There was an interesting article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Val Shively and his R&B Records
store. It's available only to subscribers, but a friend sent it to me. I've uploaded it here:
http://marcdashevsky.com/ValShivelArticle.pdf
There was an interesting article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Val Shively and his R&B Records
store. It's available only to subscribers, but a friend sent it to me.
This guy has his head up his ass calling this dump "The World's Greatest Record Shop."
Shively doesn't even know where most of his records are.
He tells people he has a copy of a record they want, but has no idea where it is.
You can't even walk in there and buy a new copy of most famous albums on vinyl or CD.
How the fuck is it the "World's Greatest Record Store?"
And saying that "Val knows everything" is even more ridiculous. All he knows is rare vocal group 45s.
If you asked him for a famous hip hop or heavy metal song he would not even know what you're talking about.
On Monday, 6 November 2023 at 16:35:03 UTC, Bruce wrote:
This guy has his head up his ass calling this dump "The World's Greatest Record Shop."
In terms of finding a physical (and often original) copy of a given 45rpm single in the pop/r&r/r&b or country fields from the past 70 odd years it must be well in the running for that title..
Shively doesn't even know where most of his records are.
That's why he has Chuck D. who's got the phenomenal knack of locating a given record in minutes
He tells people he has a copy of a record they want, but has no idea where it is.
Again back to good ol' Chuck-O
You can't even walk in there and buy a new copy of most famous albums on vinyl or CD.
He's not catering for the album or CD buying market. The emphasis is on oldie SINGLES just as it is the main deal to write about for members of this newsgroup (including you and I)
How the fuck is it the "World's Greatest Record Store?"
Check the first line of my reply here
And saying that "Val knows everything" is even more ridiculous. All he knows is rare vocal group 45s.
That's his forte. I don't think he claims otherwise.
If you asked him for a famous hip hop or heavy metal song he would not even know what you're talking about.
As nor would I
On Tuesday, November 7, 2023 at 1:44:34 AM UTC-5, Roger Ford wrote:
On Monday, 6 November 2023 at 16:35:03 UTC, Bruce wrote:
This guy has his head up his ass calling this dump "The World's Greatest Record Shop."
In terms of finding a physical (and often original) copy of a given 45rpm single in the pop/r&r/r&b or country fields from the past 70 odd years it must be well in the running for that title..
Which in no way would make it "The World's Greatest record Store." Only a small percentage of record collectors in 2023 are interested in original 45's.
But even in that narrow category I'd put Craig Moerer ahead of him. Not only does he have similar stock, but everything is catalogued and found quickly if ordered. And with Craig it's the same with albums and lots of >other categories of music that Valknows nothing about. Frankie C called him about several 60s chart hits he needed for his series of year CDs that Val did not even know in the past couple of years.
The guy (Val) is turning 80 soon and has head all clogged up with all of his Christian bullshit now. Plus he's a fucking Trump supporter.
Shively doesn't even know where most of his records are.
Bill has given up trying to deal with Val and looks elsewhere for these items now.That's why he has Chuck D. who's got the phenomenal knack of locating a given record in minutes
Don't know when you were there last, but Chuck only knows where the things that are filed are. In the last few years Val has told Bill Olb that he has about half a dozen 45's from his want list, but has no idea where >they are....and neither does Chuck.
He tells people he has a copy of a record they want, but has no idea where it is.
You can't even walk in there and buy a new copy of most famous albums on vinyl or CD.
He's not catering for the album or CD buying market. The emphasis is on oldie SINGLES just as it is the main deal to write about for members of this newsgroup (including you and I)
How can a store that only caters to old 45's possibly even be mentioned by anybody as the world's greatest record store?
Some thing like 75% of collectors in 2023 don't even collect 45s at all. Hardly anybody under 50 even cares about 45's Maybe you haven't noticed but your generation of record collectors are dying off.
I don't really write about 45's, I write about 40s, 50s and 60s recordings, whatever format the music happened to be available on. I never agreed with limiting the yearly battles to just singles. It should just be about >the best recordings that werefirst released in each year. What format they were on is irrelevant. That was controlled by the pricks like my grandfather who owned the labels, not by the people who made the music. >Why list something like "Baby" by Little Richard in the 1960 battle
How the fuck is it the "World's Greatest Record Store?"
music of before and after the 50s.If you asked him for a famous hip hop or heavy metal song he would not even know what you're talking about.And saying that "Val knows everything" is even more ridiculous. All he knows is rare vocal group 45s.
That's his forte. I don't think he claims otherwise.
But he's not correcting people like the writer of this article, is he? And even in that genre he knows almost nothing about unissued things and album tracks. He's a record collector, he's not any kind of an expert even >about 50s music, let alone the
As nor would IAnd neither of you would be in the running as the world's biggest expert on rock and roll music.
You know WAY WAY WAY more than Val does about 50s music, but it's 2023 now. There's a lot more to rock and roll history than there was when Val started his store in like 1971 or whenever he first opened.
Now that Samp has studied the early days of rock and roll in such depth I would say that he knows WAY more about the entire history of rock than you and I do. He wouldn't beat us on the 50s or maybe not even the >60s, but he'd destroy us on anythingfrom the past like 45 years. We're like fossils now. But Val is not even that. I'll bet you if you called him and asked him to name 10 Howlin' Wolf songs that he couldn't do it. Same >with acts like Smiley Lewis, Jimmy McCracklin, Stick McGhee and even
But for you I get the distinct impression that his political views tend to...um.....trump.....everything else,no? :)
Frankie C weighs in on this:capitol of the world, not NY or Philly. What you said is true about Val not knowing where everything is. I can`t believe Val has only 11K records in his personal collection. Roger ever been to Pittsburgh?
Fred Bohn`s store (THE ATTIC) has MORE records than Val. He has 3 warehouses full of records.Val wouldn`t have paid 100K for Hunt`s records. Bohn has loads of rare stuff and much better prices. Pittsburgh is the oldies (groups,50`s & 60`s,Blues)
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