Peter---I would be thrilled and honored if you chose BIG DADDY MUSIC as your distributor for your new cd.
As you might guess, I will ensure that the entire BIG DADDY staff will champion my friend's cd and work endlessly to develop and maintain a retail awareness like it was the Musical Maze.
Love
BG

Thanks Burt, good to hear from you, my friend. I was just in NYC and went and actually ate at the restaurant which operates at the site of the Musical Maze. It was a very peculiar experience, to say the least, but then the whole trip to Manhattan was slightly surreal and bittersweet. We will definitely pass the word along about Big Daddy. Thanks belatedly for the help with my solo CD all those years ago, I really appreciate it.

For those forum users who are not comprehending this exchange: Burt Goldstein was the gentleman who hired a young Peter Holsapple (after being pestered at the register WITH a customer!) to work for him at the Musical Maze, a record store at the corner of 23rd St. and Third Avenue. Burt and his manager Jan deGeer were like my mom and dad as we started The dB's, and they both had the kind of passion for music that allowed their wayward charge to go off and play shows and come back and still have a job he loved when he returned. The Maze was a wonderful experience for me, since there's a big part of me that enjoys the shit out of retail music sales for some reason. I was allowed to excel there in that way, and it was a great store for attention to customer needs. Between all the employees there, we'd probably heard most of the albums we stocked, so recommendations were heartfelt and educated. There was a large clientele from the School of Visual Arts, so we had to be on top of new imports and underground singles. It was a great time to be working in a New York record store, and the Musical Maze was a job that I truly looked forward to every day. Third Avenue street fairs were always insane, moving tons of inventory onto the sidewalk and screaming at passersby from my perch on a light pole! We had so many interesting people pass through those doors (from Jon Hassell to Garland Jeffreys to Lisa Lyon to Elliott Murphy to Joe Butler from the Lovin' Spoonful!) We were affected greatly by the opening of Tower Records in the Village. But Burt and Jan remained in the business and still have the aforementioned passion for music. And I'm still in touch with some of my customers from those days! Long live Danny Peck!

When I was 19 years old,I worked for Karma Records in Lou.Ky/Clarksville IN stores their last year in operation.Man,I was bummed!We had a pretty decent new wave/punk section,a smoke shoppe,45s,buttons etc,NMEs and MelodyMaker,so I definitely relate the thrill of yours.Oh and an employee 10%discount.Ahh,1984-the year of Like This and seeing Elvis and his wonderful Attractions live in Cincy on the Goodbye Cruel World w/Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit.Good times indeed!
Thanks for writing about your retail experiences,
Adrian