Yo…
On December 31, 2016 a Toronto institution Honest Ed’s permanently closed. For many Torontonians it was a difficult death. One of the reasons for Ed’s demise was fans treated the institution like a museum not as a store.
You can’t adore Honest Ed’s but shop at Wal-Mart or online via Amazon Prime. You hafta buy something; literally invest in it…in your community for it to survive.
Just months before Honest Ed’s closed up shop another Toronto institution relocated from its noble home: Play De Record left Yonge St. for a new location on Spadina (411 Spadina Ave).
In the 1990s, the Yonge Street strip between Gould and Elm was Record Store Central: Play De Record, Sam the Record Man with those iconic neon records, A&A, Sunrise Records and so much more.
Downtown Toronto had a vibrancy, a third world energy that now is mostly past tense. You can see elements of what I’m describing in Dave Chappelle’s 1998 movie Half Baked…shot in Toronto.
The Sam The Record man records are lit up in this scene: you can feel the electric current of the city. (And that clearly Pizza Pizza where Kenny is scoring his munchies is also gone now. Sigh.)
Later The Incredible Hulk an Edward Norton Marvel movie, also shot in downtown Toronto in 2007, features a final appearances of Big Slice. A delicious pizza joint. (We’re rapidly losing pizza outlets as much as we are vinyl shops in the city.)
(A lot of the Yonge Street depicted in this Hulk battle scene is now…gone. Which is a rageful irony since the Hulk scene is supposed to be set in Harlem and how many New Yorkers recognize Harlem anymore? Gentrification blurs identification.)
And now you can add another film that literally documents that long ago downtown Toronto vibrancy: Drop The Needle a Play De Record documentary.
A record shop Play De Record was located at 357A Yonge St. right at Yonge-Dundas our Canadian Times Square. Bright Lights, eh?
Founded by a Trinidadian immigrant Eugene Tam (dude in the video thumbnail above) who all through the 90s made sure Play De Record was stocked with hidden gems as well as the latest and most notably the freshest in hip hop, drum and bass, house, techno, funk, Latin, electronic, jazz, soul and other underground dance genres.
Play De Record was a vinyl church and the congregation gathered weekly typically on Thursdays to receive the sonic sacraments.
There’s a powerful moment in director Rob Freeman’s Drop the Needle documentary where he asked Eugene are you aware you created an institution?
Eugene seemed surprised by the question; yet for the creative individuals featured in the documentary: Jason Palma, Russell Peters, Maestro Fresh Wes, Mastermind, Kardinal Offishall, Skratch Bastid and lots of DJs they’re not surprised.
Their love for Play De Record is present tense: it was a community and a connection which is what the best DJs effectively create when they play. The dance floor is all about community and connection orchestrated by the DJ.
We don’t have a word for it but that whooooooo when a DJ drops a phenomenal tune; your song…your anthem and you gotta rush to the dance floor. Only…you’re not the only one who reported for duty.
And this blob of humans starts grooving and moving…the beat the DJ is dropping is now a benevolent dictator making everyone march in time. (Well mostly in time…)
We’ve seen that magic with Michael Jackson…his music gets EVERYONE up. Little kids hover around the edges of the dance floor, seniors who put aside their arthritis for 5 good minutes: it’s a fun time.
We’ve all been to a wedding with a lousy DJ. Yo, guy that’s not right. Where’s the heart and soul? And also drop Dancing Queen already.
I asked Rob and you can hear it in this attached My Summer Lair conversation is this a documentary about taste. He said no; to him this was a character study. And he’s right…of course: I mean it is his documentary.
But I’m a little right too. This is about taste.
You know the creative individuals I just listed…Jason Palma, Russell Peters, Maestro Fresh Wes, Mastermind and more because they make a living off their taste. This newsletter is my based on my taste.
Carl Wilson who wrote Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste says: “Taste is a means of distinguishing ourselves from others, the pursuit of distinction.”
Yes! 100% yes. Distinction is exactly what all the DJs in this documentary are trying to achieve. (Or have achieved. I’ve happily grooved to Jason Palma’s DJ sets. He’s so good! He has…good taste.)
Rightly or wrong we judge other people for failing to be cool. Even though we should recognize cool is process. Cool is a currency that requires time and dedication to bank. You don’t put $5 into a bank account to “save money.” That’s how you start; it’s not a one time thing…you gotta keep saving money. It’s a process.
Ira Glass says it better than I can (can you hear his voice reading this?):
“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer.
And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this.
And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions.
And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”
Exactly!
If you have experienced Yonge Street-Play De Record you should see Rob Freeman’s documentary. More than nostalgia, this is hope.
Music is one of the most potent glues in our society; it’s a bonding agent…and the individuals who bring it to us…DJs with their distinct taste and passionate vinyl store owners like Eugene Tam should be recognized and celebrated for their good works.
Attached is conversation with director Rob Freeman about his Play De Record documentary: Drop The Needle.
And the conversation starts with one of the hottest albums from 1993 that Eugene Tam had a difficult time keeping stocked in his store.
I’m still listening to this album…from here to Infinity. (I’m with this song…this album to the end. Do you understand? To The End. Cassette tape, to CD to MP3 and more.)
(#PantsWorthy: In 2023 Souls of Mischief are doing 93 shows in support of 93’ Til Infinity.)
~~
Oh and before I wrap up these proceedings…
You want me to reveal the secret to good taste?
I’ll tell you as long as you promise not to share this.
Because unfortunately we require people with bad taste so we know what good taste is. If everybody ate with a fork and knife we wouldn’t know it’s poor form to eat with your hands. Or why eating your hands is acceptable as a toddler but the expectations change as you grow older.
Okay…write this down.
The secret to good taste is…search vaguely.
How do you use Google…you search specifically right? You Google the hours of a store; directions to a friend’s new house…an actor’s IMDB.
On Spotify you go right to the new album from Radiohead or Mark Ronson or fire up a workout playlist.
You do the same on Netflix: gimme the new season of Stranger Things. When we’re online we treat these vast high tech resources like a cab driver: I wanna go here…(hear)…now hurry up and get me there. We search specifically.
Try searching vaguely.
Open YouTube and plop in a song name you like + covers. Here’s a sweet Girls Just Wanna Have Fun cover. Fresh, yes?
Covers exist but you gotta find em. So do remixes and mashups and more. Searching vaguely trains the algorithm according to your (good) taste.
Open Google and search for rock music from the 2010s. See what it spits up. Then work through the results and identify what moves your spirit. Is this work? Absolutely.
You can’t shortcut good taste. An NBA player can hit a game winner shot it doesn’t mean he’s a great player. He’s gotta do that consistently and efficiently. It takes time. It all takes time. It all takes work.
This is why many people have Top 40 taste. And that’s fine…if you’re happy and that’s what you want from pop culture: that’s fantastic. Turn up the new Rihanna song and call it a day.
But if you want more because there is more…so much more…remixes, covers and beyond music…foreign TV shows and overlooked movies and sci-fi novels that are not bestsellers. All bounty worthy of a successful pop culture treasure hunt. For more search vaguely.
In most detective TV shows there is a classic line: “What are we looking for? I dunno but we’ll know it when we see it.” That’s the value of searching vaguely. That’s the value of good taste. “What are we looking for? I dunno but we’ll know it when we see it.”
We did this for everything in real life back in the day…we vaguely searched bookstores; video rental stores and of course vinyl shops.
We were pop culture detectives, searching for clues…putting it all together…grasping at connections.
Pop culture was a mystery filled with wonder and surprise. Going into stores like a record shop were surprise parties. We didn’t always know what to expect. Search vaguely sparks surprise.
When the Melody Record Shop in Washington, DC closed in 2012 cultural critic Leon Wieseltier wrote in The New Republic...about comparing online/Google searches with like physically browsing in the stacks...he concluded:
“Browsing is the opposite of “search.” Search is precise, browsing is imprecise. When you search, you find what you were looking for; when you browse, you find what you were not looking for. Search corrects your knowledge, browsing corrects your ignorance. Search narrows, browsing enlarges.”
THAT’S IT. That articulates so much: Search corrects your knowledge, browsing corrects your ignorance.
And that’s what we used to gain from digging into the stacks. But that’s a skill that has been lost. Or has it?
You don’t always hafta search specifically. Yes, to find the locations of a store you want to visit…search specifically. Bam! Done. That’s what Google is good at.
But you always (thankfully!) have the option to search vaguely.
And…it gets easier.
Because the most important part isn’t discovery, it’s sharing. Share eagerly, share often.
When your friends gather to smoke sheesha (an entirely arbitrary example) drop some beats in the background. When somebody on Twitter is requesting podcast recommendations…again sharing is caring. Be generous with your recommendations. Be free and give freely.
As you share from your good taste; others around you will share from their good taste. Bless is more.
Play De Record though it has moved, remains open on 411 Spadina Ave. go check it out and dig through the stacks. Like we used to when the store was on Yonge Street.
Or check out Drop The Needle, screening dates are below.
Taste & See That The DJ’s Beats Are Good…
Sammy Younan
-28-
Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
Play De Record Of Good Taste