Birdel's Records Says Goodbye
Over the weekend City Room ran a nice homage to Bed Stuy’s Birdel’s Records, which is closing. The store opened in 1944 and the current owner, Joe Long, started working there in 1957. The shop specialized in gospel and oldies, but also sold some contemporary CDs. When we stopped by the store at 535 Nostrand,…
Over the weekend City Room ran a nice homage to Bed Stuy’s Birdel’s Records, which is closing. The store opened in 1944 and the current owner, Joe Long, started working there in 1957. The shop specialized in gospel and oldies, but also sold some contemporary CDs. When we stopped by the store at 535 Nostrand, it was open but mostly cleared out. Signs on the window thanked customers for the 50+ years of service.
Birdel’s Records in Brooklyn is Set to Close [City Room] GMAP
“DH – DJ’s still spin, at least lots of the old school house music Dj’s (former garage and shelter heads). The crowd tends to be older, 40’s and 50’s, but they still know how to party and still love vinyl.”
good to hear – definitely getting tired of all the iPod “DJs” out there nowadays
@Rob. I think its still open, I’ll swing be later and check.
DH – DJ’s still spin, at least lots of the old school house music Dj’s (former garage and shelter heads). The crowd tends to be older, 40’s and 50’s, but they still know how to party and still love vinyl.
It is sad to see Birdels go. Mr Long and Birdels are part of the fabric of Bedford Stuyvesant. I hope Mr. Long enjoys his retirment. He will be missed.
vinyl has been kicking ass on the used scene for some time, notice the lines in Academy Records in williamsburg to check out. But now both older collectors and young fans want remastered new albums of older classics or they even prefer vinyl on new indie releases. Sorry to disappoint but the comparison to bellbottoms is lame and totally incorrect.
The current vinyl resurgence is most likely a fad, like bellbottom pants. Let’s check where those (let’s be honest) puny sales numbers are in a couple of years.
slopeva, is that one still open? i bought some stuff from there last year but for some reason i thought they were having a going out of business sale at the time. i could be completely wrong on that tho… but i know of the store you are talking about.
*rob*
If you are interested, there’s a Record store on 5th Avenue between 8th and 9th that’s been around probably almost as long. Sad to see these old businesses close. Hopefully, it was by the owner’s choice, not circumstances.
“I bet there are plenty of old-timers in Bed-Stuy with turntables and their record collections. The demographic of the neighborhood isn’t restricted to those between the ages of 10 and 40.”
Thank you rf. The fact that he’s been there for fifty years shows that there was a strong market. I wish people would stop underestimating what our “market” is, or what people here can and cannot afford. We have long had a very wide range of incomes and interests here, and in the case of Birdel’s, those in the know came to him from all over.
“And what about the whole tradition of DJ’ing and scratching?”
That’s diametrically opposed to high-end audio. I guess the crowd I’m referring to (which is very much into vinyl) often cares more about the SOUND of what they are playing, as opposed to WHAT they are playing.
From my experience, I’ve found that vinyl on a crappy sound system probably sounds worse than a cd. However, on a NICE system, vinyl sounds much better than a cd. Especially the newer remastered records (which are probably not the stuff that Birdel’s sold- but I’ve never been there).
I don’t want to turn this into a digital vs analog discussion- the above is based on what I know from real world examples.