A Fabulous Creation by David Hepworth

Author:David Hepworth
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473541771
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2019-02-26T16:00:00+00:00

1978

‘The kids need new shoes’

It was usually near the door, where the customers would see it first on entering the shop, or near the counter, where the people working there could easily reach it. Wherever it was, the ‘Just Released’ rack was the most exciting place in any record shop. It was like the changing front page of a magazine that in most other respects would remain the same. It was the first place you would look. You would be searching first of all for the records you were expecting but also, more excitingly, it was the place you would look to be surprised or delighted.

In the early days of the albums market, even as late as 1972, we were still intrigued by novelty. Thus new albums were innocent until proven guilty. I hadn’t yet arrived at a point where I was familiar with my own prejudices. In September of that year I bought not just the ultra-progressive Close To The Edge by Yes but also Full House, the ultra-regressive live album by the J. Geils Band. I ended up with Bandstand by Family and also My Time by Boz Scaggs. Furthermore, if somebody had offered me the chance to hear Steeleye Span’s Below The Salt and even Phoenix by Grand Funk Railroad I would have leapt at the chance. All these records were in the same ‘Just Released’ rack. It was either there or ‘Groups A-Z’ and ‘Solo Artists A-Z’. Music wasn’t yet being hived off into taste ghettos. This openness to different musical styles was not a unique virtue of my generation. It was more a reflection of the fact that most of what was going on in the albums market was happening for the first time.

Six years later, in 1978, many of the same acts were doing many of the same things but with inevitably diminishing returns. Often the album was heralded by a claim that something was fresh and exciting this time. Street Hassle, Lou Reed’s eighth solo record, was the first rock album recorded using the binaural method. Here, My Dear, Marvin Gaye’s eighteenth, was so-called because he agreed to give half its earnings to his ex-wife. In both cases the market remained unmoved. Big acts were still making a living because the market was bigger and was beginning to splinter into tribes, but the spirit of adventure had gone. By 1978 it seemed unlikely that any of the same people would be buying both Yes’s Tormato and the J. Geils Band’s Sanctuary. Most listeners had decided who they were and what they were interested in. They were no longer so apt to be dared into trying something lying outside their comfort zone.

Therefore a good half of the records in the ‘Just Released’ category would be things you weren’t interested in. You recognized there was a market for them but you recognized that market didn’t include you. By 1978 there was no room for doubt that what was once the music business was now the music industry.

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