Skip Henderson is probably the first person I know who really saw the vintage parts vintage as a real business. He had the vision to see that the vintage guitar market was going in the direction of the collector rather than the player and the all collectors look for all original instruments. I guess that would be around 1984 or so Skip opened City Lights music.
This store was more like a shrine to the musical mojo of everything vintage and cool. You could find vintage guitar parts , vintage cigarette lighters , vintage magazines, memorabilia, blues records and items that had nothing to do with vintage guitar parts yet fit right in . City Lights Music was the mojo. The store had a mystique about it being there were no real hours .City Lights could open 1 in the after noon or 11 at night and could stay open 30 minutes or 8 hours. What a thrill it was to call and here skip say come on down I am open.
For those of you who were never lucky enough to vist the store there is really no way to really describe it. The store sucked you in to a cool space that the outside world could not penetrate . The conversations and business deals are legendary. It was not uncommon to be there when the likes of Billy Gibbons , Randy Bachman , Lenny Kravites , Marshall Crenshaw , Semi Mosley , les leva , G.E. Smith Cesar Diaz, Brian Setzer, and the lsit goes on would just call skip and chat about the latest whatever.
I will never forget one of my first days when I was standing there and Billy Gibbons called and the conversation ranged from black guard tele parts, to restoring vintage cars and a mojo bag he was send up to skip on loan and skip was sending him some blues item that was uncovered down in Memphis were Gibbons was living ata the time. I though I was in the twight zone! and died and went to heaven.
The parts king had set the bar high for any to follow. Many have tried including myself to replicate city light in the past but to no availe. The fact that not only you could come in and get the best vintage guitar parts and the coolest stuff you have ever seen but you got to talk to a guy who actually loved music, loved guitars and loved people who loved the above.
The fact that many were blessed to have seen and been a part City Light Music is a true wonder in this world . Skip gave us that space and the chance to look , learn and expose ourselves to real comradery in the vintage guitar business which today has lone gone and been replaced with high price tags , egos and and ebay experts. sometimes it truly feels like the end of the world and that I am embarrassed to be apart of what this business has become. Maybe Skip knew something we did not and that is why he quietly left this business to start many charitable and foundations . Maybe He saw the ugliness that was to become thsi business and his time was better spent elsewhere.
The problem is I still need that city lights news letter in my mailbox every month to pull me through the bad times. and get excited over. I need that place to go were the true lovers and believers of this business can go . I need to keep the Vision City Lights Music alive forever in my mind and with others so I will never forget and the world will never forget that guitar are just guitars , music is a spiritual thing people are people and the business I know today is the bastard child of the greed and not what it started out to be.
Thank you Skip for the education the guidance and insight to remain sure footed in the mess we now call the vintageguitar market. In the mean time I Will pray and still keep looking for that City Lights Music Flyer in my mailbox for it will be the sign of the times and the sign of better things to come . God Bless Skip Henderson for the joy he has given all of us
Jim Pasch
Tags: gibson guitar parts, guitar parts, skip henderson, vintage guitar parts