EVERETT — Tucked away in the back of Bargain CDs, Records &Tapes, up the stairs in a room filled to the ceiling with used records and boxes of CDs, Gordy Arlin, all tornadoing arms, stomping feet and clapping hands, is talking about the Beatles’ “Abbey Road.”
Trying to convey the enormity, and finality, of the album’s Side One closer, “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” Arlin is hammering home this point: Some music is meant to be heard on a record.
“It goes from super loud guitars and primal screams and just cuts off,” Arlin said of the song, gesturing so wildly he knocks over his coffee cup. “At that point you’re supposed to be stunned and need to catch your breath, then flip over the record. When you play the CD it immediately goes to George’s song ‘Here Comes the Sun.’ He’s singing la-la-la-la-laa. It was never supposed to be experienced like that.”
It’s not surprising Arlin talks about music, records in particular, this way. Obsessed with music since receiving a record player when he was 5, he’s played drums in rock bands and Navy bands, worked around records for nearly four decades and owned his own store since 1989, when he opened Bargain CDs in downtown Everett.
“I listen to music from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep,” Arlin said.
As owner of Bargain CDs, Arlin has weathered recessions, outlived competitors, survived a move across town and endured the advent of digital music. He worked for the first independent used record store in Everett, Golden Oldies, and now owns the last independent record store in Snohomish County.
“People romanticize the record store and the people who run it. That’s Gordy,” said Everett Music Initiative’s Steven Graham. “You can’t believe he’s real. He’s a walking Amazon suggestion list.”
Arlin boasts that Bargain CDs has the largest collection of records north of San Francisco and west of Chicago (180,000 by his count). The shop sells everything from ubiquitous Neil Diamond and Barbra Streisend records for cheap to rare finds such as Rolling Stones records in mono and Black Sabbath albums from Russia that can fetch hundreds of dollars.
To support Bargain CDs, EMI’s Graham and Ryan Crowther are putting on a Record Store Day concert Saturday at The Cannery. The goal, said Graham, who bought his first record, Billy Joel’s “Glass Houses,” at Bargain CDs, isn’t just to hand Arlin a check.
“I think the biggest thing is raising awareness that we have a record store here in Everett that is awesome,” Graham said.
Let it bleed
Arlin still remembers the small radio jukebox his dad brought home when he was 5.
The player, about double the size of a kid’s lunch box, had a 7-inch turntable with three speeds, a big metal tone arm, and a spindle that would pop up to play 45s. He remembers cutting his finger on the needle.
“It bled like crazy,” Arlin said.
As a young boy, Arlin would retreat to his room and play 45s. Bill Haley and the Comets. Walt Disney’s “Mickey and the Bean Stalk.” Henry Mancini’s “Music from Peter Gunn.”
“I cleaved to my records,” Arlin said. “They were consistent. They weren’t going crazy like the rest of the world. It was where things were normal again. All of my life music has seen me through many trials.”
Arlin would follow music into the Navy, which sent him to Virginia for music school and later Japan to play in a shore-duty band. Out of the Navy, he drummed for local touring bands Axis Drive and Cheeseburger Deluxe, quitting only when he got married and promised his wife he’d get a real job
“I thought I’d go sell real estate,” Arlin said.
Instead, a job counselor suggested he work in a record store. So Arlin went to work at Seattle’s Cellophane Square in 1977. Three years later, he ended up in Everett working at Golden Oldies on Hewitt, the same street on which he’d open his own used record store.
Go big or go home
After 18 years of owning Bargain CDs, Arlin had a decision to make. It was 2007, the record store industry was sagging and the lease was up on the building Bargain CDs occupied on Hewitt and Rucker. Arlin figured he could shutter the business or push all of his chips in.
He’d already outlasted competitors like Golden Oldies, Bayside CDs and Sound Music, and he had enough inventory to fill a shop twice the size. So Arlin went for it. He secured a 10-year lease on a larger location with a higher visibility along Broadway, and friends and customers volunteered to move the tens of thousands of records and CDs from the old location to the new one.
The store limped along before the recession nearly finished it off a year into the new lease.
“People focus on their utility bills during a recession, not on buying records,” Arlin said.
Things started to pick up in 2010 after Arlin decided to advertise on Everett radio station KSER and mark all inventory half-off. It didn’t last, and the shop fell further behind on rent and nearly closed three different times. To get by, Arlin was forced to go from three full-time employees to just two.
Arlin credits a few serendipitous occurrences, his customers’ loyalty, patience from his landlord, George Drumheller, and his faith with helping the store stay afloat.
“When I was really in my depression and fatigue and I thought the store was going to go down, all I could do was pray, ‘Father, please help us,’” said Arlin, who practices the Baha’i faith.
‘Hey Partner’
In this age of iPods and streaming services like Spotify, another record store on the ropes is hardly news. But Arlin and Bargain CDs aren’t going down without a fight. On a recent sunny afternoon, customers donned headphones to listen to CDs, chatted about music with longtime Bargain CDs employee Doug Sandhop and flipped through records in the store’s massive collection, spanning decades, from vinyl’s heyday to its recent revival.
“When you look at the direction music is going,” said Graham, “where do you buy a CD anymore? Best Buy? There isn’t someone at Best Buy who can talk to you about music.”
Vinyl’s recent revival has benefitted Bargain CDs. The store has seen a steady uptick in business over the past year, and a week ago Arlin brought Jimi Barela back on full time for the first time in four years. Arlin said the store is nearly caught up on its rent, and he’s taking computer classes in hopes of opening an eBay store.
“We believe 2015 is the year we break even,” Arlin said.
Arlin, known around town for his quick smile and “Hey partner” greeting, credits some of his newfound success to younger music lovers who have eschewed mp3s for the tangibility of vinyl. And he’s particularly thankful for the effort of Graham and Crowther.
“Those guys are amazing,” Arlin said. “We didn’t know them from Adam. They just decided to save us. It’s another example of the community reaching out to us. It’s crazy cool.”
Aaron Swaney: 425-339-3430; aswaney@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @swaney_aaron79.
Bargain CDs, Records &Tapes
2501 Broadway, Everett, 425-259-4306
For more on Record Store Day, click here.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
