Poverty Records, Wichita, KS, 1978, by Marshall Poe

From MemoryArchive

Who: Marshall Poe
What: Poverty Records store
When: Late 1970s
Where: Wichita, KS

Why back when, when I was young and music was better, I luckily found a little hole-in-the-wall of a used record store called Poverty Records. PR was as close to ‘underground’ as Wichita, Kansas could get. It was stuck into a downtown storefront that looked abandoned. It never seemed to be heated or cooled. It smelled. It was run by two guys who seemed like they had just gotten out of drug-rehab (or so I thought). And it had a constant stream of great Indie, Punk and New Wave records that I happily bought on my nearly daily pilgrimage there. I was in highschool and worked as a drug delivery boy for Gessler’s Drugs. I drove a crappy Ford pick-up on my appointed rounds, and somehow I always found myself at Poverty. Often twice a day. The boss didn’t mind (or didn’t know) and the guys behind the counter were always welcoming. Since I was a regular, they grew to know me and even put things back for me.

I first began to listen to music in the mid-1970s and I stuck closely to the kinds of things you’d expect a white kid from the mid-West to like—The Beatles, The Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Who, and the rock du jour—Kiss, Boston, Queen, etc. I got my real musical education, however, from the guys in Poverty. I still remember when I walked in one day and the owner said “Hey, kid, take a look at this. I think you’ll like it.” It was the Velvet Underground’s great live album “1969.” They turned me on to Chuck Berry, The Birds, Black Sabbath, Iggy Pop, and, of course, all the fantastic Punk and New Wave music coming out (The Sex Pistols, Wire, New Order, Public Image, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Blondie, The Buzzcocks, The Talking Heads, etc.).

And it was in Poverty that I first saw a flyer for an Embarrassment gig at the Cedar Lounge. The Poverty guys recommended it, so I went (even though I was underage). It was the first up-close-and-personal live show I’d ever seen. Every misfit in Wichita was there (about 25 of us!). The Embarrassment was a great band, and they are still one of my favorites.

So thanks, Poverty Records, RIP.