Tons Of Vinyl Being Tossed From Former Williamsburg Record Shop

[Dennman6]

And it just dawned on me that the photo showing the Eileen Farrell album has a whole lot more 78rpm albums tossed in there. Wonder what those titles were...

 

[Wigwam Jones]

And right on top of the dumpster pile is "Eileen Farrell Sings Irish Songs", a 1947 Columbia Masterworks 78rpm album I've had since 1980. It's a good album of an up-and-coming opera star doing what greats like John McCormack & Marilyn Horne did. Popular music to sell the voice to the public(although in McCormack's case he was well established & continued to alternate between operatic, popular, ballad singing on records). That album isn't junk, but so sorry it isn't a rare blues artist. God forbid it should be some Robert Johnson Vocalians in the usual ratty condition they sell for at $2,000 a disc! In a thrift store, swap meet, or antique mall that Farrell album would be $2-5 today, so maybe not worth carting to the next location of this vendor. But Farrell was a fine singer & if the right collector happened across the records in the dumpster they wouldn't be in that photo. I actually "rescue" albums of similar repertoire(78 or 33) from Goodwill, Salvation Army, DAV, etc.-even if I already have a copy on my record shelves. It might be in better shape than what I've got, & if not it goes to a "re-homing area". If I know someone who likes the music it'll go to them at some point. Granted, the classical/opera/ethnic/niche or oddities are loved by a minority of music lovers. However the store owner was right about not being able to recycle records nowadays-especially 78s. The record companies had shellac scrap drives during WWII, which resulted in some of the crummiest sounding 78rpm records ever produced. Records from the 1920s & 1930s sounded better than some(not all) of the 1940s Decca, RCA Victor, & Columbia 78s. But hey, it helped defeat the Axis powers...

Thanks for that cool information!

I will take issue with your statement the shellac and vinyl is not recyclable. It is. The fact that it makes lousy records (does anyone even make records from shellac anymore?) isn't the point. It can be recycled for OTHER purposes, and should be. In fact, polyvinyl chloride should not even be going into landfills, it breaks down slowly, but into nasty byproducts.

 

[Wigwam Jones]

I had a short interchange with the owner via Twitter. He's a class-A jerk, who apparently has a maturity problem.

He just keeps repeating the same mantra.

1) It wasn't him that threw out the records, it was his landlord or the new lessee of the space.

2) The records were worthless anyway.

3) Even if they were not worthless, why didn't people come and take them when he was giving them away?

In response to his asinine assertions, I simply say that first, leaving the records behind for others to deal with doesn't absolve one of responsibility for them. It's like people who left their pets behind when they abandoned their homes during the height of the recession. Same mentality; it's someone else's fault.

The records may have been worthless as records, although now we'll never know. They certainly could have been recycled; even if not into new records. Anyone who insists that they cannot be recycled is just flat wrong; period. No debate. They might as well be insisting that paper can't be recycled. Vinyl is quite recyclable, end of discussion.

And finally, shifting the blame onto his customers for not taking them away for him when he was getting ready to move is a bullshit immature move. The responsibility belongs to the owner of the records. But it ties in with the owner's apparent inability to take responsibility for his actions. He should man up and say "I made a mistake." Simple as that.

Bottom line, a lot of records, which could have been recycled, went into dumpsters and then presumably into a landfill; that's his fault. They might or might not have had value as records, that's unknown. But everything that happened to them after he simply abandoned them in situ in his former store location is a direct-line responsibility that goes only to him.

 

[Urizen]

I had a short interchange with the owner via Twitter. He's a class-A jerk, who apparently has a maturity problem.

You do tend to bring out the best in folks.

"Conflicts or gripes with other people or other forums do not belong on AK."

As he's not here to defend himself, and to avoid the inevitable witch-hunting pile-on, this thread is closed.