So distracted am I, and so out of touch with the world of music just at the moment, that I didn’t know it until I read it in today’s Times: the incomparable Manny’s, midtown Manhattan’s Mecca of musical merchandise, has closed its doors.
This lavish emporium, set in “Music Row” on West 48th Street amongst the theaters and recording studios, was where everyone who was anyone went to buy everything. You never knew who you would see in there, but you were bound to see someone, and on the walls were thousands of signed photographs of the pantheon of music-biz luminaries who had passed through to shop and shmooze over the decades.
I know all things must pass (which, by the way, reminds me of the time I saw George Harrison in the shop, sometime back in the early Eighties), but this is awfully sad news.
You can read the Times article here, and take a little tour here.