Last Of The Record Retailers In memorium for Jack Goldberg

Last of The Record Retailers..Goodbye Jack Goldberg.. 1-09-10
By Stan Beinstein

Jack Goldberg died this week at the age of 66. I did not see him often. I did not know him well, but we understood each other to the core because I once had an interest in a record store in New Paltz. Jack owned two record collector stores. Rhythms Of Woodstock and Jack’s Rhythms of New Paltz. The Woodstock store closed several years ago and that was the signpost for me that everything had changed. Woodstock no longer had a record store. Part of the adventure of shopping at Rhythms of Woodstock was that you could not only pick up something rare, you could pick up something dropped off by the artist. Be it John Herald or John Sebastian, Artie Traum , John Platania or Eric Andersen. You could also talk music; any kind of music. That was Jack's magic.
In John Barry’s news item / obituary in the Poughkeepsie Journal (1-6-2010) Barry quotes John Lefsky ,who recently took over Rhythms of New Paltz. In memory of Jack Goldberg ,Lefsky said : “ turn off the lousy radio station or TV. Put on The Replacements , Doug Sahm, John Coltrane.” …. As I read this I was deeply saddened and cut to the quick. I am the advertisng sales manager of one of those “ lousy “ radio stations. WDST / Radio Woodstock, my station is better than most but I understood John Lefsky’s frustration. No radio station can do what a guy like Jack could do in a record store; interact with people about music.
I began my record store career at 16. It was the Summer of Love 1967. Taking the #20 bus from Jerome Avenue in The Bronx to the Cross County Shopping Center in Yonkers where I worked at Sam Goody’s. One of my slightly older co-workers Mike Winfield , taught me all about jazz and blues .I soaked it up like a sponge. Mike talked in a be bop cadence that I had only witnessed in movies and he was the most amiable guy on the planet.
Mike and I only had a few months together at Sam Goody. He was a bass player about to launch The Colwell Winfield Blues Band on Verve Forecast records, the same label as The Blues Project. He invited me invited backstage at The Café Au Go Go on Bleeker St in Greenwich Village. This was the club that housed the NYC premier of Cream and The Dead. A low ceiling basement with no more than 150 seats . Mike Winfield and Bill Colwell would move to Woodstock where Van Morrison would lift half of their band for his Moondance band. I would like to thank Michael Winfield for teaching me how to talk to customers about music. He could make anyone feel comfortable, from a know nothing to a know it all. He taught me about Muddy, and Wolf and Coltrane and Miles, Buddy Guy and Junior Wells and so much more. As I stocked the shelves with Cream’s Wheels Of Fire I was getting an education on the precursors Willie Dixon and Freddie King.
After Mike Winfield left Sam Goodys for fame and fortune I became the manager of the blues department. All 6 bins of it .Room for about 50 titles. If a kid like Eric Clapton with John Mayall I made him listen to Freddie King. If a kid liked Paul Butterfield I made him listen to Junior Wells or Little Walter. actually met Sam Goody once ( ne: Goodman). We were all on our best behavior as he visited the Yonkers store and we all shook his hand.
It was at that same store that I made my stand for Jimi Hendrix.the day his first album …Are You Experienced... was released… That Saturday morning I opened a copy without asking permission and put it on the portable Webcor stereo in the front of the store . I then made sure that the speakers were separated by at least 8 feet ( they usually sat four feet apart). Stereo was still new ....Sgt. Pepper was ringing in our heads. From the first notes of Purple Haze I was inside the music. Unbeknownst to me, the classical manager made a B- line for the store manager and had “ that crap” taken off. I told the store manager that this album was important and being played today in its entirety…if I have to wait until the end of the day. I jeopardized my job and got my way later in the afternoon when the store was crowded with young people.
I understand John Lefsky’s frustration with radio. In a record store you play music for people and you look at their faces and you wait for customers to say. “what is that?” ..good or bad ..you get to watch them react... The more independent the store the more likely to share esoteric music. Sam Goody’s was not the place for esoterica. At a place like Jack's youy never knew if you were walking into Sun Ra or The Carter Family .
During college at New Paltz I worked at The Book and Record Store in 1971. It was a chain of about 8 stores throughout the Hudson Valley big on gifts , cards, Russell Stover candies and books.. We had to be judicious in our musical choices..but we had more leverage in the New Paltz store with all the college kids. My customers included the late Dr. William Abruzzi. Dr. Bill was the head Dr. at the original Woodstock Festival and also Dr. at the infirmary at SUNY New Paltz . I turned Dr. Bill onto Frank Zappa at The Book and Record. It was the Flo and Eddie period and he loved it. ..in turn he turned me onto Bill Evans and Dave Brubeck .The Book and Record was also not a place for esoterica. That would come to New Paltz later.
I returned to New Paltz in the fall of 1974 to find a new establishment. The Spindle Spot in the middle of Main St. about 6 stores uphill from where Jack would settle years later. I partnered up with Stu Johnstone. The “used” record business had my attention. You made an offer based on condition and your judgement of sellability . You could make more on used albums than on new ones. We knew the handwriting was on the wall for new albums when Springsteen’s Born To Run came out in 1975. Our wholesale price from went up to from $3.25 to $3.52 and Barker’s Department Store up the road was selling it retail as a loss leader for $3.49.
Years later I would shop with Jack Goldberg at both of his stores periodically. I knew he had no money to advertise on any of my radio stations. I would stop to just talk music. I remember when CD s were new and there were two artists that I was passionately seeking on disc, Fred Neil and Moby Grape. We talked about different music, recordings, performances all aspects of music. Jack was a native of Boston, me NYC and we compared notes on the classic dives of the 60s from the Cafe Au Go Go to Club 47.We would talk about obscure bands like Earth Opera. I told Jack about the store in New Paltz that was halfway up the block on the same side of the street years earlier. At one point I didn’t see Jack for nearly a year. If I dropped in one store he would be in the other, …and when I did finally see him he said.. “got some Fred Neil for you!” …That’s what I mean about a record store man..he knew his customers… and you NEVER knew what you were going to hear when you went in there. The magic of was always the lack of predictability. Mingus? Mink Deville? Dave Van Ronk? ...I told Jack that I came from a planet where BECK was Jeff and MOBY was Grape.
Here’s to the independent stores on Fordham Rd. in The Bronx. Cousins and The Spinning Disc where you could ALWAYS find hipper stuff than at Alexander’s …but more importantly you could find people to talk about the music with. ....Thank you Jack Goldberg for remembering how much Fred Neil meant to me.