There was a time when going to a record shop was one of my favourite pastimes.
I used to do that a lot and even spend a couple of hours there. I would go to Discobolo on Via Vodice and find Massimo Bonelli there who would recommend rock records. I would go to Buscemi and find a salesman with a beard whose name I unfortunately don't remember, who would introduce me to the jazz masters and Mario the owner who would tell me about English folk music. I would go to Carù and discover American roots music and many seminal and perhaps unknown songwriters.
And thanks to these people I discovered new worlds, new musical genres, fundamental groups and artists: the Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, the Pentangle, Jessie Colin Young, cool jazz, be bop, folk revival, hard rock, blues, ethnic music and so on.
19 April is Record Shop Preservation Day around the world whose owners,whose shop assistants,when knowledgeable and enthusiastic,are true cultural operators,disseminators of good music and useful information.
Let's save them by frequenting them with care and passion and buy records from them even if they sometimes cost a bit more than what the big retailers sell them for.
Overpricing is justified and motivated and has a useful social role in not homogenising and globalising everything... even emotions.
Claudio Trotta
