Ep.7 Tim Devin (Mt View, DC, Paramus, Village, Lincoln Ctr, NY Regional)

2500 DelMonte Street: The Oral History of Tower Records

Tim Devin started working record retail in the Bay Area for Wherehouse Records. On new release dates, he would have to drive to the Tower Records Campbell store on his lunch hour to pick up New Releases as Wherehouse wouldn’t receive theirs until 4 or 5 days later.

Finally realizing he needed to be working for Tower, he applied at Tower Records Mountain View where he was hired by Assistant Manager Barbara Williamson. Tim transferred to the Washington DC store shortly after Mountain View Store Manager Kevin Ferreter moved to DC and enticed him with the promise “You’ll get a store, Tim!”.

From there Tim’s Tower career was in and around New York City, running stores in Paramus NJ, the Village store at 4th & Broadway and the Lincoln Center store at 66th & Broadway. Tim finished his career as the Regional Director for Tower Records in the New York area.

Tim discusses some of the best concerts he saw growing up, the weekly scrutiny by NYC based record labels on where records were positioned when he ran the Village Store, the time he told The Artist formerly Known as Prince “no!”, the night Russ Solomon showed up unannounced and drank beers in Tim’s office with the band Luscious Jackson and Daniel Lanois and the in-store nobody showed up for, leaving the “artist” almost in tears.

Tim also talks about Tower Washington DC’s most famous alumni, Dave Grohl and how he was greeted at the Lincoln Center store when he arrived to man the cash register in support of the release of the Foo Fighters album “There Is Nothing Left to Lose”.

Tim talks about his role as New York Retail Director and how Tower was chasing new opportunities & carving new sources of revenue, despite knowing that the end appeared imminent. He finishes by reminiscing about time spent with Tower Records founder Russ Solomon.