Prime Cuts offered a service where they would copy any of the Phish/Dead/Blues Traveler tapes in their 1200+ tape collection for a nominal fee. For someone like me who didn’t know any tapers or collectors, this service was a dream come true. There was only one problem: Rockville Center was an hour and a half from Hazlet WITHOUT any traffic and I didn’t have my driver’s license yet. Luckily, I have supportive parents like the McLovins’ guys.
I caught my first Phish show at the Beacon Theatre on April 15, 1994 and a week later my mom told me that she needed to go to Long Island for the funeral of a business associate. After I made sure she was okay and told her to send my condolences, I asked her where the ceremony was and she told me Rockville Center. My ears immediately perked up. Mom gave me the directions to the Parkside Memorial Chapels and the address was 175 N Long Beach Road. Where was Prime Cuts located? 191 N Long Long Beach Road. JACKPOT!
I gave Berba (that’s my mom’s nickname) $20 and asked her to pick up some Phish tapes for me. She came back with six Maxell XLIIs featuring every note of music the Vermonters played at those Beacon shows just one week earlier. At the time, listening to a show a week later was unheard of unless you taped it yourself. It was thrilling to once again hear the reaction of the crowd as the Giant Country Horns took the stage during Oh Kee Pa Ceremony and getting to listen to my friends and I starting the now-standard Wilson chant. I was a pig in shit. Of course I wasn’t that familiar with the band’s repertoire, so I was more than confused when one of the tapes had AC/DC and David Bowie written on it.
I parlayed those tapes into other tapes thanks to trades with a few friends at America Online’s Dead Forum. A few weeks later I had listened to each of those tapes numerous times and was thirsty for more Phish recordings. I told my dad to keep me in mind anytime he took a trip to Long Island and he asked me why. I told him about Prime Cuts and he said “why don’t we just take a trip out there over the weekend?” Again, Prime Cuts was an easy two hours each way and I couldn’t believe he’d make that trip just so I could get some bootlegs. But that’s what parents do. They support their kid’s passions no matter how silly or time-consuming they may be. For me it was the music of others, but for the McLovins kids it’s playing the music themselves. Kudos to their parents, my parents and anyone else’s parents that support their kid’s endeavors.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. We’ve got a great week of content planned for you. Besides a heaping helping of the columns you know and love, we’ve got a review of Saturday’s Cat Power show, that interview with The McLovins I told you about, the debut of the second season of Randy Ray’s fantastic Hidden Flick column and much much more. As always, we’ll do the best job a group of dudes with full-time jobs can do keeping you up-to-date on breaking news from around the music world. Thanks for continuing to read Hidden Track.
– ScottyB
7 Responses
Very nice piece Scotty. Thanks for sharing. I had been a fan of Widespread and the Dead before I saw my first Phish show when I was 18 in ’93 I watched in awe as I couldn’t believe how good they were and was hooked (no pun intended)from there. I was a freshman in college and ended up meeting someone who was friends with Pete Schall and was able to copy several old school SBDs for me. I was in heaven. I also remember looking on the tapes and thinking that “David Bowie” was probably filler from some Bowie album and “Letter To Jimmy Page” was probably a cut from The Song Remains The Same. Boy was I wrong! Once again, thanks for sharing Scotty.
Great piece! I worked at a used music store that did something similar to this. My boss at the time was kind of clueless and used really cheap blank tapes (those Memorex ones that were pink and yellow). Any time a fellow “head” came in and the boss wasn’t there I would just spin the tapes for free for them.
It’s funny how spoiled we got once we started befriending tapers, friends of tapers, and then the internet where shows became available hours after it happened. Not that I’m complaining…!
awesome stuff Scotty! can’t wait to read the McLovins interview 🙂
I grew up on Long Island, and lived not too far away from Prime Cuts. Back in the days before the interweb, it was the best place to get shows on tape. And with Utopia not too far away, it made for a great trip for all your hippie shopping needs.
Scott – Harvey and Berba are some kick ass rockin parents. Who else lets their kid put a phish sticker on their brand new Benz?
GREAT!!
i met Howie at the 10.18.96 Phish show at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. wrote his web address on the back of the ticket stub and still have to this day.