Original image by There Stands the Glass.
Corky Carrel congratulated me as I purchased a pair of eighth row tickets to Marvin Gaye’s concert at Kemper Arena in 1983. He explained there wasn’t much customer demand for the physical tickets allocated to Capers Corner, the suburban record store he managed. Being showered by hurled bras and panties that fell short of the stage was part of what made the show a transformative experience.
I had no way of knowing it at the time, but Carrel would play a minor but impactful role in my life over the next 30 years. (We fell out of touch in recent years.) He began making recommendations to me when I was teenager. Carrel’s suggestions partly dictated the order of my purchases of the catalogs of artists including Bob Dylan and Van Morrision.
The tables were turned when I became a sales rep for independent record label distributors. He never bought much from me when he operated brick-and-mortar stores in Mission and Shawnee, Kansas, and later a mail order business he operated with Bill Lavery, but I always enjoyed my dealings with him. Carrel was a gracious businessman, excellent photographer and passionate music fan. He died last week.