#1011: The Principle of Moments, 39 Years Apart

RECORD STORE TALES #1011: The Principle of Moments, 39 Years Apart

A short while ago, the Contrarians did a discussion on Best Albums by Artists Who Left a Band in Their Prime. Uncle Meat participated in this discussion, and selected Robert Plant’s 1983 album The Principle of Moments for his pick. As most readers know, Uncle Meat has done a lot of music discussions but has never had an album to show off like other participants tend to have. He decided to do something different for this special episode, and went looking for a used CD copy to show.

The Meat Man took a walk over to Encore Records, who did have a copy in stock. Meat was pleased, purchased the CD and brought it home with him. Only then did he realize something very unique about this specific CD purchase.

Meat originally bought the album back in 1983 on vinyl, at Sam the Record Man in downtown Kitchener. He actually went in looking for Metal Health by Quiet Riot. Approaching the counter, the legendary Al King was working that day and was opening a box of new arrivals. “New Robert Plant is in,” he said. So Meat bought that too. A lifelong love affair with The Principle of Moments had begun.

Meat realized that he bought The Principle of Moments in 2022 from the same man who sold it to him in 1983: Al King. Today Al works at Encore, still selling great music to the masses, a public service we are grateful for. But what are the chances? 39 years apart, the same man sold the same album to the same guy. Different format, different store. Same album, same two guys. One in a million?

34 comments

    2. Well, you have to understand, Kitchener is not a big city. It’s pretty easy to remember what record stores we bought albums at because there were only a handful. And if he bought his LP at Sam’s that meant he bought it from Al. Al is pretty much a legend here in Kitchener. Anyone who grew up here probably shopped at Sam’s, and if they did, they definitely bought it from Al King.

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    1. Very true indeed! I love this story. We would go to Encore more often but I don’t like parking downtown, and Jen has a hard time with the stairs. I like taking her out with me so we unfortunately need accessibility.

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