Burbank Records was originally located on the northwest corner of 79th and Austin, in that little strip of shops there (I have no idea what's there now, or if anything is there, for that matter). As with most of my postings, my dates are a little fuzzy, but the earliest I remember Burbank Records was 1975. I absolutely loved this placed. Frickin' loved it!
The guy who ran the store reminded me of an ex-hippie ("ex" meaning that he had cut his hair and trimmed his beard). The store still sold paraphenalia (pipes, mostly), as did a lot of independent record stores back then. I was nine years old for most of 1975 (my birthday is November), and I earned my living walking dogs. In fact, I actually made a pretty good buck doing it. My family had just moved into the condos over by Reavis, and so I spent a fair amount of my time biking down to Burbank Records with a pocketful of dog-walking money, walking up and down the store's aisles, deciding which album I would buy each week.
I bought dozens of albums there, but a few that I remember are Cheech and Chong's Sleeping Beauty and
George Carlin's On the Road. When I brought the Carlin up to the counter, the proprietor asked, "Do your parents mind you listening to this?" I said they didn't mind -- which was true -- and then named off the other George Carlin albums I owned. That was all he needed for confimation: He slipped the album into a bag and rang it up. Five bucks!
I'd like to think that I was one of his best customers, and maybe I was. He spent a lot of time talking to me, and I got the feeling that things weren't always going well for him, though I have no idea why I thought that. (I spent a lot of time listening to older people when I was a kid, which is strange because, where I live now, neighborhood kids wouldn't think twice about talking to me or asking me for any advice or hanging around while I told them stories about my life, and yet that's how I passed a lot of my time as a kid.)
Flashforward: Summer of '76. The owner of Burbank Records knew that I was a huge Elton John fan (remember: Elton John was a mega-star in 1976, at his peak, and he often had not one but two or three albums in the top 40), and he had a stack of tickets for the upcoming Elton John concert at the Chicago Stadium. He was scalping them for twelve bucks a pop, and he wanted to know if I wanted to buy one. (The face value of the ticket was only six bucks. Six bucks!) My parents, unfazed by the scalping, stipulated that I could go if my brother, who was six years older, went along with me; my brother agreed, but on one condition: I had to buy his ticket for him, which meant I had to come up with twenty-four bucks. Somehow -- I have no idea how -- I did, and while I worked on scraping together the money, the store's owner held two tickets for me. "You're good for it," he told me.
I still have the concert program...and, in fact, the ticket stub. A short while after the concert, I stopped off at Burbank Records and bought the disasterous Elton John double album, Blue Moves. The owner, as I recollect, may have even knocked a few bucks off the price for me.
The guy, whose name I wish I could remember, eventually sold Burbank Records. On his last day in the store, he gave me some advice on life and then, reaching over and ruffling my hair, told me that I was a good kid.
I have no idea who the new owner was; I'm not sure I ever did. By the time Burbank Records moved across the street, to the southwest corner of 77th and Austin, I had pretty much quit going there. The last time I went was when they were having their going out-of-business sale, probably around 1981. I stocked up on cheap cassettes by bands like the B-52s and The Kings. I may even have bought a Jim Steinman cassette that day, if anyone remembers him. ("Rock and Roll Dreams Come True," anyone?)
Burbank Records was, to my mind, one of the few stores that truly gave Burbank character, and when it dissolved, the city lost something rather unique.
8 comments:
I think the very first album I bought at Burbank Records is Shaun Cassidy's 'Da Doo Run Run'. Followed closely by Cheap Trick's 'Live at Budokon' and some Rod Stewart album. I spent alot of time and money there and even more when they moved across the street closer to my home.
I remember being there alot. Especially around the early '80s; in my recollections I have flashes of album covers from that time and place. Steely Dan, Queen, Tom Petty, Robert Palmer (he did more for the Walkman internationally than ANYONE will ever give him credit for [gimme a shout if ya know what I'm talkin' bout]), AC/DC ('Back in Black', of course). Then there was their IMPORTS BIN, let me grow whimsical on the UK edition of Jimi Hendrix' 'Electric Ladyland'. Lets just say it did a budding adolescent good.
Last July I gave my cherry wood 'Burbank Records' stamped lp cleaner to friend Phil. If you ever frequented Wind Records on 95th Street in Oak Lawn anywhere between 1985 & 1997 you would have met Phil. He went on to then manage the now defunct Threshold Records in Tinley Park, he grew up literally around the corner from Burbank Records and wax is still in his blood.
I pass the old store to this day when I visit my parents each week and still look in hope that someday I will see 'Burbank Records' open for business. I hear that AC/DC is back in the studio...
I went there too. First it was the 45's then moved into the cassettes. Later, I also bought the single (hit) cassettes that they used to sell if I didn't want the entire cassette.
John, we still have a guy that owns a music store here in Clearing on 63rd. You must stop in next time you're here. He still has old albums, concert posters, etc. Pretty cool.
I wish I was old enough to remember Burbank records. I was 1 in 1975. I am sure that store would've been great for at least another 10 years in Burbank.
Does anyone remember the arcade on 79th and Central? Or Quickstop?
In that spot now on 79th & Austin, there is (or was) a Rockin' Robbin day care..I think it is gone and there was a karate school in the basement (which I know is gone). I dated someone while at Reavis who was into kickboxing and he had the keys to the karate joint. We fooled around in there one time. A great Burbank memory!
On the sw corner where the record store moved, I don't recall anything of significance being there other than dr. offices and such.
This is where I bought my first record! Would have been around, oh, 1979, and it was Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. Watching the movie 'High Fidelity' brought back memories of how fun it was hanging out in those privately-owned record stores...
I remember my friend Debbie's brother worked at Burbank Records. It was when Steve Dahl had the Disco Demolition between a White Sox double header game. Dave had gotten inexpensive disco albums to use to get in to the game. Not sure if you remember that, - Steve planned on blowing up the albums between the games but kinda turned into a mess.
I know Dave wanted to return the albums, but his friends had carved things into them 'Disco Sucks' and other such pleasantries.
I worked at Burbank Records for a few years in high school and loved it. I originally worked in the little store on the North side of 79th street (next to "New Kicks n Pants" jeans store) and then moved across the street to the big store! I was the young chick with long hair, osh kosh bibs and a tube top who worked every weekend! I still laugh when I thought how cool I looked in my Burbank Records satin jackets. Because I worked there I think I had three....black, blue and red!!
I used to shop at Burbank Records both at their original location and then when they moved across the street where the store became much larger and they decorated it to look like a disco, complete with mirror ball in the center of the ceiling. Like other independent record shops of that era sold bongs, rolling papers, pipes, etc and I was actually shocked to see it all on display in the glass display case. I was there one afternoon just leaving the store when the owner (the guy with the afro) said to me "hey where ya goin' Steppenwolf is gonna be stopping in here in a few minutes" and sure enough, about 20 minutes later Steppenwolf arrived !
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