Bleecker Bob, Owner Of Iconic Village Record Store, Dies

GREENWICH VILLAGE, NY — Robert Plotnik, the owner of the iconic Village record store Bleecker Bob's, died Thursday, Nov. 29 at the age of 75, his partner confirmed.

Plotnik founded Bleecker Bob's Records, which hopped around the neighborhood before settling at 118 W. Third St., with fellow record collector Al Tommers in 1967. The vinyl haven was a beloved staple of the music world and for nearly 50 years drew budding rockstars and music lovers with its eclectic selection of oldies, emerging artists and the cutting edge.

His store helped popularize groups and performers including the Ramones, the Taking Heads and Elvis Costello. Other rock icons such as Robert Plant, Patti Smith and David Bowie were regulars. The record mecca managed to survive the emergence of cassettes, CDs and the age of digital downloads until it closed in 2013.

Plotnik had been in poor health since having a stroke in 2001. His cause of death was kidney failure, The New York Times reported.

“Bleecker Bob’s is a perfect example of the funky, idiosyncratic little Greenwich Village institutions that had enormous impacts on culture in the 1960s and ’70s,” John Strausbaugh, the author of “The Village: 400 Years of Beats and Bohemians, Radicals and Rogues,” told the newspaper.

“The dank basement clubs where Dylan and Hendrix were discovered, the tiny storefront theaters that nurtured Off and off-off-Broadway theater, and in this case the used record store where punk rock was born.”

Critic Roger Friedman praised Plotnik and his record store with shaping "change in the rock culture by force of will," he wrote in a post on the website Showbiz411.

"He — and it– were seminal in bringing New Wave, punk, power pop, whatever you want to call it to America," Friedman wrote.

Plotnik was born on Aug. 28, 1943 in Maryland and raised in New Jersey. He earned a degree from New York University before, at his parents urging, attended law school at Fordam University and practiced law before eventually venturing into the record business with his friend, Trommers, The Times reported.

Bleecker Bob's Records fell victim to what several Village institutions have over the years — rising rents and dwindling sales. Today no remnants remain of the record store on W. Third Street and it is replace with a sushi restaurant.

Photo courtesy The Vinyl District/Youtube