I didn’t get it. Despite being an ex-radio guy and owner of hundreds of LPs, I didn’t get the idea of buying vinyl. My collection had been stoic, waiting in the office, frustrating near the record player. It was a tin of cat food in the kitchen while an electric can opener tauntingly looked on. TLDR: I get vinyl now and it’s awesome. Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History is a book that’s meant for people who get vinyl. They understand and appreciate the culture behind the small businesses.
They relish thumbing through crates of $2 or $3 vinyl to find something curious. It’s that classic nugget from years ago you used to have. The genre you’ve wanted to dig deeper into, but are just looking for the right door. You imagine where that record has been. Did it have a well-loved previous life, or was its musical genius not appreciated? It’s the magic of buying used, be it vinyl or clothing. If you know and appreciate, then you know and appreciate. If your response is, “But I can listen to all of that music online via YouTube”, this book is not your jam.
Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History is about record stores. The locations are central to Atlanta, but the stories and attitude can be transposed to any area. It’s the characters that made Cheers a must-see television show. With record stores, the combination of the people who operate the stores, the music that people seek out, and the characters that look for them that make them fascinating. This is the audible barber shop, a curiosity for those who want to discover new listening treats.
Every major city has its music scene. Because of Atlanta’s proximity to Nashville and Athens, its influence in various music genres has some significance. The B-52’s and R.E.M. were on the vanguard of the Athens sound. OutKast was the leading edge of their pop and rap movement in the early 90s. Mastodon started out in the club scene of Little 5 Points and is doing arenas with their unique metal sound.
You can look at Atlanta Record Stores from one viewpoint. The record store owners and their eventual stores, grew up in the mid 70’s. They cut their teeth on various musical influences. Many of them widened that lens in the late-70s, and found their tribe in the early-80s. It was a time of pre-internet bliss. You found businesses using a big yellow book. The really cool band that you heard for a moment required you to ask that person who it was. Depending on their mood, they’d look at you with admiration or a sense of disdain. That song you momentarily heard from a mix tape but sounds like something you wanted to hear more of could be the gateway to a whole new life direction.
That was finding out about cool new music in the early 80’s. Your local college radio station helped a lot too, it still does today.
What’s surprising about Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History is how universal it is. The stories, although central to Atlanta, could and certainly did happen everywhere. It’s still happening. People get their haircut, the conversations in that arena are timeless. People still exchange music ideas and their favorite releases in record stores.
The owners of local record stores are worth celebrating. They have memories that are long and deep. I casually mentioned to the owner of our local store that I was looking for Y & T. “Yeah, that hair metal band from the 80’s?”, he said. I saw the one Y & T album they had in stock, but it was the one that I already had. The next time I went in there he said that he had received five of them and did I….I didn’t let him finish the sentence. It’s customer service like that you don’t see in big box stores or anywhere else.
The final pages of the book have a list of record stores around the Atlanta area. It’s up to date. But, I can just look for “Atlanta record stores” in a search engine. Yes, yes, you can, but again, the purpose of Atlanta Record Store is to entertain via stories of like-minded people. When you read about the picture disc from The Police, you’ll kick yourself for not buying it. The stories of first jobs and the joy in finding your people. If you appreciate record store culture Atlanta Record Stores will resonate with you.
Atlanta Record Stores: An Oral History is by Chad Radford and available on The History Press.
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