Bob George in the ARC NYC stacks. Photograph: unknown/ARC NYC ...
‘No one else is saving it’: the fight to protect a historic music collection ...
It all started in a loft in Tribeca, New York, long before it was a trendy neighbourhood. “I had 47,000 records and nobody wanted them,” recalls Bob George, who had just published a discography of punk and new wave music. “That led a lot of people coming to me and saying you have to save this stuff; no one else is saving it. That got the ball rolling in my loft in what is now fashionable Tribeca, which was an incredibly unfashionable war zone in 1974 when I was first there.”
George turned his record collection into the ARChive of Contemporary Music (Arc) in 1985 with co-founder David Wheeler. The non-profit music library and research centre now contains more than 3m sound recordings or over 90m songs, making it one of the biggest popular music collections in the world. Donors and board members have included David Bowie, Jonathan Demme, Lou Reed, Martin Scorsese and Paul Simon.
The Arc is not open to the public but has been a vital resource for film-makers, writers and researchers ranging from Ken Burns looking for a song for his series Baseball to the new Grammy Hall of Fame and Museum in Los Angeles needing cover art for its inducted recordings. Now, however, this unique treasure trove is under existential threat.
The Arc cannot remain at its current Hudson Valley premises indefinitely and is in need of a new and bigger home. “We have to move and we don’t know when we’ll have to move and the collection is really at risk because it’s all on pallets,” says George, who dreams of a patron like James Smithson, the British scientist who left his estate to the US to found the Smithsonian Institution. “We’re looking for someone to help us buy a very wonderful property or for us to build a new building on vacant land in upstate New York.”
After growing up in Youngstown, Ohio, George moved to New York in 1974 as a visual arts student and started collecting records as a DJ. In 1981 he released Laurie Anderson’s first single, O Superman, which sold nearly a million copies worldwide and made it to number on the UK singles chart. He was a guest on John Peel’s beloved BBC radio show, sneaking in little-known records from New York, and took music to European broadcasters too. People kept giving him records that other collections turned down.
Some of the 18,000 recordings in the Keith Richards Blues Collection. Photograph: Arc NYC
“I was doing the book and then doing Peel shows and it accidentally became this large collection that nobody wanted. They kept saying, oh, we collect classical, we collect Broadway, we collect ethnic music. I said, well, I have funk, reggae, African and hip-hop and they said, oh, no, we don’t collect any of that. Forty years later, I say, you put all those together and that’s what music has become.”
The simple goal of the archive, which has always had a peripatetic existence, is preservation. “We have no interest in quality,” George cheerfully admits. “It started that way from the very beginning because there’s no way to tell what’s valuable in the future. Everybody brings their own criteria and tastes to things in their own time. But the future is quite different, as we hope.”
The archive has never received aid from any city, state or federal organisation but its scale gives the Library of Congress a run for its money. It has absorbed major collections from musicians and fans and is home to most of Rolling Stone Keith Richards’ extensive blues inventory.
George dispatched two semi-trailers to a condemned house in Boston sinking under the weight of Jeep Holland’s set of more than 125,000 recordings and over 2,500 signed albums from the likes of the Stones, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Marley and the Sex Pistols. “Going towards the bathroom, he has a gas stove, the pilot light is on, there are records in the oven. It was just a storage space ... His car had become so full of records that he abandoned it and rented a car.”
George has made repeat trips to countries such as Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Cuba, Japan, Jordan, Laos and Thailand. The Arc contains Demme’s personal collection of Haitian albums. More than 150,000 pieces of world music have been catalogued; there are plenty more to do. “We’ve tried to get as much of that material as possible so that collection is just fabulous.”
The Arc preserves copies of every recording in all known formats. It has electronically catalogued more than 400,000 sound recordings and digitised 200,000 with the Internet Archive – more than any other public university or private library in America. It also contains more than 3m pieces of material including photos, videos, DVDs, books, magazines, press kits, sheet music, ephemera and memorabilia.
The late Andy Rourke of the Smiths at Arc looking at Smiths records he had never seen. Photograph: Arc NYC
George says: “We catalogued 105,000 singles just recently; we have another 200,000 or 300,000 to go. This is the first way a band at one time got their feet in the water. They put out one or two or three singles. If they did hits, they got the chance to do an album and so much of this material does not exist on LP or CD. Little by little more of it might be streaming because of YouTube, as people can get away with murder on YouTube, which is great, but YouTube will disappear. Everything commercial will disappear.”
Among those who have turned to the archive is the Oscar-winning director Ang Lee, who wanted records by the singer Bert Sommer for his film Taking Woodstock. “The archive is amazing because we don’t know what we have until somebody needs it. We’ve been into the stacks and we found five LPs by Bert Sommer. For me, it’s like I have no idea who this guy is and what he did; he’s sort of a folkie. For Quincy Jones, we just sent him a list of the 8,000 things that he’s either produced or on.
“Research was how we basically stayed alive along with the largesse of the rock stars or celebrities that we had hooked up with. The idea was never to open to the public but that’s what we want to do now. I don’t think it’s untrue that we’re one of the largest in the world and that we want to make that available. We’ve tried to save two copies so there will always be a listening copy and then that would then become a listening library.”
George hopes the new archive will be open to students, educators, historians, musicians, authors, journalists and the general public. An anonymous donor has come forward with a million dollars to help realise that dream but more money is urgently needed. One possible new home is an abandoned IBM campus spanning 34 acres, although that would cost $8-10m. George is considering partnering with an upstate university and has plans to offer residencies for scholars.
“People could come in and produce a work, and that would go out into the world. It could be a blog, essay, tape, compilation, new recording, whatever. We’re really quite un-academic. I’m against it somewhat and I’d like people to have ideas and bring those ideas and put them back into the world as opposed to making it an interactive experience for everybody. I don’t want to be Disney World. It’s nice to have seminars. It’s nice to have listening parties. It’s nice to have dances.”
The Mystery behind "The Black Album": One of the Most Bootlegged Prince Albums ever recorded
The Mystery behind “The Black Album”: One of the Most Bootlegged Prince Albums ever recorded
Do you remember how you first heard of “The Black Album?” In 1987, it became one of the most bootlegged albums ever. This after Prince pulled the plug on the project one week before it was set to be released. The problem was most promotional copies had already gone out and the album became an exclusive sought-after item that fans searched for like buried treasure. Fans weren’t sure if Warner…
OK THIS IS GOING TO BE A VERY LARGE INFO DUMP FOR MINE AND @littlekiller823 ‘S PEAK OCS. GOOD LUCK IF YOU CHOOSE TO READ MORE LMAO.
UHmm trigger warning for character death- and probably some sort of abuse 😭
NOW ONTO THE STORY
alright so to give it all context, Me and @littlekiller823 were goofing around on peak for like the 4th or 5th time playing- and I was dressed up as Jonathan frisbee because I had just watched a bunch of his shorts on yt etc and I thought it was funny etc, they were dressed up in a Hawaiian shirt and big ol hat w 3 eyes just cuz those were some of the new items they had gotten..
now- We were just doing stuff like normal and then we had reached the second biome of the game (Roots) when I had started imitating Jonathan frisbee because I could and it was funny.
now little-kill joined me shortly after as their own character and since they have wonderful improv skills they made up aLOT of lore on the spot for their character who they had named Poetry Bob-George (yes all of that is his first name.) but don’t call him both at the same time or he will get quite overwhelmed. Only Bob, or only George. (I opt for Bob more because less syllables and my mouth is lazy asf)
and we gave them lore on why they were on is island, what they would do after they got out etc etc, we ended up spending about 2 hours just talking in character in game as these two goofy goobers who we had no intentions on even having.
now you see- along the way I kinda changed who Jonathan frisbee was, so the real one is from YouTube and mine is a fully different one who I role-played one time then got too attached to so I couldn’t change his name or anything because of the stuff we had gone through BUT ANYWAYS BACK TO THE STORY.
Jonathan frisbee had learned of Bobs past, he heard of his mother who had passed due to a 14 wheeler rolling her over, jon learned is his ex husband who put pesticides in bobs foods and he also had an affair with his mother, just a very messy family dynamic..
he also learned of The wind man— Bob believed that the wind had pushed his mother into harms way and he heard story’s that a sickly wind man stood at the peak of the mountain and he wished to find the man. (again, we were in the roots which has a wind mechanic that pushes you in random directions every now and again lmao)
Jonathan found this rather amusing but he agree to help find this wind man and help give justice to bobs mother if Bob would have him, of course Bob happily accepted the request.
Bob also had a daughter! jon had learned, who’s name was Melissa- he was just on his way to her wedding when the plane had crashed—(I love Melissa and her wife<333333)
(ALSO. I don’t know how they came up with all of this in the spot, I’m genuinely crying their too creative and I fear them because of it LMAO)
Bob learned of Jonathan’s past, being a war veteran, a past Olympic long jumper (which later on Bob reveals he had actually written the article for the Olympics on Jonathan’s display of jumping over 12 goats lmao.) , and how he was a traveler with a heavy past, ex wife and dead friends etc. he traveled to keep his mind occupied.
We spoke and bonded further w our characters, eventually making it to the alpine which made their story a bit cuter cuz we huddled for warmth and it was adorable etc
still talking about the future and the past and such, and before we knew it, We had made it to the Kiln. (The very end biome which is basically a volcano, and since we were on ascent 1 the lava was rising as well lol.)
They climbed it as usual, Speaking of how they would fight the wind man once they reached the top to gain justice for bobs mothers death, they spoke of the old stories Jonathan wished to share and the poems Bob wanted to show Jonathan eventually, perhaps in the plane ride out or better yet when they were fully out of this mess.
however as the lava rose, we saw a ledge that wasn’t all to far away, it would be a scary climb to get too but put us at nearly a straight shot to the top from there.
So Jonathan took a lollipop which he had forgotten to cook before hand (cooking it makes it not give you any sleepy debuff..)
instructing Bob to stay still for a moment as he reached the top of the rock to lower a rope.
As jobargan placed the rope, he saw that Bob by then had already jumped. It would sure be fine though right? He placed the rope low enough and Bob most certainly had enough stamina to make it— right?
Wrong.
Bob had not waited for his stamina.
He climbed the rope sure but when he had hopped off to grab onto the rock, he fell too short, just out of reach of Jonathan’s hand.
Jonathan’s stamina looked horrendous as well, the sleepy debuff took up a large portion of his health and his stamina also had not regained fully.
bot Bob had his daughter, he had a wedding to go to, he had family out there.
Jonathan reached out, and slipped off the cliff, pulling Bob off as he essentially traded positions, him now with 0 stamina on the cliffside, looking up at his dear friend who had just barely made it himself.
The only words he could manage out before the fall were a request to the poet.
“Tell my story, Bob.”
and then Jonathan fell, fast and hard into the lava, and all Bob could do was watch.
They had spent about 2 weeks together in game, talking, planning, making jokes and jests, growing closer and learning about one another..
and now it was just Bob.
he kept climbing, sobbing the whole way up— not being able to get the image of Jonathan’s flesh melting off his bones from the lava, he made no screams as he died though which.. might’ve made it better for Bob but who’s really to say.
He made it to the top alone.
But as he looked around, reaching the peak, speaking to himself as if Jonathan were there to speak back.
he saw no wind man, he saw no entity to blame, no sole person or thing to hate for what had happened in the past for his mother and anything else.
he was alone at the top.
as he lit the flare he promised he would tell the tale of Jonathan Frisbee, he promised he would live on and so too would his dear, dear friend.
The plane ride was quiet, and he headed to the wedding as he planned on before.
The story is not over now though, you see- Jonathan has climbed this mountain before.
many times actually, accompanied with many different people or alone.
Everytime Jonathan reached the top of this peak and escaped with the helicopter or died, he would opened his eyes, and around him would be a shore, plane wreckage.. and he would climb again.
He was fated to keep climbing. It was his own personal hell that he bore alone.
He climbs, he flys out with the helio, he closes his eyes, opens them, then repeats.
he does it with a group, or with one other person, or even alone. Either way it’s the same.
he can’t get off of the island.
in short, Bob eventually visits the island again, he makes it a memorial to do a hike in Jonathan’s honor, he even goes on to write a whole book dedicated to his dearest friend, he confesses his thoughts and feelings he could not share on their climb, how much Jonathan had meant to him, how much Bob had grown close with him, how much Bob ended up— loving him..
4 years later, Bob would find himself in a crash, on the island once again.
With a voice greeting him, a voice that was so very familiar to that of all those years ago.
“Are you alright?” He would ask, frisbee in one hand, reaching down and out to hold bobs as well.
when Bob asks if it’s him though, it is denied, and that is just jon.
‘Jon’ throws the frisbee, and repeats.
“just, Jon.”
NOW. STILL NOT FULLY DONE BUT BASICALLY DONE BECAUSE THAT IS THE BASIC BREAK DOWN OF THEIR STORIES TOGETHER BBBUT
In the cannon universe, We haven’t actually fully made it to the end of a round so we don’t really have much proof on how it goes.
if we die mid round it becomes Noncannon. For something to end up in the actual universe be in as an AU or as the cannon story, we have to make it to the peak alive- or at least, one of us does.
for some fucking reasons, whenever we roleplay in the ‘cannon’ universe, something goes rlly fucking wrong and we both die, it doesn’t matter if we are on tenderfoot or not btw (the easiest mode…) so that’s.. cool or whatever.
we know that Jonathan continues to lie and say he isn’t the man that Bob met 4 years back (for him longer, again.. timey whimy wibbly wobbly.) because Bob has a life out there and adding him back into the mix would cause complications.. Bob told him about how he has written jonathan an autobiography, and many poems about the man, he even confessed that he had fallen for Jonathan but it was far too late to act on those feelings.
Jonathan couldn’t just tell Bob that he was in fact that very man he fell for- he didn’t want to ruin bobs life, he’d have to explain that he’s stuck on the island and can’t leave, Bob would most certainly keep trying to get him off of this island which is essentially pointless by now, Bob has already mourned for him once, what good does it do that he has to do it again, not for a dead man anymore but for someone very much— alive..
he cared for Bob, he was the first person jon had truly connected with in a long long time and this was Jonathan’s first time meeting someone AGAIN after reaching the peak with them— I mean how often is it that people get in plane crashes- let alone if you’ve gotten into a plane crash once before what’s the chances of it happening again?? (Bing bong airlines is really prone to crashing though so—.. still though, if you took their planes, crashed, and survived it, you wouldn’t book a flight with the same airline would you???? Then again it is very cheap but whatever.)
Bob had a hunch it was Jonathan but we didn’t get to expand on it because wE KEPT DYING MID ROLEPLAY ROUND LMAO
anygays though
That’s basically the story of them LMAO
Stuff I didn’t mention that we are still kinda figuring out.
time moves differently on the island, one week for Bob is Several weeks for Jonathan, maybe even a month of traveling.
We have already set up an AU where they both can be happy together because we needed to cope.. basically Bob knows it’s jon and he books flights from bingbong airlines, hoping for a plane crash in hopes to see him and spend time with his dear ‘friend’ (they get together eventually dw you can be happy now) and they both think of ways to get jon off the island though they have come up empty so far.
(AND YES THERE IS ONE WAY FOR JONATHAN TO GET OFF THE ISLAND WE ALREADY THOUGHT OF IT. I won’t say what it is because in future updates that may change it greatly BUT FOR NOW WE HAVE A SIMPLE SOLUTION THAT IS RLLY FUNNY TBH LMAO.)
So yea
I think I covered…. Most of it? I left out many details of the characters. (Bob being a renowned poet with best selling books, one he was writing about a Mandrake falling in love with a medicinal herb and it being a doomed sort of love story since on was an inanimate object.)
(Jonathan not even remembering how he got here in the first place since he had been here for many years, his memory also leaving him as time goes on due to how similar each climb feels to him..)
(Bob being essentially cut off contact from both his ex husband and his daughter since there was family squabbles from the divorce and Melissa had to choose which parent she wanted to keep in contact in otherwise one would never speak to her again— also his ex husband is a disgusting person and a lying bitch who claimed to have inheritance money despite having absolutely 0 so honestly Mellie made a bad choice because he’s also a kinda shit dad, but I digress.)
(there’s more but this is already such a long answer to your question oml im so sorry LMAO)
Etc etc, anyways though
I HOPE THAT ANSWERED YOUR QUESTION
We are still building lore as of answering this question- mainly we are focused on the AU where they are reunited mainly because I just went through a move of houses irl and me and my dearest @littlekiller823 have to be long distance 😭 AND OUR HEARTS CAN ONLY TAKE SO MUCH SADGE:( AT A TIME</3
we are very obsessed.. like I’m making a comic, iv made several animatics/animations about them and am working on another few ones, we have written stories for them, me, @littlekiller823 , and @thefavoritechild are actually working on a fairly large project for them with a dying trend which is something to look out for in the coming days/weeks depending on how fast we all work on it.. heheh
I’m so normal..
TY FOR THE ASK AND FOR READING MY HORRIBLY LONG RAMBLES ABOUT THEM. NOW YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I TAG ART AS JONATHAN FRISBEE BUT ALSO NOT BUT ALSO KINDA…
