Archive for the 'Records (LPs) and Cassettes' Category

Abe Gurvin Album Covers, 1967 – 1977

Zodiac 1967

Federal Duck 1968

Jimmy Smith 1969

Nuggets 1972

Nuggets 1972-2

Atomic Rooster 1972

Rance Allen 1977

More here.

Atari Demonstration Center, Circa 1982

Atari Demo Tower

Two more from the Tower Records Project. The location is Mountain View, California. I don’t recall many of these demo centers inside record stores at the time; Tower certainly had the floor space. There’s a list of games on the Entertainment Sale sign, including Raiders of the Lost Ark, released in 1982.

Tower Mountain View Entertainment

Inside the Record Store, 1980 – 1985

Tower Circa 1980

Tower Mountain View Circa 1980

Tower La Mesa 1980

Tower Greenwich 1983

Tower NY Circa 1985

All photos are from the very worthy Tower Records Project. Locations are, from top to bottom, Seattle, Mountain View (CA), La Mesa (CA), Greenwich Village, and New York City. My Tower was in West Covina, California, and I miss it a lot.

Love the interactive “Wall” in the first shot. That album changed my life in about ’86, the first time I heard it all the way through.

Check out my record store archive here.

Six Million Dollar Man Christmas Adventures (Peter Pan, 1978)

Six Million Peter Pan 1978

Six Million Peter Pan 1978-2

Listen to the whole thing at Power Records. I thought it was fun.

(Images via My Little Underground)

Sound Effects: Death & Horror (BBC Records & Tapes, 1977)

Sound Effects #21 1978

There were three horror-themed LPs in the BBC’s long-running sound effects series: Sound Effects: Death & Horror (Vol. 13, 1977), More Death and Horror (Vol. 21, 1978), and Even More Death and Horror (Vol. 27, 1982). Some editions of the second title (Vol. 21) were released “in blood red vinyl,” as advertised on the LP cover. These are not, you may have guessed, your standard “chilling sounds,” including tracks such as “Arm Chopped Off,” “Red Hot Poker Into Eye,” “Death By Garrotting,” “Body Put Into the Acid Bath,” and “Self Immolation,” to name just a few. The gruesome cover art on the first two records is by Andrew Prewitt, who talks about the project at Horrorpedia, where you’ll find a good write-up. Many of the sound effects on the albums are available on iTunes.

There are lots of other interesting volumes in the BBC sound effects series, including Disasters (Vol. 16, 1977)—“Erupting Volcano With Lava Whooses,” “Radioactive Burn,” “Reprisal Air Strike,” etc.—and the extraordinary Out of This World (1976), a compendium of sci-fi, fantasy, and “supernatural” atmospherics. Hewitt did the covers (below) for those volumes as well.

Sound Effects #16 1977

Sound Effects Out of This World 1976

Come See What It’s All About by Halloween (Mercury, 1979)

Halloween LP

Halloween LP-2

The cover is a bit of a misnomer, since the album isn’t space disco and has nothing to do with Halloween, but who cares? Dr. Mime N Time is coming out of a goddamn wormhole and Captain K-9 has laser claws! What we have here are pretty standard disco tunes wrapped in a deceitful yet irresistibly kitschy package. All of the songs were written by Jerry Marcellino, who wrote and produced for The Jackson 5 (and solo M.J.), Diana Ross, The Supremes, and lots of others. I made a playlist of all of the songs on the album but two. Listen here.

The Runaways at Peaches Records, Circa 1977

Runaways Circa 1977

I heart The Runaways. Brilliant photo that comes from Advocate magazine courtesy of Kirby Warnock, who directed a short film called When Dallas Rocked (2013) about the area music scene in the 1970s.

Inside the Record Store, 1979/1983

8/22/1979, Bob Eighmie/Miami Herald Staff: Lots of records at Peaches.

1/19/1984, Miami Herald Staff: Rose Ortiz, has worked at Peaches Records and Tapes store for about 5 months. She is seen in front of a John Travolta/Olivia Newton-John display. Fancy displays of multiple images are used in Peaches. The store was one of the seven in South Florida's "record store rows". The row, which extends from North Miami Beach Boulevard from I-95 to NE 15th Avenue, houses Open Books and Records; Peaches; Record Liquidators, 87 NE 167th St.; Vibrations, 269 NE 167th St.; Discount Records, 1364 NE 163rd St.; Spec's Music, 1205 NE 163rd St.; and Record Land.

The record store is Peaches. Have you forgotten Two of a Kind? Shame on you!

(Photos are via the Miami Herald)

Westwood Mall, Michigan, 1972 – 1984

WW-2

Just before grand opening, August 3, 1972

WW-10

Grand opening, August 3, 1972

WW-1

Swimming pool demo, 1974

WW-5

Car show, 1975

WW-8

Christmas shoppers, 1977

WW-3

Mall centerpiece, 1981

WW-6

Mall centerpiece, 1981

WW-4

The Gap, 1981

WW-7

Record store, circa 1984

All of the photos are via MLive, where you can see more, including the original floor plan. Jackson, Michigan’s Westwood Mall is still around.

Can anyone see what the poster is on the record store wall—just to the right of mom’s head? I have another shot of a mall Gap store here.

UPDATE: Thanks to all who identified the Cyndi Lauper poster. The Welsh Piper found the actual item (below).

Lauper 1984

Middle Earth Discount Records and Tapes, Circa 1977

Middle Earth 1974

I found the photo at Michael Poulin’s Flickr and subsequently discovered the Middle Earth Records Memorial Page. The music store and head shop opened in 1969 and closed in 2007. Business card below.

Middle Earth Card


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