In 2009, the traditional practice of exchanging physical copies of records for money is a trade that might best be called quixotic. But New Yorkers are stubborn people, and the record store is not dead. Below, the top ten records that actually sold in the last week at a store near you.
Since opening the brick-walled Good Records four years ago, Jon Sklute has built a sizeable collection of used and hard-to-find LPs. Sklute, 32, moved to New York from Berkely, Calif. in 1995. He opened the store because, he says, “There’s nothing I love better than going through records and listening to music.” The store attracts plenty of village oddballs, as well as kids seeking to add to their hand-me-down classic rock collections. Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours goes out the door daily. “It’s kind of emblematic of a certain type of record that is selling a lot to younger kids,” he says. Prices run from one dollar to several hundred. Sklute’s favorite part of the job is buying entire collections and trying to trace their history. “It’s one thing if you’re going to buy from a shuttered store or distributor,” he says, “But when you buy a collection, all those records have meaning to someone.”
The Top 10 Records Sold at Good Records for the week ending October 9, 2009, with notes from Sklute:
- 1. Dorando
Didn’t I
- ’45 (Music City). “[This is a] beautiful falsetto soul ballad from Oakland California,” says Sklute.
- 2. Theoretical Girls
You Got Me
- ’45 (Theoretical). “Obscure project by downtown NYC avant garde guitarist Glen Branca.”
- 3. King Solomon
Energy Crisis
- LP (Celestial) “Rare funk & blues LP.”
- 4. Harley Hatcher
Satan’s Sadists
- LP (Smash). “The psychedelic soundtrack to the 1969 biker flick.”
- 5. Fleetwood Mac
Rumours
- LP (Warner Bros). “An all time classic.”
- 6. Winston Jarrett & The Righteous Flames
Man Of The Ghetto
- LP (Sonic Sounds) “Rare roots reggae.”
- 7. Brother
Soul Cookies
- 45 on Leo Mini (classic breakbeat 45-only rarity)
- 8. Pax Nicholas
Na Teef Know De Road Of Teef
- LP (Daptone). “A recent reissue of impossibly rare afrobeat LP from Ghana.”
- 9. Fela Kuti & Africa 70
Confusion
- (EMI). “An original Nigerian pressing of seminal afrobeat session.”
- 10. 24 Karat Black:
Gone: The Promises Of Yesterday
- (Numero). “Recent issue of lost recordings by this fabled group, heartbreaking, sophisticated soul.”
Good Records is located at 218 E. 5th Street. New York, NY 10003. Its hours are Mondays through Saturdays 12pm-8pm, and Sundays 1pm-7pm.