Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul . . . .

Yet another great American record-store chain is going under. Tower Records, RIP.

Here's a bit from the Associated Press story that sums it up pretty well, I think:

At the New York store, Larry Kirwan, lead singer of the Irish band Black 47, was scouring the rock bins and mourning Tower’s imminent loss.

“It’s a bad day for music,” Kirwan said. “It’s a bad day for independent bands. ... Right
from the beginning, even before we were signed with labels they carried us. They’ve been good to musicians.” Kirwan said taking music off the Internet is not the same as buying a vinyl LP or even a CD.

An LP or CD is “something real that’s not virtual,” he said. “It’s like music itself. I’m not sure music is virtual. It’s real and it’s powerful, and I don’t think you quite get the same thing from downloading.”

I have iTunes, and I download my share of stuff -- both for use on Revolution 21 and to fill in the occasional hole in my music collection. But it definitely isn't the same as putting a CD in the player and, for a Boomer like your Mighty Favog, it sure as hell doesn't equal the tactile pleasure of pulling an LP out of the sleeve and gently lowering stylus onto fresh vinyl.

And nothing equals the sheer coolness -- even today -- of a punk band on a 45 RPM single. Seven-inch vinyl ruuuuuuuuuules.

Or, as Dobie Gray sings on one of my favorite slabs of vintage wax (to you non-Boomers, that means really old 7-inch vinyl single), "Give me the beat, boys, and free my soul / I want to get lost in your rock 'n' roll and drift away . . . ."

So long, Tower. Miss 'ya, Wherehouse. You were the record store of my misspent college years, Leisure Landing. Please hang on, Homer's and Drastic Plastic.