Vital vinyl memories of Eucalyptus Records
Back in the day one of my favorite things to do was thumb through LPs at Eucalyptus Records and Tapes on North Texas Street. I bought original dirty rapper Blowfly’s single there and later, in my rocker phase, picked up Rush’s “Moving Pictures.”
I also purchased BASS tickets there to see Journey’s Dec. 2, 1981, “Save the Cable Cars” benefit concert at the Cow Palace.
Eucalyptus was started in the early ‘70s by Lewis and Orville Lambert. They came up with the catchy branding name, which evoked woodsy earthiness and reinforced it by storing their albums in wooden fruit crates.
The brothers had no experience in business, but learned quickly through trial and error. Their first error was opening up downtown in the Country Corner Shopping Center next to a bar called the Peanut Patch. They later moved to the quaint, odd-shaped building next to 7 Flags Car Wash that is now the Latino Hair Salon.
Former Fairfield resident Darrell Anderson worked for Eucalyptus for four years and become manager at 18.
“The great part about working there was we didn’t have to pay for records.” Anderson said.
Darrell’s sister, Judy Engell, worked as a bookkeeper and enjoyed other perks.
“Promoters and labels would send free stuff,” Engell said. “A radio station gave Eucalyptus a trip to the Bahamas and they gave it to me for my honeymoon.”
To qualify for a volume discount, the Lamberts had to have at least four stores and a central warehouse — thus shops were added in Napa, Davis and Vallejo and a warehouse on Western Street in Fairfield called New Dawn Distributing. Then the Fairfield store moved yet again.
“We were just local yokels, man,” Lewis Lambert said. “We knew the big boys would be coming, so we went from 1,250 square feet to 7,200 square feet by moving to the old Pinkerton Hardware site, which is now Big 5 Sporting Goods.”
To dig out a retail niche, Eucalyptus focused on underserved demographics.
“The big guys were into white rock and roll, but a lot of the airmen stationed at Travis Air Force Base were African-American. We were very attuned to up-and-coming soul artists and would stock and play them in our stores. People would walk in and say ‘Who’s that?’ We’d say ‘Tower of Power or Millie Jackson.’ That set us apart,” Lambert said.
“When Marvin Gaye’s ‘What’s Going On’ album came out, we’d sell a boxful a day at the Vallejo store. Once, these two ladies came in and one stuck an album between her legs and squeezed them together yelling ‘Marvin! Marvin! Marvin!’ ”
Try that with a digital download.
In the movie “High Fidelity,” John Cusack’s character ran a record store and referred to his two employees as music snobs. Darrell Anderson can relate.
“Oh, we absolutely were snobs and I still am, “Anderson said. “It’s not just about taste; there is good and there is bad. We’d have guys who weren’t real music fans buy a Fleetwood Mac record because their girlfriend liked it and we were merciless.”
Fairfield City Councilwoman Catherine Moy expressed displeasure in the “I Grew Up in Fairfield, Too” Facebook group about applying, but not being hired at the store.
“They asked me my favorite bands and I told them Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and Peter Frampton, but I couldn’t come up with others,” Moy said. “They thought I was just a groupie who didn’t know about music. They were probably worried I didn’t know what roach clips were or how to roll a ‘J.’ ”
Former Fairfield resident Chuck Davis replied that it wasn’t about roach clips and “Js” but that Moy had failed the “cool” test with her answer of CSNY and Frampton.
Besides music, Eucalyptus also sold “smoking accessories.” Sharon Lopez was a naïve 12-year-old who once wanted to buy one of their pretty “vases” for her mother. She says she can still hear the salesperson laughing.
The Lamberts sold Eucalyptus in 1978, moved to Colorado and started Independent Records, which they still run.
I can now easily download way more albums than Eucalyptus ever had in its fruit bins, but what I can’t download is its unique, ambient culture. Sometimes more is less.
Reach Fairfield freelance writer Tony Wade at getthelowdown@sbcglobal.net. Ideas for future columns about the past are most welcome. Check out the “I Grew Up in Fairfield Too” Facebook group for more nostalgia.
Short URL: http://www.dailyrepublic.com/?p=67517
Posted by Tony Wade
on Jul 21 2011.
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Tony, well done! This was right in your sweetspot.
I worked at the Eucalyptus Records store in Vallejo back in the day….I can remember a young man coming in with a tape he had made of his original music. He handed it to me as if he thought I could help him make a name for himself in the music business. I was just a clerk behind a counter selling records and selling tickets sporting my favorite “Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll” pin attached to my shirt …However, this poor guy (whose tape was quite awful, by the way) had pinned his hopes and dreams on little old me…I wonder whatever happened to him…Anyway, another great article, Tony !
Thanks Garry, I appreciate that.
Carmen, thank you as well. I get that all the time from people who, because I do freelance–I don’t even work for the paper–think that I have a secret Batphone to celebrities or can solve problems in their life or something.
Mainly I’m just trying to get a response– an uncontrollable chuckle or a wistful sigh.
By the way, I really wanted to delve into the whole atmosphere of a record store back in the day as opposed to the pitiful rapidly-shrinking CD sections of Best Buy and Traget which are their miserable bastard grandsons. I just didn’t have enough room. May delve into that later.
I mean, I remember what you did when you heard a song on the radio and the DJ didn’t say who it was. You went into the record store and you sang it to a clerk and hoped they recognized it.
Anyway, thanks again!
Tony, I really miss browsing through records. It’s just not the same with CDs. Especially trying to enjoy the cover art.
Somethings however, are better today. Instead of having to sing, in my case unrecognizably, you just hold up your phone and SHAZAM it!
Yes, I printed out 3 tickets–well on one piece of paper–from my couch and while I look back with nostalgia on standing in a line for two hours to see “Star Wars” in 1977, there’s no way I would do that today.
Another thing I miss about albums, and was a case of the medium influencing the artist, was the idea of having side 1 and side 2. As you know, many artists would use them the way a playwright employs acts.
I have such fond memories of the store in Vallejo. My mom, sister and I used to walk to Larwin Plaza as a fun outing. This was in the early 70′s, and I was born in 1967. We would hit the Eucalyptus Records store, with all the incense smells, LP’s in crates and happy vibes going on there. I remember buying rolling papers for my dad’s birthday with my allowance. We’d also stop at Prometheus Books and then to Thrifty’s for a 15 cent ice cream. Good times, man, good times. Thanks for the memories.
That was back in the day when if you couldn’t remember the lyrics of a song but part of the melody, you could hum it and the store clerk would whip out the album right away. The clerks always knew not just the hits but the stuff that most people in Fairfield wouldn’t even acknowledge as music. If you went in and bought a record, they would say, oh yeah, this is good but have you heard… and it would blow you away how great their recommendation was.
I also remember the music snobbery but I never really cared. Yes, I liked disco. But I was also the only person in my crowd who listened to the Dead Kennedys. I figured everything balanced out eventually.
During the early sixties In Santa Rosa at the Coddingtown Center, Macy’s had a room where you could listen to albums. I always thought that was pretty cool.
Mr. Practical, with your vast collection, it must be interesting to find places that still sell albums. I ran into a small selection at the Antique Trove in Roseville last weekend. There was also recently, a shop in Old Sac with lots of records.
CD, vinyl is making a comeback. Quite a few new releases are available in vinyl. Analog stills sounds better than digital!
Tom Petty (my all-time favorite) just recently released his first three albums in vinyl, each a different color (red, white, and blue). Also, every year there is a national record store day which celebrates independent record stores and a score of artists put out vinyl releases for that day. There is a demand for vinyl because it sounds so much better.
Lil, I’ve always said that if I could put one song in a time capsule for future generations to exemplify rock & roll, it would be Petty’s American Girl.
I still get goosebumps when I hear it. Although it does make me think of that scene in Silence of the Lambs!
CD, I’ve seen those booths on old movies (sorry about the old comment) and always thought they were cool. The Fairfield library used to have record players that didn’t have speakers and you gave the librarian your card to check out headphones and I used to go and listen to John Lennon and Paul Simon records and others.
Tony, no problem with the “old” comments. I sort of prefer that to the alternative! It was pretty cool and it actually expanded my listening choices because Elvis was my hero and at the time, pretty much the extent of my musical knowledge.
I loved that store. Bought my first “vase” there. Put plenty of flowers in that thing. Plenty of bargain vinyl for us who were on a budget. I still have my collection, over 2000 easy. Getting harder & harder to find the old rock & blues albums & the old wood fruit crates to put them in. Does any remember what the store on N. Texas St. was (Latino Hair Salon)? I remember it being a burger joint, like Wendy’s and wasn’t Andy’s Pawn Shop Wienerschnitzel?
Dari Delite?
The Latino hair salon was “Crunchy’s” back then. Burgers, fries and shakes, right next door to the Roller Rink. Now those are some good memories!
It was Dari
–Delite and later Crunchy’s and Eucalyptus and a vacuum place. It would be handy if there was a way to combine all those. Get yourself a burger and a shake, pick up a Eureka and a Stones album and get your hair done too.
It was Dari–Delite and later Crunchy’s and Eucalyptus and a vacuum place. It would be handy if there was a way to combine all those. Get yourself a burger and a shake, pick up a Eureka and a Stones album and get your hair done too.
Eucalyputs Records in FF was where at the age of 15 I bought my first poster. It was of Farrah Faucett Majors. Still got it too this day. Every time I visit BIg 5, I remember with fond memories of my first GF.
Tony
I was a photographer at the DR in the 70′s and frequently went to Eucalyputs Records (and the good ol Peanut Patch). Thanks for the memory.
Mike
Tony,
Memories abound. Nice story, the memories are foggy, but you’ve filled in the missing spots. Let’s have some more. Oh, the atmosphere at Peanut Patch, shells cracking under my feet now. Good story, thanks.
Tony,
I first remember thumbing through albums at the Country Corner store, with the occasional smell of cat-piss across the top of the crated albums, it added to the down home feel. Then the Dairy-Delite location where I first heard The Who’s “Love Reign Over Me”, but the “Now Playing” album stand showed the Kansas, “Masque” album instead. My family would go to Dairy-Delite on Sundays when they had “six burgers for a buck”. Thanks for the memories.
The Eucalyptus records I remember was in reno Nevada on Oddie Blvd. I suppose it must be the same company becasue the incense smell is a distinct memory for both my husband and I. I was born in Vallejo but grew up in Reno. There was nothing like thumbing thru the vinyls and finding a goodie, like Dusic by Brick! Wow…I am gonna cry, life was so good then! “We don’t wanna sit down…we wanna get down!”
“Dusic” was the jam. Yes, the company expanded into other states but the original store was in Fairfield.