Is it reasonable to ask a used record-store clerk for song ID?

Cafe Society
1

Was looking through some old music cassettes, and had an instant association.

Years ago, I used to frequent a used record store. There was one employee (don’t know if he was the owner or not) who was a classic of the genre. Quirky and retro, but also pleasant. I’d compare him to the Comic Store Guy, but the only similarity is body type and hair. Anyway, you could ask him for song ID help, as people do in this forum, and he might not know the answer, but he never gave any indication that the question was bothersome.

One day, I had a question, and he wasn’t in the store. There were two other employees who were from the I-Just-Work-Here mold.

“I’m looking for a song,” I said brightly. “The chorus is—”

“Do you know how many people we get in here expecting us to identify a song from a few words,” replied the unsmiling, clean-shaven, polo-shirt wearing clerk, without looking up from his invoicing. That is the Comic Store Guy, in a different body.

Was I out of line? I mean, I wasn’t demanding, and if someone had known the answer, there would have been a sale in it, assuming they had the corresponding album and it was within my price range. I personally don’t think I was. I mean, this was in the early '90s, before I had internet services, and even if I had, this board, let alone this forum, was not even a gleam in Ed Zotti’s eye. I was lucky enough to eventually find someone who did know the song, and even copied it for me, but if a person had to do that for every song whose title eluded them, that would be a hell of a way to run a railroad.

2

It’s never out of line to ask a question of a clerk about the proucts carried by the store, or which MIGHT be carried by the store. Civil discourse is never inappropriate.

Why would you even wonder?

3

The reason the second guy said that was that he wouldn’t be able to ID the song if you sang the chorus to “Uptight.” Your first guy knew his ass from his elbow, so he didn’t mind so much.

4

Asking such questions is not out of line; asking a customer “Do you know how many people we get in here expecting us to identify a song from a few words?” is very much out of line.

5

Well, at the time, I accepted that because I was a college student, constantly and painfully aware that people resented me (us). I certainly didn’t want to bother anyone. If it happened today, I would probably use the line I heard on a set once, “Oh, am I making you EARN your paycheck?”.

Thanks, guys!

6

When I worked in a music store it was a regular question.

Either I knew or I didn’t. Either way, I wasn’t hostile or dismissive of the question or the person asking it.

7

Dang! If this had happened recently instead of ten years ago, I could have made it a Pit thread!

:clears throat:

Listen, you yutz. Yeah, I mean you, Mr. Polo-Shirt Wearing, Clean-Shaven, I’m Too Busy and Important To Look a Customer In the Eye. You find it annoying that people come into the used record store where you work, and have the nerve to ask about a song title? Do you think singing, or approximating the tune of, a song in the hope that you can identify it from the chorus is easy for me? I’m not a performer. What I am is a potential customer. So you get a lot of people asking for song ID. That shouldn’t be a burden to you. I don’t care if I’m the millionth person to ask such a question; it’s not up to me to sense your saturation point.

This is a privately owned store. They depend on having a staff that
a) knows the inventory
b) has a pleasant, helpful attitude
c) pushes the product
to stay in business. Why the @#$% did they hire you if it annoys you so much to have to give song ID? If you don’t know the song, then you don’t. Well, I’ll leave now, so you don’t have to earn your paycheck.

Putz.

There, I feel better! (And, no, I haven’t been stewing about this for ten years; it just came back, Proust-style, when I saw this cassette.)

8

Speaking as a Record Store Chick, I am frequently annoyed by customers asking me to identify songs by a couple of words in the chorus. I am annoyed because often I can’t identify it based on what they give me and I HATE not knowing something :slight_smile: .

But I certainly listen to them and make an attempt.

The only thing that annoyes me about the customers in that case is when they don’t accept my “Sorry, that doesn’t ring a bell but you might try 1. the Red Dot system rigth behind you where you can search by artist or album 2. a music reference book from the book department 3. an online search for lyrics when you get home”, and just stand there staring at me because of course it’s my job to know all the lyrics to every song ever recorded.

I don’t know every lyric to every song but I might know it or I might know how to find it and asking me for help is what I’m there for for god’s sake!

I say you stumbled into some “High Fidelity” record store situation, but THOSE guys at least would have known the song and only made fun of you afterward.

9

It is my goal in life to know all the lyrics to every song ever recorded. When I get there, you’re welcome to email me. But I probably won’t be in, I’ll be off somewhere winning a quiz show.

-fh