The record store in Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange”

Don't really see the point of this thread when every single item visible in the store has been accurately identified on the webpage you posted.

I had fun in discovering this.

What other films have scenes in record stores? (High fidelity doesn’t count)

Cactus Flower (1969) with Goldie Hawn and Walther Matthau has a good one

Scroll down to get a couple of glimpses of Ingrid Bergman visiting record clerk Goldie Hawn:

http://onthesetofnewyork.com/cactusflower.html

Btw, the "Slipped Disc" discotheque you can also see there was a real-life discotheque called Trude Heller's.

Don't really see the point of this thread when every single item visible in the store has been accurately identified on the webpage you posted.

― the word dog doesn't bark (anagram), Thursday, January 24, 2019 7:13 AM (fifty-four minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i mean, that webpage explicitly says:

When Alex wanders in he passes a large rack of albums, some of which elude my occasionally sketchy knowledge of 70s’ rock.

so in one picture e.g. there are maybe 12 or 13 visible covers and only five are identified.

lol I didn't even see/read the comments, so my "discoveries" were likely already discovered. I love things like this, we should just scatter/pose a bunch of our albums and photograph them. New ilm game thread.

Love that scene from Clockwork. Parts from the script:

INT. MUSIC BOOTICK ó DAY

Alex enters. Two pretty micro-boppers, Marty and Sonietta, sucking phallic ice sticks.

....

ALEX
Pardon me, ladies

He steps in between them and goes through the motions, looking through.

ALEX
Enjoying it then, my darling?... A bit cold and pointless isn't it, my lovely... What's happened to yours, my little sister?

Marty giggles.

MARTY
Who you getten bratty, Goggly Gogol? Johnny Zhivago? The Heaven Seventeen?

ALEX
What you got back home, little sister, to play your fuzzy warbles on? I bet you got little save pitiful portable picnic players.
Come with Uncle and hear all proper. Hear angel trumpets and devil trombones. You are invited.

What other films have scenes in record stores? (High fidelity doesn’t count)

Hannah and Her Sisters

And what’s in that one

XXP - Made me wonder how many 80s/90s post punk/electronic bands were called Johhny Zhivago who never made it, Discogs says 5 at least.

something by some guy named Randy Wilson?

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-KoUc_l4nqRA%2FV7hBYkAz30I%2FAAAAAAAAmyw%2F9h67yiklRhstT3PygRDF3vFzVnekgIv_wCLcB%2Fs1600%2FHanna%252Band%252Bher%252Bsisters%252B-%252BWoody%252BAllen%252Bcon%252Bun%252Bdisco%252Ben%252Btienda.jpg&f=1

can't make out much here, not sure what she's carrying. Duran Duran poster duh:
https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia-cache-ec0.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F94%2F6c%2F72%2F946c72515eead79161fa222d92be7ab1.jpg&f=1

I think I see Simon & Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water in the back there

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fi.pinimg.com%2F736x%2F60%2F04%2F44%2F600444cff6707bc01e11c58ecf6f3176--hannah-and-her-sisters-woody-allen.jpg&f=1

oh wait I guess that's Randy Weston, not Wilson

talented mr ripley (i think a lot of the records you see are anachronistic)
https://66.media.tumblr.com/fc47dceb038a6cffc72e3043c0e7004a/tumblr_mzvicnftf51rcnnxco1_1280.jpg

My favorite part of that Hannah scene is this old guy in the background of another shot inspecting a copy of Performance: Rockin' The Fillmore.

here's a good one

https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fvinylradar.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F04%2FJackie-Brown.jpg&f=1

Relevant Threads:

Sad vinyl fetishist query: Scenes in movies featuring/revolving around vinyl records?

movies wherein vinyl records are played

Can you identify any/all of the albums in the photo on the back cover of DJ Shadow, Endtroducing?

What other films have scenes in record stores? (High fidelity doesn’t count)

Godard, "Vivre sa Vie"

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-1Pvt-lxYI-o/TuYl3i5oUVI/AAAAAAAAAmk/lqf3ZFxbDJY/s1600/karina-recordstore.png

Couple of Fassbinder films:

1. "Why Does Herr R. Run Amok" - funny scene where the titular character goes to a record shop to buy a single he'd heard on the radio for his wife, but he doesn't know the title or the artist, so he has to try to first describe the song and then sing it to the two giggly (female) shop assistants.

2. "The Third Generation" - one of the main characters works in a futuristic record shop, which looks amazing.

Pretty In Pink: Molly works at Wax Trax!

http://popshifter.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/pretty-pink-record-store.jpg

ooh cool. look, there's a Kendra Smith record!

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-D1t9z-z591U/TcFRLchlIzI/AAAAAAAAA_w/vrYNcs9tZw8/s1600/vlcsnap-2011-04-23-02h35m35s96.png

and The Residents

I think I spotted a UB40 record and a Wah record.

American Gigolo

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TwF14j_FOqc/UOu7GfeID0I/AAAAAAAAEJQ/_JZoX7_t05U/s1600/GIGOLO_03_Title_1_00003.jpg

https://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/14847739/960full-american-gigolo-%281980%29-screenshot.jpg

https://ilarge.lisimg.com/image/14847738/960full-american-gigolo-%281980%29-screenshot.jpg

lol I don't recognize a single thing in that store

was surprised at how bad + boring that movie is when I watched it last year tbh

Also spotted in that Hannah scene: big promo for Barry Gibb's solo record. That and the poster for D'Jran D'Jran's Arena would put filming in late '84.

lol @ this one
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fk9l2kjjFw8

Fast Times: Damone using the life-size Debbie Harry cutout from a Blondie display at the mall record store to explain his 'Five-Point Plan' to Ratner.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZSPYdJxCVc

Big Streisand display in background.

Nice one

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bk9I3j6LKDY

https://i.redd.it/j2zqwi7se1w01.png

As mentioned above, Fassbinder's "Die Dritte Generation"

https://d1uzk9o9cg136f.cloudfront.net/f/16781437/rc/2018/09/27/9ef0bf56938b1a85bd317fff700d3c428c1b4d29_xlarge.jpg

... and "Warum läuft Herr R. Amok?"

http://worldscinema.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Warum-l%c3%a4uft-Herr-R.-Amok-19703-e1544291660597.png

my god, even their record sleeves were drab and colorless

Can't images or a clip, but there's that bit in The Man Who Fell To Earth where Rip Torn walks past a display of Bowie albums in a record store.

Love on the Run

https://pic.pimg.tw/giselemine/1387850637-3249304288_n.jpg

Cactus Flower (1969) with Goldie Hawn and Walther Matthau has a good one

http://onthesetofnewyork.com/locations/cactusflower/cactusflower24.jpg

at the top there's the roberto gerhard/maxwell davies, messiaen & xenakis releases from this series

Hm! Was wondering what those were.

More Goldie:

https://i0.wp.com/clothesonfilm.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Cactus-Flower_Ingrid-Bergman-Goldie-Hawn-yellow_cap.jpg

And:

https://lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2012/11/cactus-flower-1969.html

Sorry - you gotta scroll down again:

https://lecinemadreams.blogspot.com/2012/11/cactus-flower-1969.html

love those stills, thanks J

Pretty off-topic, but I’m watching Sixteen Candles — a cassette of Talking Heads’ Fear of Music is seen (but not heard) playing in the party scene.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BjfJlCDisY

Before Sunrise had a record store in Vienna called Alt & Neu:
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1oeI_YTvkMU/SG4NVy6APhI/AAAAAAAAHsw/ICNhKn3VxJg/s1600-h/Before_sunrise_music_shop.jpg

https://coffeebeanzandtealeavez.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/995bsr_ethan_hawke_011.jpg

https://vimeo.com/263697150

It's a real record shop as well.

Beaver joins a record club...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4wm9c3

I Want Someone To Eat Cheese With had a scene shot in Atomic Records IIRC

alas i have no screencaps

Deleted mall scene from X-Men Apocalypse

https://i.imgur.com/oeuqPQYl.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/C1Zu0Cnl.jpg

Only things I recognize off the bat are Introducing the Hardline According to Terence Trent D'Arby, Madman Across the Water, and Cats.

Oh, and Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Payolas' "Hammer On A Drum" is on the far left there

Is this anywhere near the filming sites for the alleged PTA Pynchon adaptation?

Huh, I don't know...

(Looks like that book is set in 1984, tho?)

Yeah, good point. Was just curious.

I'm curious too!

Would a 1979 record store have massive poster/murals like that? I don't recall anything that big. Also, those choices are very received wisdom. Blues Brothers, Eagles, The Knack.

Maybe this is remake of Record City!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z832IqZLXKs

a film that terrified a zoomer in my household more than Hereditary!

Vineland begins in 1984, but there are flashbacks galore - we're talking non-linear Pynchon time obv. So there could be scenes set in 1979, especially if this is a 'loose adaptation'.

xps That was my thought but the wikipedia page for Tower Records has a photo of their Sunset Strip location that looks just like this (though from a much later date).

Blurry pic from '78

Fake location def. has "cooler" murals (...not that I can identify most of the ones in that pic!)

Nice pics here as well: http://martinostimemachine.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-legendary-past-and-celluloid-future.html?m=1

For all these shows and movies that recreate Tower Records, maybe it would have been easier for them to just keep some open! Surprised at how much I even miss having a chain like that around.

Particularly now that the only national chain carrying a barely respectable amount of music is *Barnes & Noble*.

Fake location def. has "cooler" murals (...not that I can identify most of the ones in that pic!)

That blog post has a better scan of that '78 pic. There's a roof display for the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack! Admittedly, that yellow Firebird >>> the albums in the window (Rainbow: You Can't Kill Rock'n'Roll; two guitar guys are England Dan & John Ford Coley; not sure About the others...fuel nozzle might be Robin Trower?).

Record City is on Prime rn, BTW.

Yeah all those cars parked out front are f'in fire-emoji

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2FlZTQ1NTktY2Y1NS00ZjVhLWE5ODEtZWE0ZTcyYmUyNDZhXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyOTc5MDI5NjE@._V1_.jpg

Still from the film FM (1978)

nice!

I keep seeing them referred to as "paintings", but I always just assumed they were large format vinyl printings or whatever mounted on plywood.

The album cover repros that the Peaches chain used on their facades were hand painted, I'm almost certain.

That's really cool, I didn't know that! Sorry if this is one of those common knowledge things I should have known, but I missed that era and the chains I grew up with were all in malls and had just carboard cut-out things.

I figured hand-painting would be way too labor intensive for anyone to do that! Was it a chain thing? Or did the labels source then?

Someone on Pinterest has a post saying that the Peaches artwork was commissioned to a group from California. They also say, interestingly, that after six months of being displayed on the exterior of the building, the paintings would be displayed inside the store until they sold. That I did not remember.

Cool home movie footage from another point in '78. Starts @ 4:09

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbNvv0KNTpk

LIVE GRAPE! SGT. PEPPER SOUNDTRACK!

Inside the store in 1971:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWRnXhhRwtc

Interesting to see how many displays are simply records stacked up on their shopping boxes, warehouse-club style.

how it was supposed to be

I keep seeing them referred to as "paintings", but I always just assumed they were large format vinyl printings or whatever mounted on plywood.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, February 15, 2024 4:33 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The album cover repros that the Peaches chain used on their facades were hand painted, I'm almost certain.

― Josefa, Thursday, February 15, 2024 5:06 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

The main character in Xanadu (1980) was an album cover reproduction painter. And that's fictional, of course, but it feels like a pretty '70s thing to do.

It's not quite the same but the coffee table book Rock 'n' Roll Billboards of the Sunset Strip discusses the folks who painted those huge billboards and what went into that (though most people who designed and painted them were never credited).

could there be a more stereotypically 80s job? I don't think so xp

now I want to know when the profession died out, guessing it was the late-79 record industry recession/crash

The Tower Records podcast interviewed someone who was a store art director
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-58-tim-wessman-art-department-sf-nyc/id1624366888?i=1000622239312

A friend took an updated picture… looks like they added Barry and moved Bob:

https://i.imgur.com/aKh642e_d.webp?maxwidth=760&fidelity=grand

see I was thinking that Slow Train Coming was a little early compared to the rest of these, that makes more sense

idk Damn The Torpedoes was released mid-October of 79, I know this because it was when I started buying records and listening to the radio and that shit was everywhere, with good reason

We drove by the location earlier; they’re actively filming there tonight.

My wife says someone was talking about it online, and teased that they couldn’t reveal the project, but “it involves a famous drug addict from the ‘80s, who’s no longer with us.” 🤷🏻‍♂️

Record City is on Prime rn, BTW.

Screened it last night. It's really not good, just dumb as hell, and probably started dating horribly as soon as the director called "Cut!" on the first setup.

HOWEVER

Hats off to the production designers. From what I gather, they took an old grocery store up in north LA near Glendale and turned it into a near-clone of the Sunset Tower Records sales floor. If you've followed/posted in this thread, it's totally worth digging into just to savour all the album covers, posters, displays, signage etc.

One of the most interesting bits (which ties in to some discussion upthread) is this tall triptych poster from Island Records UK promoting Michael Nesmith's From A Radio Engine..., Bruce Cockburn's In The Falling Dark, and...Bryter Layter! Which I guess had been reissued?

yep Antilles did a 1977 US reissue of Bryter Layter, they did Five Leaves Left the year before, but did not reissue Pink Moon

So I was going through some old vacation pictures from my father-in-law which we had backed up here on our PC and by coincidence saw this one, taken somewhere in California in 2006:

https://i.postimg.cc/QtDPq8Qb/W4m1cz-NRx-pb5-Fed-O2vg-Q.jpg

I didn't crop this or anything, this is the picture, not really sure why it was taken, I'm guessing those are 3 album covers which we can just barely see the top of. I don't recognize any of them, but I tend to be pretty bad at these kind of things

I think the middle one is Beck, The Information

I'm trying to place the store. It might have been the one on Sunset?

Yeah, pretty sure it is. It's a Supreme store now.

https://wehotimes.com/long-lines-are-back-at-supreme-store-west-hollywood-for-fall-winter-2023-collection/

Springsteen on the left there, and yeah Beck. not sure about the one on the right.

Someone on Facebook (I dunno who) has now apparently "confirmed" that the Tower Records set is for a new Michael Jackson movie.

I was coming home on a train about 10 days ago, and saw someone had left a Supreme water bottle on a seat. I was the only one in the car, and thought of taking it, but decided not to. When I got home I googled it (didn't know anything about the brand) and saw that similar bottles retail for $90 or some such ridiculous amount.

finally had time to look at this tower records blog post and all the videos ... thanks for sharing these