BULK RATE U.S. POSTAGE PAID Permit No. 2419 lPE lPITClHl K.C., Mo. FREE FREE VOL. II NO. 1 YOU'LL NEVER GET RICH READING THE PITCH FEBRUARY 1981 FBIIRUARY II The 8-52'5 Meet BUDGBT The Rev. in N.Y. Third World Bit List .ONTHI l ·TRIVIA QUIZ· WHAT? SQt·1E RECORD PRICES ARE ACTUALLY ~~nll .815 m wi. i .••lIIi .... lllallle,~<M0,~ CGt4J~G ·DOWN·?····· S€f ·PAGE: 3. FOR DH AI LS , prizes PAGE 2 THE PENNY PITCH LETTERS Dec. 29,1980 Dear Warren, Over the years, Kansas Attorney General's have done many strange things. Now the Kansas Attorney General wants to stamp out "Mumbo Jumbo." 4128 BROADWAY KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI 64111 Does this mean the "Immoral Minority" (816) 561·1580 will be banned from Kansas? Is being banned from Kansas a hardship? Edi tor ....••..•••.• vifarren Stylus Morris Martin Contributing vlriters this issue: Raytown, Mo. P.S. He probably doesn't like dreadlocks Rev. Dwight Frizzell, Lane & Dave from either. GENCO labs, Blind Teddy Dibble, I-Sheryl, Ie-Roths, Lonesum Chuck, Mr.D-Conn, Le Roi, Rage n i-Rick, P. Minkin, Lindsay Shannon, Mr. P. Keenan, G. Trimble, Jan. 26, 1981 debranderson, M. Olson Dear Editor, Inspiration this issue: How come K. C. radio stations never Fred de Cordova play, The Inmates "I thought I heard a Heartbeat", Roy Buchanan "Dr. Rock & Roll" Peter Green, "Loser Two Times", Marianne r,------:=~--~-__l "I don' t care what they say about Faithfull, "Broken English", etc, etc,? being avant garde or anything else. How come? Frankly, call me square if you want Is this a plot against the "Immoral to. II Minority" ? --President Ronald Reagan Morris Martin Raytown, Mo. LETTERS POll Cy COME ON J LETS HEAR IT FROM YOU Dear Mr. Martin, OUT THERE, - IS ANYBODY READING Dear Pennypi tch, THIS? HOW ABOUT OUR FRIENDS UP NORTH. THE eJ.IQi MA I LBOX I SN 'T EXACTLY BURSTING. IN FACT J Thanks for your letters. Whats all this THINGS ARE SO SLOW THAT PEOPLE talk about the "Immoral Minority"? Didn't Here is my contribution to you next LIKE MORRIS MARTIN HAVE TO WRITE they have a big party recently? The re­ IN TWICE. WRITE TO THE PITCH! ports reaching the Pitch have been issue of the Pitch. Thanks heaps. BEFORE WE'RE FORCED TO PRINT sketchy, at best. Maybe some of our readers SOMETH I NG ELSE BY MECHA GO I NS. can help us out and fill us in. Warren SEND YOUR WORDS OR PICTURES TO: Signed. THE PENNY PITCH FOR ADVERTISING INFORMATION J WRITE OR r.iecha Goins Warren Stylus CALL HARREN STYLUS C/O THE PENNY PITCH, NOTE: 816-561-2744 4128 BROADl'lAy-K .e' J Mo. ED. swear it. WS ® entire contents this issue copyright 198t MUSSO REALITY THE PENNY PITCH Have you ever wondered why a Bob Dylan album which was produced in' 1961,. for which a substantial profit has already PEDDLIN' been made, only minimum royal ties due and no further expenses other than the vinyl and -cardboard' to be spent carries nearly the same price as the newest TUNES Dylan? The answer is that we have always been willing to pay it. Year after year through 1978 thA record business grew at a phenomenal pace. Growth of 25% a year became expected and there seemed to be no reason to cut prices. Only so­ called "cut-outs", which are in reality over pressings more often than actual deletions from manufacture's catalogues, reached the market at bargain. prices. And these surface only because warehouse space for faster moving merchandise was desired. In 1979, the booms went bust. Again, it Greetings from the North Store. A lot was CBS who acted first. Trying to turn of changes have taken place since the slow sales period around CBS selected Dec. 5th when we opened our doors to steady sellers from their vast catalogue the Northland as a PENNYLANE. Notice­ and dropped the list price from $7.98 to able changes are, the moving 'of pre­ $4.98 or $5.98. Besides several Dylan recorded cassettes from wall racks titles this first batch included popular to the display cases. Several people material. by established artists. Dan have voiced their aproval of this new Fogelberg, Dexter Gordon, Simon & Garfun­ arrangement, making the cassettes ke1, Miles Davis, Barbra Streisand are more visible. We 'have greatly expanded only some of the musicians that pop to our prerecorded cassette line in all mind. The response was immediate and areas of music: rock, jazz, country, positive. Warner Bros. followed with a soul, soundtracks, and at present we $5.98 program of their own. Later MCA, are working on our classical cassette RCA and Capitol jumped on the bandwagon. section. Any ideas from our customers in this area are greatly appreciated. The result j,s what you are going to see BY during the month - long sale corning up. We now have 2 differant sets of record H• B. PROPHET Budget product no longer consists of off wall racks, in the front· and back of labels or remaindered merchandise. You the store. These are our PENNYPINCHER are going to see first line copies of walls and feature the top new releases the Eagles, Little Feat, Elton John, The on sale. You can be sure that when a February has been designated budget Band, Jefferson Airplane, David Bowie, new record is released you can find month at Pennylane. For consumers this Billy Joel , The Who and much much more. it on the wall at a dollar off the will mean special discounts on albums The $5.98 stuff will be on sale at 3 for regular price. Also all Beat1es 'records and tapes which are normally priced $12.00. Other budget merchandise will and tapes are always on sale at in the $1. 99 to $ 4 .49 range. Noteworthy have similar discounts. It's a great PENNYLANE North. Our Jazz selection has bargains indeed, but perhaps more im­ opportunity to replace some of your fav­ really jumped. We now feature the portant is what this sale portends for orites that might be a little scratchy finest selection north of the river. the future. Some record prices are act­ wi th new mint copies. ually corning down. Once again, anything you want, that we don't. have, tell us about it and we'll With the already positive response these get it for Also, Jazz fans shou~d Six or seven years ago CBS shocked the you. price reductions have received, we can be checking out our excellent selectlon i.ndustry by offering a brand new pop expect to see more in the future. This of jazz cutouts. release by an exciting young duo at trend that the record business $2.00 less than the standard manufact- and starting to respond to That brings us to count~y. We've added ~""~~~a~~t~e~a~l~r~p~ay~a~n~~~~~-~~~~~~'~~'+''''~~~~~~~sk~a.nd'4iK~8Ci"~.iG~s oiyou- the to,· and· are working. on increasing our of the performers folk, bluegrass and country selection. it to develop into the smash seller it This is another area in which you the As I was pondering this development it customer can help us stock what you has become. But I remember how much occured to me that perhaps there might easier the selling process functioned wan·t. Country fans can look forward to be other aspects of the book business new releases from Glen Campbell, Dave when potential customers spotted that that could be transferred to records. & Sugar, Hank Williams Jr., Austin pricetag. One could afford to take a Obviously, the system of selling music chance on an unknown like KENNY LOGGINS. Roberts and more in the next month. is not perfect even with this new level A new addition to our store is classical of maturity. I called my friend Peter, section has grown and in a short time Giving price incentives to generate sales who has had experience in both industries for new artists is certainly a reasonable we should have a fine. selection of and asked him what were some of the classical records and tapes. approach to developing talent. However, differences. "The systems are identical," like many things in the record business Peter told me. "The book system is more We have also increased our catalog ther.e seems to be something a little organized but it's really just the same. backwards. The expensive part of put­ in .reggae,sou1, rhythm & blues, show­ The retailer doesn't get screwed around tunes, audiophile and cutout records, ting a record together occurs at the as much because he has more information." beginning. Studio time, promotion, wi th more to corne. artist advances, jacket design and Oh well, getting screwed around will have Last but not least, no we diq.n' t for­ producers fees are only some of the to wait for another article. ini tial costs incured. One must expect get our rock-n-rcl1ing friends in the that a record would cost more when it northland. If anything has grown in How about you? Are you tired of being our store it has been our selection of comes out and these up front costs need treated like you don't count? Tell me­ to be recovered. It seems to work new releases and some catalog, now what's wrong with the record business? encompasses more than half of our something like that in the book business. How should it work? Write me, H.B.