Philip Glass's first job was breaking records

March 14, 2012

Source: http://www.wbur.org/npr/146092923/ira-glass-interviews-his-cousin-composer-philip-glass

PHILIP GLASS: Did I ever tell - I should tell you what my very first job in the store was. You see, in those days, those are the days of 78s, and every record store have always called, you had an allowance, a return privilege it was called. That was actually what it was, a return privilege for broken records.

IRA GLASS: Wait. If you would take the record home and break it you could bring it back?

PHILIP GLASS: No, no, no. No, it didn't work that way, Ira.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: If you were, if you had the store and some records arrived and they were broken...

IRA GLASS: Oh, I understand.

PHILIP GLASS: So for you...

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: So the merchant could return the records.

IRA GLASS: Right.

PHILIP GLASS: It was called a return privilege. And it was a strict, it was something like, the way they figure it out they made it something like 5 percent of the records could be returned.

IRA GLASS: Right.

PHILIP GLASS: Now what happened was that you didn't actually break 5 percent of the records, but you could return 5 percent of the records. So what you had to do, if you wanted to return records and get your money back you had to break them.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: That's cute, huh?

IRA GLASS: So that was your job?

PHILIP GLASS: My first job...

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: ...my brother and I were, on the weekends, we went down to the store, and we were sent to the basement and we jumped on records.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: We were - and...

IRA GLASS: It's a good preparation for what was to come.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: Well, that's the kind way of putting it.

IRA GLASS: Well, no, no.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: So, I gradually worked my way up - what?

IRA GLASS: And classical music, right?

PHILIP GLASS: It didn't matter.

IRA GLASS: Yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: It didn't matter what you broke.

IRA GLASS: Eddie Fisher.

PHILIP GLASS: They counted it by the label.

IRA GLASS: Right.

PHILIP GLASS: And you did it by the, you did it by the company so there would be, and there would be companies like Okeh Records or Blue Note Records or RCA Records, they all had a return privilege. But the only thing is that all the RCA Records have to be in their box and all the broken Okeh Records have to be in their box and all the broken Blue Note Records had to be in their box. You couldn't mix boxes. But they didn't really care what was on the record. They just had to be broken.

(LAUGHTER)

PHILIP GLASS: Anyway, so I, that was my first pay - I wasn't actually paid. But that was my first professional job...

IRA GLASS: In music.

PHILIP GLASS: In the music world.

 

 

Source: http://www.wbur.org/npr/146092923/ira-glass-interviews-his-cousin-composer-philip-glass




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