Ghosts
Here are the remnants of my record-store wanderings around Toronto from 1979 through to the late '80s. Sam's, Around Again, and Sunrise (where I worked for a couple of years) remain in their original locations, everything else is gone. (Sam's declared bankruptcy a few years ago, and it seemed to operate on a day-by- day basis for a little while, but I don't think it ever officially closed its doors as management passed from Sam Sniderman to one of his sons. I'm sure that somewhere behind closed doors there were hushed Godfather-like conversations between the son and his wife: "Pop's way of doing things is over--even he knows that.") I ended up saying something about most of these stores in the course of writing about my collection; I may have more to add at some point, but for now I'll leave it to the pictures to speak to anyone who remembers. If you enlarge a couple of them, you can see my reflection in the glass fronting, a clear homage to Haskell Wexler's last shot in Medium Cool. I need to eventually get a photo in here of where G&S Television in Georgetown used to be. (Thanks to Scott Woods for his help in getting all this together.)
A&A Records - 351 Yonge St. Around Again - 18 Baldwin St. 
Backdoor Records - 83 St. Nicholas St. Cheapies - 599-A Yonge St. 
Driftwood - 247 Queen St. W. Incredible Record & Book Store -
692 Yonge St. 
Kops Kollectibles - 421 Queen St. W. Record Peddler - 115 Queen St. E. 
Records on Wheels - 629 Yonge St. Sam the Record Man - 347 Yonge St. 
Starsound - 427 Yonge St. Sunrise - 336 Yonge St. 
Vortex Records - 139 Dundas St. W. Vinyl Museum- 355 Yonge St.