All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records is a great documentary that goes to great lengths to explain the history behind what was my main go-to Record Store, longer than any other that came and went during it's time. There was a lot of stuff I didn't know about Tower Records which I found fascinating to see and hear. The doc focuses primarily on Russell Solomon, the creator and owner of Tower Records. I recognized him, but I never knew he was THE guy behind all this. This is his story and how it all started and how it all came to an end. I always thought that TR was just like any other big conglomerate corporation that was run by a committee of suits. What I learned is that the core group of people that started this from it's first couple of stores were there at the very end. So when TR was eventually liquidated and ceased to exist back in 2006, they had to grapple with the fact that what they spent 40 years doing was now gone. It's a fun story to watch but at times, it's an emotional one hearing the personal stories. I got misty-eyed a couple of times. Not what I expected when I sat down to watch this. A lot of archival footage and Still-images are used to tell the story along with the core group of interesting characters that ran the ship. Bonus points for getting Elton John and Dave Grohl involved and hearing what Tower Records meant to them. Definitely worth a Rent if you're a music fan or just want to revisit Tower Records one last time.

So I just saw this.  Theatrically.  Which was quite cool.  Really dug it, loved the characters in it, but it did leave me feeling a but wistful.  Not just for the world of the record store (though my Tower was always tricky to get to), but also because I really never gave a d*mn about a job like that... and I can't imagine that I ever would.  Which is kind of a sucky place to be.

But I obviously couldn't help but think about the whole way the thing fell apart, wondering how it could have gone differently.  First, I can't help but think "this is how ALL companies have to end.  I mean, what else can you do, wrap everything up, call it a day and go home?  No,  these things just keep moving forward until they pound themselves into dust"  I know it wasn't a documentary about the economics of it, but the fact that there weren't any fresh faces from the 80s or 90s... that stuck out to me.  Where were the kids who grew up making mixtapes, scratching records, the ones who didn't define their collections by a list of records on a shelf but how they interacted with it?  Of course the internet took them all by surprise and they made some bad business decisions, but didn't it seem strange that a company whose big thing was youthful energy and pure adoration for music just kept getting OLDER?

(This is, incidentally, why i also have a picture with Colin Hanks)

Yeah, I did Tower a few times (I remember seeing Michelle Branch perform there because I'm ANCIENT) but it seems like I got into it right at the tailwind of things, so I was never in attendance in its' prime.  I do remember a WALL of black-cased VHS tapes that you could rent, which I obviously never could, and wondering what was on those.  Something about an indistinguishable tape always stirs my imagination.  To this day, when I see there's a place that sells tapes or DVDs I want to go in there, as if what they have won't be the same sh*t you can get at any other store!