I mentioned in this post about two weeks ago that my friend and I visited a music store in Sault Ste. Marie when we were there at the beginning of August.
Crooked Music is tucked away on one of the main streets in the city. Like any downtown area, there are so many business lined up side by side you would surely miss it if you blinked.
I made sure to grab one of their cards when I was checking out so I could take some pictures for this post.
While they seemed to cater mostly to musicians, I had heard they had a record selection available and that was the main reason for our visit. When I looked them up online I failed to notice what their closing time was and we showed up to the store about fifteen minutes before they were set to close.
It is a good thing their record selection was far smaller than I had anticipated because we were able to easily browse through them all before they kicked us out.
My friend snagged some good finds like Rod Stewart and The Rolling Stones. I realized it isn't the smartest idea to take your friend with you when you go record shopping. With him staring at one end of the rack and me starting at the other he took some of the records that I may have wanted to pick up. I guess that is just one of the hazards you face.
I was lucky enough to get these ones:
They had a ton of Wes Montgomery stuff. The guy at the counter mentioned they had just bought out a estate sale and they got a bunch of it in the lot. I have never heard of Wes, but I know that I don't have nearly enough Blues/Jazz records at home, so I figured why not. It was only about $7.00 so that seemed like a fairly good deal to me. I picked this one over the other Wes Montgomery selections mainly because I liked the cover.
I really think Jim Croce has an amazing voice and it is pretty sad that he was taken from us as early as he was (30 years old). I have no doubt he would still be making music today if it hadn't been for that plane crash.
I am a huge fan of 70's and 80's music, so when I saw they had this album by Quarterflash I knew I had to snag it. I couldn't tell you one other song besides "Harden my Heart" they sing, but like I said I dig the 80's. Plus, even though they may have not seen huge success, they were still a rocking band with a female lead.
This is the album I am probably most excited about finding. I have another Steely Dan album that I picked up off of Ebay a while ago, but to it wasn't "aja". I am a pretty big fan of Steely Dan and it is still on my bucket list to see Donald Fagen in concert sometime. I haven't listened to any of these albums yet, but this will probably be the first one I crack open when I get around to it.
They had two different Chicago albums at the store. Actually, I take that back. They had three Chicago albums, but one of them was from The Chicago Transit Authority which was the early name of the band before they just shortened it to Chicago. If I had to go back and do it over again I probably would have grabbed that earlier album instead of this one.
Here is my general issue with this Chicago album... The band has been around so long that they have a vast catalog of music. Much of it was never played on the radio. If I was going to get an album where I didn't recognize any of the songs, I would have rather had the CTA album just so I could say I have an album from before they were just "Chicago". That probably sounds silly I know...
Finally, my last snag was this album by Seals & Crofts. There is a term now for this style of music and it is called "Yacht Rock". It is the soft kind of breezy adult contemporary music from the 70's and 80's that was made famous by bands such as Crosby Stills and Nash, Christopher Cross, James Taylor, Steely Dan, etc. It is one of my favorite genres of music and Seals & Crofts fit squarely in that category. The fact that this one is a "Greatest Hits" makes it even better. This will probably be my second listen when I start digging into this batch.
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That store looks so great!
Sounds like a great store! I think I see what you mean about Chicago, I love their singles throughout the '70s but I couldn't pick one album and say "this is my ultimate favorite" because there are soo many great tunes scattered across decades?
I love Seals & Crofts, and Aja is a great album too. I've completely forgotten about Jim Croce for 30-40 years! Thank you for sharing!
Yeah, you hit the nail on the head right there with Chicago. I have a feeling there is so much stuff that I don't even know about because their catalog is just that vast. I love me some Jim Croce!
I have two of those! Jim Croce & Chicago great albums both and the original vinyl ......guess I am lucky that my Stepdad gave away his collection when CDs became the standard, But great finds all of those although I had to look up Quarterflash, but they are cool indeed.
Quarterflash is a good album. They only had one or two hits, but the one is pretty well known. The song anyway "Harden My Heart". I have a feeling most people would think it was sung by someone else and not Quarterflash.
Not sure why but they never made it on my radar but I have been looking into them a bit now because this is really my type of eighties song for now Walking On Ice is prob. my fa. but just started thanks !CTP
Great finds at the store. I have some old records mostly from the late 60's I should do something with. Thanks for sharing.
I love me some 60's music!
Oooo I love 'Aja', but can't seem to gel with the rest of the SD stuff. You can pick up vinyl cheap here from junk markets, if you can find any open on Sundays.. (covid-19 crap).
33's can range from just £1 each but the sellers have gotten wise to the good stuff, and your 'Dark Side of the Moon's' are now around £25 each.
Those do seem like some decent prices. Yes, sellers are much more savy now than they used to be due to easily accessible apps like ebay. It is hard to find an awesome deal on something unless you go out to garage sales.
I nice retro selection. Hope there are some you can enjoy. There is loads of vinyl out there as a lot of people cleared it out, but rarities are hard to find. I went to a place in Wales that had some discs for £200+ and I hadn't even heard of some of the artists. It's all about what people will pay for it.
Yeah, I tend to look for stuff that I can play and enjoy listening to. I'd rather spend $5 for a record I can listen to every day than pay $20+ for the same thing that I have to keep sealed because it is a rare pressing or something.
I'm not into keeping things preserved and unused either. Collecting for its own sake does not really interest me, but people spend a lot of money on such things just so they can have something rare.
Wow. Nice stack!
You will probably like the SteelyDan and Chicago just fine. I had to go look, but that is Chicago 10, their first platinum LP. Jim Croce is 'must have' for any body (i had that album), Seals and Crofts is good stuff.
Quarter Flash always seemed like your basic one hit band (and I could be wong) and Wes Montgomery is more Jazz than Blues so I think you will be happy.
I'll be waiting to see what you think when you've heard them...
It might be a while, but I will be sure to post about it when it happens. Now that I am stuck back in my real office every day I don't get to spend as much time down in the basement listening.
So is it wrong to wish for the second wave??? Ahahahahahaha
Oh, it's coming...
You got some good records there!
I bought Quarterflash when it first came out, I still have it around here somewhere in my stash of records.
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