I moved to Austin in 1979. I had been working in Houston, managing a branch of the Record Exchange, a used record store. I had been up to Austin, and loved it, and being a musician, I wanted to move here.
On day a guy who had been in the store, several times, told me that he wanted to open a used record store in Austin and said he would put up the money, if I wanted to put it together and manage it. He said he would split profits 50/50 if I could get it going.
I jumped at the chance and it didn’t take long to get it going. We found a place at 34th and Guadalupe that was owned by Eddie Joseph, an ancient Lebanese man whose family had run a General Store where Lambett’s is now. It had been a bowling alley at some point. I shared the strip with Ropa Usada, Austin Photography Studio and, later on, the first Texas French Bread.
I opened the store with my best friend, from Baltimore, Mike Fitchett and we soon hired (JD) Jim Dixon, Pat Heron and Tim Hamblin and Cathy Gallagher, they were our first friend in Austin, me them on the street and loved them…still do.. We were later joined by my sister, Margaret and Louis Karp. Louis went on to open Waterloo Records with John Kunz, before heading off to join Whole Foods.
It was a “happening”, right from the start. Every band in town would bring me their records and I got distributions for several Jamaican reggae labels.
In the back of the store was the old, empty, bowling alley. I would let bands rehearse there, at night, so we would have “Live” music filling the building. During the day, Mike would play Michael Jackson, Billie Holiday, Bette Midler and Blondie…..LOUD! Me? Mostly reggae at that time, with some Bobby Caldwell and Earth, Wind and Fire thrown in. Mike had a habit of bringing women from the massage parlor down the street and strippers from Bucky’s Strip bar, also down the street, Funny, because he was gay, never had a fling with them, just liked Girls who reminder him of Mae West or Jayne Mansfield.
We won the Austin Chronicle Music poll a couple of years in a row, for Best Music Store.
My friend Michael McGeary, who played drums, in The Lotions, (I was an auxiliary Lotion) made some great, hilarious radio spots. We would always end the radio spots with “See you tomorrow!”. That was our tag line. Out friend, Wolfe, did the graphic art for ads as well as painting the big overhanging sign, outside. Mike Fitchett did some great ads, too. One featuring a urinal with graffiti, on the tile wall, that said “For a good time call…Recycled Records”. Classy stuff like that!
During one spell, Al Kooper would come in regularly with rare and collectible records and stories…I mean, STORIES. He was a nice guy and I really enjoyed his company.
I still get praise about those days. We only lasted 5 years but in that time, the store really made an impression on folks. I made a lot of friends that are still besties, to this day.
Oh yeah, I played Shake Russell and Dana Cooper’s “Songs On The Radio” album daily, maybe hourly, and Shake likes to remind me that we sold more of that record than any store, by far. That makes me feel good because, to this day, I think Shake Russell and Dan Cooper are 2 of the finest songwriters I have ever heard.
SEE YOU TOMORROW!!
My Entertaining Life-Steve Carter 