Tower Records, R.I.P.

Tower Records, which announced last week that it would liquidate and close up shop, has played a big part in my life. I remember shopping at the Watt Avenue store (see left) with my dad when I was a kid , and also how cool the neon sign looked at night. Most of my large record (vinyl) collection was bought at one of Sacramento's Tower stores, either at Watt Avenue, Broadway, Sunrise Blvd., and even a handful from the Florin Rd. shop. In the pre-CD era Tower, I swear that you could walk in and smell the new records. Most of the new releases were stacked in the middle of a big aisle that went straight down the middle of the store, and it was always fun to browse, searching for something that looked good. Back in those days I was buying a couple of albums a week, and would sometimes grab something just because the cover looked cool - I clearly remember buying the Pretenders' first album that way, without ever having heard it or having heard of them.

I hadn't been to Tower much in recent years, partly because there wasn't one conveniently located near my house or my place of work, but also because other record stores had filled the void. After the advent of CDs, Tower never really quite duplicated its old atmosphere, and suffered by comparison to its old glory days as a result. Still, it is sad to see it go, and it leaves a hole in Sacramento that probably won't be filled.

You had a good run, Ross Solomon. You should be proud.