Oh, Dom,
You bring back great memories when you mention COLONY Records and Seaview Square Mall! I think COLONY Records closed around ten years ago. Another great record store in Manhattan was J & R Music, downtown on Park Row across from City Hall. I spent many lunch hours, checking out the LPs and cds there. They also had a great selection of audio equipment.
And, Seaview Square Mall in Ocean Township, NJ, wasn’t that one of the first malls on the NJ shore? I also remember Steinbach’s and Sears Roebuck in Asbury Park, when that seaside resort town was kind of rough. In
fact, I remember a segment on “The Today Show” a number of years ago, where they had Bruce Springsteen
and Matt Lauer (remember him?) driving down the main drag (Route 35) of Asbury Park in a vintage Cadillac.
And, the way they filmed it, with a tv camera focused only on them in the car, so you couldn’t see how dreadful
the stores and buildings were along the way. However, today after all of the new construction and renovation
work
in town, and with an influx of young urban professionals, Asbury Park has experienced a renaissance. You
almost wouldn’t recognize the place.
Another great record store is Jack’s Music Shoppe in Red Bank, NJ. Like COLONY Records they have a large selection of cds and vintage LPs of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and The Supremes. Bruce Springsteen, a
frequent customer, also donated some autographed guitars to the store. In fact, after I saw 10,000 Maniacs at
the nearby Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, I told some of the guys in the band, that I had bought a number
of their cds at Jack’s Music Shoppe. (Of course, I didn’t tell them that I had bought a lot of their used cds,
which sound like new, for $3.00 at that venerable record store!)
Oh, yeah, another great book store was the “Book Bin” on Arnold Avenue in Point Pleasant, NJ. I bought a dog-eared copy of “Barnabas Collins In a Funny Vein” there many years ago.
Bob
PS It’s going to be 85 degrees in the tri-state area on Friday. I think I’ll bring my copy of “The Dark Shadows Companion” to read as I’m catching some rays at Sandy Hook this weekend!