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

Now I need to watch Morgan Stewart’s Coming Home, in which he also placed the dad, to see if there’s a “disapproving stereo” scene…

The former location of an auto parts store near me is being dressed up for a production. Can we guess the year it is set?

https://i.imgur.com/zmzdNin_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

https://i.imgur.com/AVdARmU_d.webp?maxwidth=1520&fidelity=grand

late 1979

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