Newly opened Lou Reed-archive success from the start

the Lincoln center square, which is lined with the very finest in sums of money; the opera, symphony, ballet and theatre, has just received an unexpected addition: Lou Reed, a name associated with Andy Warhol and his The Factory and the legendary band The Velvet Underground.

public library for the performing arts, sandwiched between the magnificent buildings such as the Metropolitan opera, City Ballet, and the prestigious Juilliard school, the late rock star taken place. New York-the library preserves otherwise the manuscripts by the likes of Haydn, Mozart and Schumann. The Lou Reed-papers is the institution's first rockarkiv.

" We have never before taken care of a collection whose upphovsperson attracts so many. It is fun for us, it is now new, unexpected visitors come here, both young and old, " says curator Jonathan Hiam, who took over at the library after Reed's widow, performanceartisten Laurie Anderson, and her helpers had done the first sort, and then handed over the material.

all of it. Curator Jonathan Hiam believe that from the beginning has been felt to be obvious to the library's music section to receive the Lou Reed's estate, which is a donation. A not insignificant reason for this positive attitude is Lou Reed's well-known love affair with New York, a love that is reciprocated.

" No one else would be able to be accepted here as automatic as Lou Reed. He lived in the city, he gave the citizens a voice, not least those that had not its own, " says Jonathan Hiam.

the Onrush of visitors to the library was unexpected. Not less than 1,700 new library cards were issued in the first two weeks. A normal week will usually be 100.

that this particular archive will receive more than the ordinary students and researchers. When DN visits the muted forskarsalen on the second floor, sitting two young women in front of a computer and listening to audio clips in their headphones. Every now and then nodding as they ate each other, make faces, giggle quietly, and sometimes slips the headphones off for comments about what they just heard.

Central in the collection is audiomaterialet which forms an arch from The Shades, Reed high schoolband 1958, to the last of the concerts in 2013. A total of 600 hours of recordings were distributed on 3,600 audio clips – including unreleased material, and even 1.300 videos.

in Addition to ljudarkivet added almost 100 metres of shelf space in the library storage areas, and the section contains ranging from turnéaffischer and gifts from fans to affärskorrespondens, barnotor and photographs. In addition, poetry and notes about tai chi – its last years was Lou Reed, despite his perpetual bad boy-the image of a devoted practitioner.

the sound clips reveals an early " from 1963 Reed, perhaps a little unexpectedly Dylaninspirerad sings ”Don't think twice it's alright” and ”Blowin’ in the wind”.

a Few years later, in the song ”Sweet Mama”, you can hear that he musically left the hippieindränkta contemporaries behind. Not to mention the ”Foggy notion”, a song that uncovers the Velvet underground's stötiga storstadsenergi in a fast, straight beat.

However, dominates his solo career material. Many alternative takes of the music are present, including the legendary album ”Metal machine music”, from 1975. Studioinspelningarna represents more than 900, otherwise there are 700 live performances and a small number of interviews and conversations with friends to take part of.

gives the collection an image of Lou Reed's working methods, how the process up to the finished result emerging from it is still unfinished. The well-known surly newyorkarens pratsång, a guitar and a tape recorder were enough for the first demoinspelningen of a song.

Why was Reed a notorious collector? According to his sister Merrills explanation in the online magazine Please Kill Me it was an inheritance from the father, which brought together at all. She makes herself the same way.

”I wanted that young artists would gain access to his work and searched for the place that best could realize the idea. The library has committed itself to through a variety of activities to launch the collection. We hope that a permanent listening room should be able to be set in the order in which the different anniversary of skivutgivningar and other special events can be implemented,” writes Laurie Anderson in an email to DN.

the Idea with the Reedsamlingen is also to audio files, when copyrights are eventually negotiated, to be listened to over the net. Without visitors, as in the day, personally, must come to the library.

”I think that everything is amazing. If Lou himself had seen something like this he had enough utbrustit: 'I can't believe it!' Just as newyorkborna certainly will also do.”

It is no wild guess that the parts of Lou Reed-the archive will be public in other ways. It has already been done with the book (with accompanying 7-tumssingel) ”Do angels need haircuts?” from a poesiuppläsning 1971.