I still have one of those tickets in a little frame with the receipt for LZ's Physical Graffiti for $5.99.
Great Frampton story, great record.
Randy
Welcome (back) to my neighborhood! I live about a half a mile from Church Av & Flatbush.
But Titus Oaks predates me; I moved to Brooklyn in 2000. Do you know when they closed?
Was NYCD still open at Y2K? That was my go-to weekend browse. And before that, there was a place on First Ave around 91st or 92nd that was in a below-street-level space... ring any bells? Can't remember the name. Spent a lot of time/money there.
With those places nearby I never bothered schlepping down to the better-known disc shops in the Village.
Is there a better feeling than going through ten bargain crates and walking out with a dozen records and spending less than $20?
Back in NYC's heyday of punk and disco, almost nobody wanted what was filling the blues/folk/country/bluegrass crates—except me, it seemed. Fun times. (You ended up buying a lot of those records from me, Sal.)
Ken,
The Flatbush location closed early 80's. Then they moved to Avenue U and Ocean Ave for a short time. The store on First and 91st was Zig Zag who moved from East 23rd and Avenue U, also in the 80s. The owner Gary then moved Zig Zag to St. Mark's Place and changed the name to Smash CDs.
NYCD closed in 2005.
I wish we were all still open!
Spent a lot of time/money on St Marks as well. Mostly at Sounds.
St Marks is unrecognizable now. Well maybe there's one tattoo parlor left. Even Gem Spa which had been selling egg creams on the corner for decades closed a few months ago.
But who knows, Sal. NYC commercial real estate might soon fall off a cliff. Maybe rents will fall so low that someone could even open a used record shop?
For the record.....Sharpton never went to Erasmus.....he went to Tilden.
@Steven Bakur
Nice! First comment in 9 years and it's to correct me.
Thanks!
:)
Lol....Sal.....my friend Charlie sent me your blog post....and I felt you wouldn't mind the correction. Other than that...I'm sure we'd agree on most everything else. Hope you're doing well.
Steve,
Happy to see you and hope you're well...as well.
And yes, thanks for telling me. I've been carrying around that misinformation for 30 years!
I grew up in the musical wasteland of South Florida. TERRIBLE commercial radio so I have never listened to it or loved a deejay. Peaches was a very solid chain record store. But the first record store I LOVED -- long before I was even able to shop there -- was Tower Records. Oh to live in NYC and be able to shop there whenever I wanted. I moved to NYC in '91 and stayed on the low 100s for about three weeks (between Bway and Amsterdam) and walked down Broadway all day long just looking around. Then the next day walked down Seventh and Eighth and Sixth and so on just getting my bearings. But the FIRST thing I did was head to Tower Records at about 68th and Broadway just above Lincoln Center. It's no accident I lived on West 76th St for two years and then West 70th a stone's throw away for seven years. So much music to take in. Why couldn't I buy it all? I'd just go and look and look and look. Then I discovered the joys of NYCD and was loyal to them ever after of course. I'd love to wander the aisles and wonder again how you never made fun of any of my musical taste. To my face, at least.
I've loved this album forever. And I never noticed the Marriot shirt either. Now I love the record even more
Got into Frampton by way of Humble Pie and followed him when he went solo. Loved those first 4 albums before '.. Comes Alive'
I never thought about Frampton one way or the other during his heyday in the 70s... he was just omnipresent, and I was neither nor not a fan.
But in the last 10 years, I've gotten semi-obsessed with him... love his playing, his songs, the whole deal.
But oddly, I don't have this LP yet! So, I shall get it now...
I never noticed the Marriott shirt! - Stinky
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