But for those whose response to theimminent collapseof Sam Goody was a nostalgic sigh, we hear that too.
But it wasnt just a place to flip through bins of records.
(Favorite purchase: A shirt with the Yes logo that read instead, Maybe.)
During the era of the mall, nearly every shopping center had its own Sam Goody store.L. Cohen/WireImage/Musicland Group Inc.
If youve seenFast Times at Ridgemont High,you more or less get the idea.
Inevitably, wed wind up at Sam Goody.
The experience would begin as soon as we crossed the Goody transom.
Wait, Neil Young has some strange-looking record titledTonights the Night?What is the KinksSoap Opera?
And tell me ThroughThe Secret Life of Plants by Stevie Wonder!
Beyond those bins sat aisle after aisle of records, alphabetized and by genre.
Sam Goody was where I encountered and bought my first Folkways release, Woody GuthriesDust Bowl Ballads.
Still, the Goody stores werent merely about LPs, cassette tapes, speaker cabinets, and sheet music.
These days its easy to take pops place in the cultural landscape for granted.
But a typical Goody store meant something more: We bought records, therefore we were.
