Bleecker Bob’s is gone but Rock and Soul is still around. I stopped by on Saturday afternoon to visit my friend Mike who works there. He wasn’t around but I went to the back and looked through records anyway.
A middle-aged woman stood above the record player and played a 45 of “Top Billin'” for a boy who couldn’t have been older than 8 or 9. When it was over, she flipped the record over and played the instrumental. I told the kid that the record is a classic and he said he liked it a lot. He was dancing in place.
I used to frequent Rock & Soul back when I worked at 2 Penn Plaza (2002-2006). A few years ago they drastically reduced their inventory of records. I estimate that they now stock roughly 1/3 of what they once did. Sad.