Leftovertures: This article originally appeared in the June 2008 issue of Marquette Monthly. It's been slightly remixed here.The working title of this article, "In Search of Vinyl: Criss-crossing the Central U.P. in a Quixotic Quest for Tom Jones" (sub-title: "What’s so unusual about that?"), had to be thrown out. It was all too easy. One trip to Leftovertures in Manistique, and I was done.
"Tom Jones is not a big mover," Gene Carley, the shop's owner, informed me.
Tom Jones? Not a big mover? Excuse me, but has he seen Tom Jones lately?
Leftovertures is a 22- by 33-foot haven for high quality used LPs. Carley also sells new LPs, new and used CDs, DVDs, videotapes, rock 'n' roll posters, banners, T-shirts, and PlayStation games. It's worth a visit not only for the prospect of finding music from your past and music you've never heard of, but for the great wall displays and the rather startling, free-standing, life-sized cardboard Elvis that seems to leap out at one from between the stacks.
Carley, who grew up in the U.P.'s Garden Peninsula and now lives in Cooks, claims he's not making money at this business, but that he does it for the love it, for the love of record collecting and selling, for the love of music, and for the love of vinyl. Many claim that music recorded on vinyl sounds better, fuller, than music recorded on CDs or downloaded from … now where exactly do those downloads come from? … and Carley and his wife, Debbie Soulia, are firmly in that camp. Even at home, Debbie said, all they listen to are LPs. As a matter of fact, Carley pretty much stays away from the Internet, doing most of his buying and selling either at the store, at the Dickinson County Fair, or at one of the record shows held periodically at the Marquette Mall. Soulia said they will also go to someone's house to see a collection, and then they usually end up talking and having coffee with the collection's owner."I want to go there, touch the albums, see them," Carley said. "And talk to the owners," Soulia added.
Part of the LP experience, of course, is the packaging: those alluring 12½-by-12½-inch cardboard covers that spark memories and curiosity. So many covers just beg to be picked up, admired, flipped over, read, perhaps pondered a bit. Just as the music at Leftovertures spans genres and decades, so does the artwork and text on the album covers. From Journey to Sinatra, The Best of Chickenman to Lily Tomlin and excerpts from the "Grapes of Wrath" read by Henry Fonda, you've got it all. A sensual overload.
Which brings us back to Tom Jones.
Carley picked out no less than seven Tom Jones albums for me to consider. I told him how I had only lately become interested in Jones' music and how it seemed appropriate to acquire his music on vinyl — in the original packaging, so to speak. Of course one can turn to the Internet for such items, and I did search for Tom Jones on EBay, garnering a list of 228 items. But the experience of gazing at a two-diimensional listing could not compare to being able to pick up the real thing in my hands; smelling the slightly musty, cardboardy smell; slipping the disc from its cover and inspecting its shiny black grooves; mulling over the song list without eye strain. At Leftovertures you can do all that, and as well you can hear what you are about to buy. Soulia put "Western Favorites featuring Rex Trailer and His Cow Hands" on the turntable. Now who knew cow hands could sing so well?
Carley inspects each record he takes in, assessing its condition, and more than half, he said, will be recycled or thrown away because they are in such bad shape.
"Condition is probably the most important part," he said, so he hand cleans each record and slides it into a paper sleeve. The album is then clad in a clear plastic sleeve. The records Carley sells not only sound good, they look good.
Most of the LPs at Leftovertures are priced in the $4 to $7 range. Carley finds that many people think their vinyl collection is worth more than it is, but unless it's something like a Beatles or Elvis Presley first issue in good condition, he said, LPs are just not worth that much. Key factors for pricing are age, condition, and demand. And demand may be hard to figure. "God Bless Tiny Tim" is priced at $15 because, Carley said, "People want Tiny Tim." My Tom Jones albums (which we all know don't move) were marked at $4. A new release of the Ramones' 1977 "Rocket to Russia" is $15. (Did you know the Ramones are hot right now?) Carley does consult record guides when pricing his merchandise, but usually goes cheaper than the guides suggest.
Leftovertures has customers coming in from Marquette as well as downstate Michigan. From tourists to locals, the store's biggest seller seems to be classic rock, such as Bob Dylan, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, the Doors, and Led Zeppelin. The people buying are young, college-aged adults.
"Older guys like me collect blues," Carley said.
He has one customer collecting spoken word records, and then there's his dad, who collects polka. One thing Carley has noticed throughout his 10 years in business is that many people come into the store and browse for hours, tripping down a musical memory lane, making occasional exclamations such as "Oh! I remember this album!" or "Oh! This was the first album I ever bought." But they don't buy anything. Carley said as long as they've had fun, that's all that matters.
Sometimes albums come in bearing their own memories. There was a Hank Williams LP in perfect condition, except for one track, "Your Cheatin' Heart," which was worn clear through, Carley said, as if it had been played over and over and over again. And then there were the 30-some marijuana seeds nestled in the crease of a Jethro Tull album ... Ah, remember those days?
"Psychedelic music is hard to find," Carley said, "because those records that people really partied to are just trashed."
Carley also works at Hiawatha Behavioral Health, so Leftovertures, at 308 Deer Street, is open limited hours: Monday through Thursday 3 to 5 p.m.; and Friday and Saturday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. You may want to call first: 906-341-8149. Record shows are held every few months at the Marquette Mall and you'll find Carley there, usually with mega-collector Ed Johnson of Newberry and Boogie Bob from downstate (boogiebobsrecords.com).
And in case you’re wondering about the name, "Leftovertures," I refer you to a 1976 Kansas LP, if you can find it.
