For more than 25 years, the scrappy, in-your-face rock 'n' roll attitude of Norton Records has weathered every challenge. Tireless promoters of the "Loud Sound," label owners Billy Miller and Miriam Linna preached the gospel of back-to-basics rock 'n' roll, rhythm & blues, rockabilly, surf and garage. The crew from Norton took on squares, naysayers, corporate rock and the supposed death of the LP — but on a cold October night last year, they met a wild woman named Sandy.
"We didn't expect what happened," Linna says. "I don't think anybody did. We didn't think there was any kind of danger of everything going underwater. We thought our warehouse was impenetrable."
The Red Hook, Brooklyn, warehouse looked out onto New York Harbor for more than 150 years, withstanding storms and hurricanes with never more than a few inches of water finding its way inside the brick walls. But the confluence of wild weather that came together due to Superstorm Sandy brought a 30-foot surge roaring into the harbor, breaking down the steel doors of the building and dumping more than 165,000 gallons of seawater into the space that housed Norton's stock of LPs, 45s, CDs and books.
"The next morning we went in and looked around with flashlights," Linna says, "and our hearts stopped. It was like, 'What the hell has been in here?' We could see all the stuff had been tossed around, boxes were down, stuff that had been in the back was in the front, and we couldn't get through to anything, it was awful."
The tiny Norton staff — Linna, Miller and two part-time employees — discovered the destruction of close to a quarter-million records and CDs on the Norton label as well as releases from many small international labels distributed by Norton. Also washed away was the back stock for Norton's publishing company, Kicks Books, and much of Linna's and Miller's personal collection of rock 'n' roll and pop culture memorabilia. At first glance it seemed to be a total loss.
"We immediately thought, 'What about the records?' " Linna says. "Even if the covers were shot, maybe we could salvage the records. We put the call out and thought it would only be a passel of loyal local friends who would come in to shake their heads and mourn with us. But people came in by truckloads. They were ready to start schlepping and moving things. We didn't know what was going to happen, but things fell into place with other people's genius suggestions, go-getter attitudes and muscle, tussle, grizzle and sizzle."
What they soon discovered was that many of the Norton LPs and 45s could be saved even if the paper and cardboard covers were waterlogged. But for the music format that was once touted as indestructible, the forecast was not so rosy. "The CDs were a total loss," Linna says. "There's some kind of metal crap that's in those little things, and you could see that the water had seeped in right away and discombobulated them."
Throughout the next few months, hundreds of volunteers — friends, musicians, music fans and just fellow Brooklynites — showed up to help. "I think we could write the manual if, God forbid, this ever happens to anybody else," Linna says. "We invented a system using four people — one to cut open the covers, one to strip off the paper sleeves, one to wash, and one to pat dry with paper towels. We had two big wash-a-thons at the Brooklyn Bowl, and we told people to come with paper towels and gloves. There were a hundred people at a time working on this process. It was a remarkable thing."
With most of the salvaged records clean and dry, Linna estimates they were able to save approximately 20 percent of the Norton LPs and a slightly higher percentage of 45s. But with absolutely no reimbursement from insurance, the problem was how to pay for all the new covers. That's where running a record label devoted to the love of music over the movement of "product" began to pay dividends.
Over the past five months, Norton Records benefits sprang up spontaneously around the world, with the funds collected earmarked for the reprinting of covers. That was the case when fellow survivors Brooklyn Brewery began organizing the Norton Records benefit to be held in Nashville this Friday night at the Mercy Lounge, inviting Linna and Miller's band The A-Bones to make a rare appearance in Music City. Also on the bill will be Daddy Long Legs, The Ettes, Weekend Babes and special guest Har Mar Superstar.
"Every step of it has been really unexpected, humbling and awkward," Linna says. "We know we're going to be able to get back to where we were. The support from the people we know personally and through record dealing or meeting at record fairs, that's what going to enable us to survive."
As for the records that were saved, Linna says Billy Miller is personally inspecting each one, because "he's the pickiest one of us all," and any albums with faded labels or scratches will not be sold as new, but ink-stamped "SANDY" and sold in special discount "Sandy Packs."
Still, Linna manages to find a lighter side to five months of exhausting work. "In 10 years someone will be going through records in a thrift shop," she says. "They'll be saying, 'Who was this chick, Sandy, stamping her name on all her records? That Sandy, she was a bad one!' "
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