The problem with record stores (or the lack thereof)

All I wanted was to get a copy of the song "Summer Rain" by Johnny Rivers.

So...

I like vinyl... bemoan the demise of vinyl... but I'm not WED to vinyl. Mainly when I want to hear a song, I just want to hear it and I don't care about format/etc...

So... for convenience and quickness sake, at the sacrifice of some sound quality, I go to iTunes. Unfortunately, every Johnny Rivers version of "Summer Rain" is shown as a RE-RECORDING. In other words, not the original recording. So no downloads.

So... a CD? Great... except... the three Johnny Rivers discs featuring the original recording of the song were at least $8.99 used on Amazon (but I didn't WANT a whole album)...

So... to the shops. None of the new record shops in the area had any Johnny Rivers CDs... neither of the used record shoppes had any of his CDs or albums (but even if they had, again, I didn't want a whole album... just that one track).

So... can I find a used copy of the 45? At the used record shops, no... online, at eBay and Musicstack, there were abundant used copies of a bunch of different 45 releases (the original release on Imperial Records, a "back to back hits" release on United Artists' "Silver Spotlight" series, a Collectables reissue, a UK release, a Brazilian EP, an Australian 45) but those all started at five bucks a copy, usually much more when you figured in shipping...

So... in other words, I wanted to get an original recording of a pretty-decent-sized-hit song from 1967 and struck out repeatedly in various formats.

A decade ago, I would have been able to find "Summer Rain" in the oldies 45 bin at any mediocre mall record store for under three bucks.

And that's what the download revolution has brought us, as far as I can see.

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