All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records movie review (2015)

Anybody who has ever spent time in a record store has memories like this. I can close my eyes and walk through that store as if I’d been there yesterday, and after I’m done, I can mentally stroll through the layout of Tower Records on West 4th Street in New York City. It was a place where I’d spent far too much money and time, neither of which I regret. It was a heaven filled with vinyl, easily popped cassette tapes and, eventually, the CD’s that unwittingly signaled the downfall of the neighborhood record store.

The rise and fall of Tower Records is the subject of Colin Hanks’ “All Things Must Pass”, a documentary that inspires long, gauzy gazes back to the carefree, youthful past of viewers of a certain age. In fact, Tower’s story has an arc much like human life. Started in 1960 in Sacramento, Russ Solomon’s business venture began small, then enjoys a period of success buffered by unbelievable decadence and an adolescent brand of fearlessness and perceived invincibility. And just like in life, the piper of harsh adulthood materialized to collect payment on the tune that was never supposed to stop playing.

An onscreen title at the beginning of “All Things Must Pass” informs us that, in 1999, Tower Records was a billion dollar company. “Five years later, it was bankrupt,” the next title tells us, preparing us for the bitter end of the party to which Hanks invites us. We then meet Solomon, whose dad owned Tower Drugs, a store inside Sacramento’s Tower movie theater. To make money, Solomon decided to sell used records from the jukebox, and when that proved successful, he started selling new records. Solomon’s dad, Clayton, wanted no part of this, so he sold the business and the extra space to his son. Tower Records was born, and since there was nothing else to do in the neighborhood, teenagers flocked to it.

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