party over, oops, out of time

The downtown Minneapolis Sam Goody is closing. Or Musicland, as I'm fond of calling it. Same company. Same policy of opening up shops in malls to allure vehicularly challenged kids and musically handicapped moms to shell out $20.99 for a cd.

But I have to thank Sam Goody/Musicland. Plenty of research was done there as a kid. I lived just a few blocks from a mall during my formative years, and I spent many hours perusing the racks of vinyl and cassettes and learning important musical distinctions. Like that the Cure had 5-6 albums before Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me, or that "Teenage Wasteland" was really called "Baba O'Reilly" and was off the album Who's Next.

I kept the staff busy too. I'd ask when the new Van Halen or Motley Crue album was coming out and watch as they shuffled through papers and occasionally made calls in an effort to further whet my appetite. Back then I'd usually buy the records there too. But when I outgrew the cock rock and my friends started to drive, I'd venture further and further from home to hipper (and much cheaper) record stores and Musicland became a convenient place of research and nothing else. It was sort of like my allmusic and amazon, in those pre-internet days. The staff had to be frustrated when I never showed up to buy the new Morrissey album. They probably had a copy behind the counter waiting for me.

Some thievery was done there too. Not in my name, but in my honor. I got huge into R.E.M. when I bought Document and Lifes Rich Pageant on the same day. Then I found out they were coming to town in a month. So I bought Fables of the Reconstruction. I already had Murmur from a trade I did with a friend of mine for Clapton, Beck and Page's White Boy Blues. All I needed was Reckoning and Chronic Town. With a gullible neighbor kid, the problem was solved.

I know. I should feel bad. But the thing is, Musicland's been ripping off kids for years. And I was 15, so I guess it's okay now. But with all of the price gouging these guys did, it makes me feel pretty good to go into a Sam Goody store all of these years later and take 50-60% off of their cds and dvds. I try to suppress the smirk at the checkout.

Bye guys. So sad. You don't even have the research thing going for you anymore. And after today, I don't think you have anything else I'm interested in either. Regardless of the price.