For the Records
A long-playing success, built on vinyl
By Jeff Pearlman
STAFF WRITER
Newsday
When the CD came along in the late 1980s, Abramson was suspicious. He listened to the new invention and was remarkably unimpressed. Records were all about substance and detail; the tiny little crackle that makes one 45 of, say, Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” entirely different than any other. This was about character. Records had them. CDs did not. (Abramson is equally aghast at the thought of cassette tapes, which – to him – sound even worse than CDs.)
“I had to make a decision,” Abramson says. “To me, the CD is a marketing gimmick to have people get rid of their old stuff and invest in something new. That bugs me. I wanted to stay true to my first passion.”
Wise move. By sticking with records and only records, Abramson has stood out in an increasingly convoluted musical marketplace. His clientele ranges from David Bowie to Bette Midler to Pete Rock to Quentin Tarantino. Hollywood producers visit his shop in search of hard-to-find soundtrack material (House of Oldies is cited on the “American Hot Wax” soundtrack, as well as on the programs from the original Broadway production of “Grease”), and rappers and DJs are always searching for sampling material. “I’ve never looked and not found here,” says Paul Dantzler, a 28-year-old Brooklyn DJ-frequent customer. “Records are harder and harder to find every year. But anyone who DJs in New York knows of this place.”
Full Article: For the Records
