All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records

I got home on a Monday night, and I looked at the movies on television, and I settled for “All Things Must Pass,” the documentary on Tower Records.  It was remarkable how it became successful from the spending of young people, and the management of young people who turned it into a cool place to be.  It was really remarkable how Elton John talked about the Sunset Boulevard store.  He would go there on Tuesday mornings and load up on the latest releases.  He said that he spent more money at Tower Records than any other human being did.  I think the stores that I visited were in Berkeley, Los Angeles, San Francisco, La Jolla, and San Diego.  The business started in Sacramento and would open successful stores in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York.  They seemed to make the right decisions based on feeling and impressions, not on analysis.  The downfall was blamed on too much expansion into international stores while technology like Napster cut into sales with a sudden impact.  There is a warning here about how quickly the world changes.  I’m thinking also about the newspaper business, magazines, and movie theatres.  I wonder if my job at the library is in danger.  Tower Records was a good subject for a movie because it was a big part of our lives, and we really loved going there.  I read that the film took seven years to make and needed $92,000 in Kickstarter money for completion.  Russell Solomon, who started Tower Records, appeared in the film, which didn’t mention that he tried to start another store that never caught on.  Solomon died in 2018 at age 92.  I recommend this film to people who are music fans, especially the ones who bought LPs in the 1970s.  Some of the people who died on June 11 include John Wayne (1979), DeForest Kelley (1999), Ornette Coleman (2015), and Ron Moody (2015).  Today is a birthday for Joe Montana (68) and Adrienne Barbeau (79).  According to the Brandon Brooks Rewind radio segment for June 11, Hank Williams made his Grand Ole Opry debut in 1949.  In 1966, the Rolling Stones had the Number One single, “Paint It, Black.”  Also in 1966, European radio stations falsely reported that Roger Daltrey was dead.  In 1969, the John Wayne movie “True Grit” was released.  In 1975, the Robert Altman film “Nashville” was released.  In 1982, “E.T. – The Extraterrestrial” was released.  In 1977, KC and the Sunshine Band’s “I’m Your Boogie Man” was the Number One single. In 1983, Lionel Richie’s “My Love” peaked at Number 5 on the singles chart.  In 1988, Sting was one of the performers at the Nelson Mandela 70^th Birthday Tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in London.  In 2002, “American Idol” had its premiere on the FOX network.