In my Ryerson days in the 1980s, I spent a lot of time in Sam the Record Man, as well as other record stores on the Yonge Street strip–A&A, Peter Dunn’s Vinyl Museum, Records on Wheels. Information about artists and recordings was not so easy to come by in those days and a lot of it came from reading liner notes. A lot of pleasurable browsing was involved before parting with five dollars. And, of course, I couldn’t wait to put it on my Dual turntable, through the Akai amp and Bose speakers. It was a kind of magic that wasn’t instantaneous (like today). It took a few hours and was well worth it–as I sat back afterwards and listened to The Grateful Dead’s American Beauty.
From the Flickr album: Toronto in the 1980s
The Blackjack album in the top right hand corner of the photo was a hard rock/metal album with Michael Bolotin as vocalist. He later changed his style to pop ballads and his name to Michael Bolton.