All Things Must Pass (2015)

I love documentaries that provide a historical retrospective of an evolution of an industry and "All Things Must Pass: The Rise and Fall of Tower Records" provides us with a pretty good outline on the rise of Tower Records with owner Russ Solomon at the helm. There is a sufficient amount of nostalgia for us baby boomers to once again reminisce about the good old days of the LP, colorful and some shocking LP covers, record store promotions, upcoming concerts and the bands promotions such as in Tower Record stores. All good nostalgia of a success story for the first 45 minutes or so which certainly shows owner Russ Solomon's willingness to allow his independent stores to seek their own creativity.What I found this documentary did a miserable job in demonstrating is the balance between the 30 year rise of Tower Records and the gradual decline of Tower Records for what is described as two main reasons, the greed of Tower Records trying to control the price point of the LP and subsequent CD, then not realizing soon enough the evolution of technology such as the compact disc (CD), the imminent threat of the world wide web (WWW.) internet and a company called Napster that literally ended up starving the greedy record stores right out of business.I liked the story line of the first half of this documentary which provides the great success story of Russ Solomon, which included a lot of humorous nostalgia commemorating all the good times of the record store industry which even extended to the far east Japanese market. Having said that, I must say that I was disproportionately appalled that the fall of Tower Records overshadowed the greed of Russ Solomon's will to continually expand and just expect his financiers (Banks and investment firms) to trust what worked for the better part of 30 years would continue to work if those mean old banks would just continue to bankroll a dying industry that was inadequately inept at adapting to the evolution of technology and instead believed they could continue milking common music lovers across North America with higher and fixed prices.I would have rated "All Things Must Pass" higher than a 7 out of 10 rating but the balance of power shifted after the first 45 minutes of this documentary into a pity party for poor Russ Solomon and Tower Records who left quite a few of his suppliers, financiers and every day buyers left holding the bag. Tsk tsk to the producers and director for not fairly representing the good, the bad and the ugly of the rise "and the fall" of Tower Records.

All Things Must Pass, no not the utterly fantastic George Harrison landmark triple LP, the story of Tower Records. In the title there's a melancholy sadness since we know it alludes to the passing of the LP, then the decline of all other physical music media. It's only fitting a documentary of an amazing music related business is entitled after an equally amazing actual album, one that broke new ground being an over-the-top triple-LP set by a Beatle.Tom Hank's son Colin is behind this lovingly put together visual journey of the Tower Record story. If ever a there was an untapped gargantuan market at a particular time in history that was expertly tapped it has to be the record business as defined by Tower Records. What a ride it was. Probably the most loosely structured billion-dollar business empire ever created that wasn't based on criminal intent. Quite the opposite, it was based on the joy of music and how it enhanced life.Watching the documentary you get the feeling it wasn't entirely the loose management, the sometimes ill-advised entry to strange foreign markets, or even musical tastes of the times that killed Tower Records. It was the changing technology as we now see taken even further with on line streaming. Could the company have survived, like Japan, and flourished even as the physical media sales sagged? That's the huge question. Things started to break, perhaps, before the exit of founder;s Russ Soloman's right hand accountant having to exit due to health. His exit, however, started a new chapter where the banks took over. Everything the bank dictated broke a little more of the foundation that built the company while never, actually, fixing anything.As I sit and write this I read LP sales are growing once more. Jack White has actually built a new record pressing plant in Detroit. Granted, it's just a small thing, but it's a sign. The real sign will be when once more there's just a single Tower Records store somewhere in the United States. Music is such a powerful medium I wouldn't bet against it. If you have a love of music and have good memories of spending time in any record store you simply must watch this. A great American success story that runs against most everything they teach in business school.

The "Rise" portion was nostalgic and interesting. The second half was a load of self-serving baloney: Russ Solomon admitting he made a few mistakes but, if the banks had only continued lending him money without telling him what to do, all would have been well. A bunch of longtime employees kvetching about losing their jobs, but not ONE SINGLE WORD about all the labels and distributors who got royally screwed and are still trying to cope with their losses to this day. I started out as a specialty music retailer in 1974 and, thankfully, am still going strong. I well remember Tower's predatory greediness, demanding ridiculous terms from labels and distributors: six months dating, 100% return privileges. Finally, the labels and distributors had to say 'no' to getting in any deeper. The fact that this painful fact wasn't even mentioned, reminds me of the 'ServPro' motto, "Like it Never Even Happened".

This movie had a few good moments that could've been parred down to 45-60 minutes max. There is too much repetition of the same themes throughout. It feels like the director/editor is too close to the characters. It's as though s/he wants to make sure they are in the film as much as possible. Redundant narrative throughout. I got up to go to the bathroom and came back and didn't feel like I missed anything. Some good historical knowledge that gets beat to death by repetition. Feels like old timers making a film and too sentimental to let go. Good for a much shorter version at 45 minutes. Or use it as a sleeping aid as is. I don't recommend without serious redo of editing.