Ok, let me lay a few old names on you…Long & McQuade, Muscara Music, Robbie’s Music. These were the music stores of my youth, especially Muscara’s in Belleville. Musicians of a certain age, located in pretty much the northern area of New Jersey (although people came from miles around even if a store was out of the area if they loved a specific music store) will know these names.
I should also mention Bill, who everybody knew from Muscara’s (he then went to Spinosa’s, also in Belleville, then to Victors up in Ridgewood then in Paramus.) Bill was da man!
The thing is, an old guy like me, very set in my ways of playing, pretty much contemptuous of any music made post-1979 or any player decades younger, is not fun to be around when it comes to searching through modern music stores. So, reluctantly, as it really is the only game in town, I frequent the Guitar Center store in Rte. 46 in Totowa, NJ.
And reluctantly, I have to admit, each time I do, I come away more and more pleased.
What is it with these ‘kids’ in that store, being all passionate, knowledgeable and absolutely accommodating, like? I just won’t stand for it! They treat a cranky never-was like me like an equal, seeming to actually be interested in what I have to say, joking with me, even marveling over an old instrument or two I happen to bring in.
What’s with this store and these fantastic guys and gals?
I play, write and record songs that are near and dear to me, but make little to no mark on anyone else’s life…which I revel in. I am not so up on technology, instrument advances, anything really new save for what I use in the studio. Surely, all the now and wow of what could be happening in a happening place like a Guitar Center where there is so much always happening, is beyond me. But when I step into that store Totowa (and I don’t think I have ever been in any other GC save the one in LA) I feel I am not so out of it, I am very welcomed, and I feel like everybody there actually gives a toss about my needs and seems even to like engaging with me.
So, strike one for the younger generation and how they treat an old guy like me at Guitar Center.
Screw them making me like them!
