I made my first trip to Record Man in Redwood City today.

Do you know about this place? Have you been there? It’s ridiculous! They have a million records. One…million…records.

You go in there and it’s floor to ceiling record racks. The Beatles rack has maybe 50 copies of the White Album in various conditions and origins. The Elvis section had a dozen copies of an album that I can’t even find references to online (either than or I’m completely misremembering the title of it…). It’s that sort of place.

I was completely overwhelmed. I didn’t even know where to start, so I just looked through a few small parts of the ‘Soul’ section.

Purchases:

• Sam Cooke At the Copa: Live Sam Cooke, including his interesting take on Blowing in the Wind (video, iffy sound quality). Live Sam Cooke >> studio Sam Cooke >> pretty much everything else ever.
• Sam Cooke Mr. Soul: An import of a rare Sam Cooke album. I didn’t recognize most of the songs on this, so I bought it.
• The Temptations with the the Supremes Together: These two big Motown groups together singing a bunch of covers, like “Uptight (Everything’s Alright)”, and even a version of “My Guy/ My Girl” by the two groups. (This has now been reissued as Joined Together)

It’s not exactly cheap, but the selection and quality of stuff they have is pretty amazing. I think I need to do some serious research before going back. Apparently there’s a parking lot sale every September where they put out 500 boxes of LPs for $1 each.

I met the owners as well. Nice people. One of them was saying that most of their business is through amazon marketplace these days. That’s how the industry is changing, I guess.

While I’m on the topic of vinyl, any recommendations on turntables? I’m currently without.

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 17th, 2007 at 10:34 pm Posted by adrian in SF bay area, industry, soul. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.