RIP: Russ Solomon

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pacerguy

Tyme Master Jr.
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Who is Russ Solomon, you ask?
He was the founder of Tower Records, a place I spent much of my teenage years. Nearly every record, cassette, and later, CD, was purchased at a Tower Records Store. It was a great place to hang out. I’d spend hours browsing.

He was 92. Internet put it out of business.
 
Tower was the best, Bob. A bunch of us in high school/college would take a road trip once in a while down to TR in Boston. I'd stock up on vinyl and have a great time searching for obscure stuff. Good times. Sad when it shut its doors.

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I remember my youth spending tons of times at various record stores like Tower records. He had a nice LP of 92 rpm. RIP
 
RIP.

Ah yes, I also have so many wonderful memories of roaming the aisles of Tower Records. For those that don't know, the very first Tower Records started in my parents' home town of Sacramento, CA. I went there several times when I was in Sacramento visiting relatives. It was just a local record shop that was located right near Tower Theater, hence the name - Tower Records. It expanded over the years and they added Tower Books next door. Here's a picture of the original Sacramento Tower Records:


Tower-Records-PHOTO-1.jpg



Tower Records is still in business - in Japan. Here's the the big one in the Shibuya district of Tokyo:


Tower_Records_Shibuya-700x1024.jpg



I saw a sign for the one in Osaka on my most recent trip to Japan but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to go look for it. Here's the outside of that store:


I6tZAJz.jpg



As I'm finding out more often, if you want to see cool stuff, you have to go to Japan. Here's the Tower Records that I spent my youth at, the one in Campbell, CA:


Tower%2BRecords%252C%2BCampbell%2B%2528385866%2529.png



That location was notorious for having a way too small parking lot so it was always impossible to find a place to park. It was so busy there in its hey-day, that the small housing development behind the store required its residents to have parking permits in order to park on the streets in front of their homes.


I bought so many records (later CDs) there over the years. Van Halen, The Police, Rush, AC/DC, Metallica...I bought them all from Tower Records. Every once in a while they'd mark down the older albums for $5.99 and that's when I would blow my hard earned allowance in the aisles of Tower Records. I still have those albums and CDs and I still spin them on my stereo from time to time. (Whenever I have the time to listen to music, which isn't too often any more.)


*sigh* Those were the good old days. Thank you Russ Solomon for starting an institution of my youth in little Sacramento. :good:


For the Bay Area folks out there, now reminisce about the good old days of Bay Area rock radio when KRQR, KSJO, and KOME were ruling the airwaves.


kome.jpg



I'm a South Bay guy so KSJO and KOME were on my radio dial. Both stations hosted listening parties at the Tower Records in Campbell many times over the years.


Good times! :)
 
Oh, I have one other wonderful Tower Records memory. Back in 1996 when I was in college (summer session,) word spread throughout the campus amongst the rockers that Metallica was getting ready to perform a free live concert in the parking lot of the new Tower Records location in San Jose. As soon as I heard the news, I dropped everything, left school, and went to the concert. I parked blocks away and the parking lot was jammed with fellow Metallica fans in front of a semi trailer with an open side and a Tama drum kit set up.

Metallica played for about half an hour and it was fantastic. It also was completely unorganized and they were fined pretty heavily by the city of San Jose for not having any permits for the free show. It was all over the news that day.

Here's a video of the show. I'm in the crowd - way in the back somewhere.


Here's a photo of the interior of the Tower Records store on Sunset Strip in LA in 1980:

tower-circa-1980.jpg


I'll bet that many kids today have no idea what the inside of a record store looks like. :no:

There still are some great record stores here in the South Bay though. Just down the street from where Tower Records was located in Campbell are Streetlight Records and Rasputin Records, two nice music stores that seem to be doing great business.
 
May he have peace, and eternal rest, in the hands of the Great Architect of the Universe.
 
Oh, I have one other wonderful Tower Records memory. Back in 1996 when I was in college, word spread throughout the campus amongst the rockers that Metallica was getting ready to perform a free live concert in the parking lot of the new Tower Records location in San Jose. As soon as I heard the news, I dropped everything, left school, and went to the concert. I parked blocks away and the parking lot was jammed with Metallica fans in front of a semi trailer with an open side and a Tama drum kit set up.

Metallica played for about half an hour and it was fantastic. It also was completely unorganized and they were fined pretty heavily by the city of San Jose for not having any permits for the free show. It was all over the news that day.

Here's a video of the show. I'm in the crowd - way in the back somewhere.


Here's a photo of the interior of the Tower Records store on Sunset Strip in LA in 1980:

tower-circa-1980.jpg


I'll bet that many kids today have no idea what the inside of a record store looks like. :no:

There still are some great record stores here in the South Bay though. Just down the street from where Tower Records was located in Campbell are Streetlight Records and Rasputin Records, two nice music stores that seem to be doing great business.

One of my old(still current) favs Lars Frederiksen of Rancid and other great bands was from Campbell and I'm guessing spent some time in that store as a kid. Thanks for the cool pics. Music is one my biggest passions along with sports and watches. Good to see some old vinyl stores are getting a bit of a re-birth as collecting vinyl is a big trend.
 
Very sad.
Tower Records was my location of choice for classical music. The only record store I have EVER seen with a LARGE ROOM exclusively dedicated to classical music. It was a totally separate large area within the store itself, even separated by a glass door. They had the largest selection of classical music around, only surpassed by it's bigger brother store in a nearby major US city. It was a classical music lovers paradise.
 
RIP.

Ah yes, I also have so many wonderful memories of roaming the aisles of Tower Records. For those that don't know, the very first Tower Records started in my parents' home town of Sacramento, CA. I went there several times when I was in Sacramento visiting relatives. It was just a local record shop that was located right near Tower Theater, hence the name - Tower Records. It expanded over the years and they added Tower Books next door. Here's a picture of the original Sacramento Tower Records:


Tower-Records-PHOTO-1.jpg



Tower Records is still in business - in Japan. Here's the the big one in the Shibuya district of Tokyo:





I saw a sign for the one in Osaka on my most recent trip to Japan but unfortunately I didn't have enough time to go look for it. Here's the outside of that store:





As I'm finding out more often, if you want to see cool stuff, you have to go to Japan. Here's the Tower Records that I spent my youth at, the one in Campbell, CA:





That location was notorious for having a way too small parking lot so it was always impossible to find a place to park. It was so busy there in its hey-day, that the small housing development behind the store required its residents to have parking permits in order to park on the streets in front of their homes.


I bought so many records (later CDs) there over the years. Van Halen, The Police, Rush, AC/DC, Metallica...I bought them all from Tower Records. Every once in a while they'd mark down the older albums for $5.99 and that's when I would blow my hard earned allowance in the aisles of Tower Records. I still have those albums and CDs and I still spin them on my stereo from time to time. (Whenever I have the time to listen to music, which isn't too often any more.)


*sigh* Those were the good old days. Thank you Russ Solomon for starting an institution of my youth in little Sacramento. :good:


For the Bay Area folks out there, now reminisce about the good old days of Bay Area rock radio when KRQR, KSJO, and KOME were ruling the airwaves.





I'm a South Bay guy so KSJO and KOME were on my radio dial. Both stations hosted listening parties at the Tower Records in Campbell many times over the years.


Good times! :)
Actually, the first Tower was on Watt Ave. in the Arden/Arcade area, next to Country Club Lanes.
"In 1960, Russell Solomon opened the first Tower Records store on Watt Avenue, in Sacramento, California. He named it for his father's drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theater,[SUP][3][/SUP] where Solomon first started selling records. By 1976, Solomon had opened Tower Books, Posters, and Plants at 1600 Broadway, next door to Tower Records. In 1995, Tower.com opened, making the enterprise one of the first retailers to move online."
I lived close enough to walk to the store, and it was a favorite hang out for a big part of my life. Most of my over 2,000 LPs came from Tower. Russ left his mark in many parts of the world, but the Sacramento area was his home. He will be missed.

41Eg0mBGKcL.jpg
 
Actually, the first Tower was on Watt Ave. in the Arden/Arcade area, next to Country Club Lanes.
"In 1960, Russell Solomon opened the first Tower Records store on Watt Avenue, in Sacramento, California. He named it for his father's drugstore, which shared a building and name with the Tower Theater,[SUP][3][/SUP] where Solomon first started selling records.

Thanks for setting me straight. I guess that I went to the newer Sacramento location then, not the original one. Argh...my cousins were wrong! :no:
 
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