Behind the Counter
Anyone who has ever owned or managed a music shop can tell you that the employees working behind the counter are an integral part of the business. Of course they have to take money, answer phones, keep the shop clean, stock the shelves, and handle customer requests. But their personality and the way they interact with the customers are also important factors to the success of the shop. Customers, of course, recognize the value of the “record store clerk” and will often patronize a shop based on who is working there. And shop owners also understand that these valued employees are like gold.
I’ve worked with many such golden characters over the years, some of them worthy of being inducted in the Record Store Hall of Fame … if there is such a shrine. People like Bobby Hall, Jim Leatherman, Eddie Foeller, Quan Nguyen, Beth Ann Sparks, Matt Gorney, John Asseff, and Tim Skinner. And there were also my treasured colleagues, classy shop owners and kindred spirits such as Jim Boylston, Steve and Denise Allen, Ray and Fred Ehman, Craig Michaels, Bob Ponder, Tommie Minor, and of course Roman and Hanna Skrobko. I’ve no doubt forgotten to mention other worthy souls, but if they managed to survive working with me, or for me, they certainly deserve eternal fame. I recently talked to two former East-West Records employees, ones I have known for nearly thirty years. Besides being friends of mine, they are also classic examples of valuable record store clerks, and certainly first-ballot inductees in my Hall of Fame.
Keith Chagnon
I first met Keith Chagnon when he working at the East-West branch in Winter Park back in the late 1970s. He also was a writer for Dogfood, the music fanzine that I published. After leaving Orlando in the early 80s, Keith lived in Boston for about a decade before moving to Los Angeles. In between coastal record store gigs, he found time to play in bands such as the Confidentials and the Daughters, and toured with Johnny Thunders.
In a nutshell, what was it like working at East-West?
It was, without a doubt, the most exciting time in my life. I worked at the coolest record shop in town for two of the coolest people in town-Roman and Hannah. Loved it!
How long did you work at East-West?
I think it was about 3 years.
Can you share any memorable moments or particularly memorable customers that you remember from those retail days?
There were many bright, shiny folks running around back then. Orlando was still a bit of a sleepy town; no NBA franchise, no boy bands from hell. Sherry and Larry Carpenter (just heard that Larry passed last week) had just bought the Great Southern Music Hall. In the store there was this one gal, her name was Roxy, and she was close friends with Laurie Brown from The Kinks. She always had amazing stories. Then there were the numerous pimp daddies that would come in each week, real street pimps, looking to buy certain “ingredients” (all the stores were able to sell head shop goods back then).
When you think about East-West, which favorite albums come to mind from your time there?
Boy, that’s a good one. I was listening to A LOT of funk music back then … all the bands. I listened to Bruce (Springsteen) and Patti (Smith) every day … was getting into all the NYC punk bands (a mere few years before I would move to Boston and tour/record with Johnny Thunders) … The Clash mattered … Cheap Trick … all the AOR bands Boston-blah-blah-ooh … Pat Travers, he was just getting traction. I remember the Carpenters at Great Southern calling to ask if they should book multiple dates for him to record for a possible live record … that version of “Boom Boom” on his live record was recorded at TGSMH … years later I met Pat and told him that the whistle you hear on the record is me and my buddy Parker Delaney. Pat says: “Yeah I’ve heard that same story from about 1,000 people.” Oh well.
What were some of your other jobs after you left East-West?
In Boston I worked at the coolest collectibles shop on the planet; Nugget Records. The wall was signed by Lenny Kaye on opening day. This was also the same time that I was touring and recording with Johnny Thunders … that in itself is a discussion and life lesson on all the things NOT to do as a young budding rock star in training. I did not even drink at the time so it was a very strange experience. People were doing heroin and I am trying to find some orange juice that was supposed to be on the club rider. Johnny stares at me one day and says: “You are too straight to be in a rock band.” I look at him and fire back: “You are too fucked up to be alive.” Aaaah … the good old days! Upon arriving on the shores of Southern California, I spent about eight years paying my Hollywood dues working at Hits magazine, learning how it all “worked.” That was a great experience, and I will be forever grateful for my boss for taking me under her wing. From there I moved on and worked at a record label, a boutique marketing company, the Virgin mega-store (built their first e-commerce offering in North America), Sr. VP of Marketing for a merchandising company, a tech start-up, another tech start-up, another merch company, teaching tech classes, and now consulting and working on yet another tech start-up. It’s been a long strange trip for sure!
What are your feelings about the way that music retail has changed over the past several decades?
It is the fault of — wait for it — the labels. They did what they always do; react about as quick to changes as a dinosaur moving through the La Brea Tar Pits. If they had listened to consumers 15 years ago — “Hey we can’t afford 18 dollars for a CD” … if they had embraced that concept (lower CDs to $10 across the board) … got next to technology when it started (Hi Shawn Fanning, come with us and let’s work together!”). They are greedy, arrogant, greedy, slow moving, greedy (did I mention Greedy?) … they deserve all the chaos that they created. Now, the saddest part is that almost all the record stores have disappeared. I live in L.A…, and even living here you have to be strategic about venturing out to buy music. Most times you end up going online.
Where are you living, and what are you doing now?
Still in L.A. I’ve been consulting with various entities in the music and technology sector. Working on my third start up, enjoying my life. I have learned a lot in the last 20 years being here, but it truly all began working at East-West. I will forever be grateful to Hannah and Roman.
Brian Martin
Brian Martin also worked at the East-West branch in Winter Park, although a full decade after Keith had been there. Prior to East-West, Brian cut his retail teeth at Record Mart, another chain of record stores in the Orlando area. I was managing their store on South Orange Blossom Trail (oh, that crazy trail!) when Brian came aboard. If there was a concert anywhere in town, you could rest assured that Brian was in attendance! Brian also eventually left Central Florida and landed in Southern California.
In a nutshell, what was it like working at East-West?
It was a genuinely great experience. There were ups and downs, and good days as well as bad, but in all sincerity the good days exponentially outnumbered the bad. And it was an experience unique to that store, completely and totally unlike a corporate store like Camelot, and comfortably dissimilar from a chain store like Peaches. From my current perspective it was like allowing your garden to overgrow and go deliberately wild. I often thought the whole story would make a great sitcom, a gene-spliced combo of WKRP in Cincinnati, Cheers, Green Acres, and The Mary Tyler Moore Show. But if you tried to tell the honest-to-goodness truth, nobody would ever believe it.
How long did you work at East-West?
From April 1985 through March 1997. At the time of my departure, that was one third of my life.
Can you share any memorable moments or particularly memorable customers that you remember from those retail days?
Memorable moments would include, but would not be limited to the air conditioner constantly breaking down, the power going out, the store being broken into by smashing a window with a brick after hours, Tom Petersson of Cheap Trick walking in one day, Chip Z’Nuff of E’Nuff Z’Nuff walking in on another, and the in-store with Nickelbag (NOT that shit band Nickelback) in 1996. Memorable customers would include, but would not be limited to Harrison “Butch” Slaughter and his lovely wife and two beautiful daughters. Butch was a three-piece suit type of corporate business man who was bat-shit crazy about the Rolling Stones. A truly wonderful guy. And there was Chris, nicknamed “the Quiet Guy” because he would never, under any circumstances speak over a whisper. In a record store? Really? I lost count of the number of times we had to turn the music down just to hear him.
When you think about East-West, which favorite albums come to mind from your time there?
Once again, way too many to itemize here, however the titles that made a difference while I was there would be Tom Petty’s Southern Accents, Into The Great White Open, Full Moon Fever and Wild Flowers. Also the Rolling Stones’ two “comeback” albums; Steel Wheels and Voodoo Lounge, and Johnny Cash’s American Recordings and Unchained. There were also a number of game changers that were huge hits. Those were the records that would change the store, the customers, and the commercial mainstream music industry from that point forward. To name just a few: Guns N’ Roses Appetite For Destruction, Nirvana Nevermind, Metallica The Black Album, Paul Simon Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints, Peter Gabriel So, the Red Hot Chili Peppers Blood Sugar Sex Magik, U2 The Joshua Tree and Achtung, Baby. I have a personal fondness for Green Jello Cereal Killer soundtrack, the Dead Milkmen Bucky Fellini and Beelzebubba, and Mojo Nixon Horny Holidays.
What were some of your other jobs after you left East-West?
Apart from going hungry then and now, in Los Angeles over the past 12 years I’ve worked briefly at the Virgin Mega-Store, appeared a couple of times as a maze performer at Universal Studios Hollywood Halloween Horror Nights, worked as the field marketing director at Image Marketing Consultants, worked for Prana Entertainment, appeared as an extra in Erin Brockovich and Almost Famous, appeared on the game show “Rock N’ Roll Jeopardy”, and have sold books at Brentano’s and Borders in Century City and Hollywood.
What are your feelings about the way that music retail has changed over the past several decades?
Music retail has changed in that it barely exists any longer. Try and find a record store in your neighborhood. With the decline of music retail and its ever shrinking sales stats year after year, it tells you that illegal downloads and file sharing have irrevocably eradicated the retail business. By comparison, what Best Buy did to music retail doesn’t seem like as bitter a pill. I can remember the heady days when CDs overtook LPs as the prominent format. We all bemoaned the loss of the cover art, but even ancient catalog was considered a new release on the new format. If we only knew the Pandora’s Box that had just flown open, everybody would have behaved differently. It was drowned out by the continuous ring of the cash registers.
Where are you living, and what are you doing now?
I am currently living in Los Angeles. I am working part-time selling books in Hollywood. I’m starving full-time the rest of the time. The upside of going hungry is I can still fit into all my old clothes from when I worked at East-West in the 80s and 90s.
