Saturday, April 05, 2008

1988: The Gold It's In The ...

Getting a job in a record store seemed only like a fun lark in the largely lonely fall of 1987 post-Floyd. After Fazio's, a succession of far-beyond-dreary jobs in various factories, and a half-dozen hideously boring Saturday nights folding copies of the Sunday News-Herald (with Pink Floyd mix tapes blaring away in my ears, of course), the prospect of cleaning used chemical toilets outhouses sounded like more fun than what I was presently doing.
It was with this attitude that I began seeking employment in October of that year. Camelot Music was actually my first choice, for what reason I honestly cannot say at this time. Perhaps because they were playing A Momentary Lapse Of Reason on the day I walked through. Maybe because a kid I vaguely knew from high school was behind the counter that day. Who knew?
National Record Mart was next on the list, followed by Record Den. Record Rendezvous and Record Carnival would have been on that shortlist as well, but they had long since folded up at that point in time. Considering how many 45 records had slipped from those stores into the folds of countless Scene magazines in the past, it was probably a better thing, anyway.
How's this for irony? Record Den proved to be the winner, if only by because of the fact that Camelot never called back, and the manager of Record Den, Greg Beaumont at least cracked open the windows of possibility by always telling me to return in a week or so to discuss the matter further. By the time I had finally been granted a serious "interview," the idea of getting a job at a record store was an obsession.

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