Last night's viewing. A pretty good 2015 documentary by Colin Hanks which looks at the foundations, success and ultimate downfall of Tower Records, the iconic American record store chain which was founded in Sacramento in 1960 and eventually spread across the US and several foreign markets, before the death of physical media and rise of the internet and file-sharing sites led the company into bankruptcy 45 years later. It's a familiar story shared by many other large music and video retailers in the past 15 years, but ALL THINGS MUST PASS manages to draw the viewer in thanks to engaging anecdotes from the curious assortment of people who operated the business, as well as the great collection of old photographs, archival film footage (including a young Elton John going on one of his regular Tower Records sprees) and radio ads (including one by John Lennon), and just the simple nostalgia of documenting a retail ritual that has become virtually obsolete but was a vital part of the discovery and obtainment of music for many fans over many decades.
