美国国家公共电台 NPR Remembering Robert Goldstein, NPR's Music Librarian And Our Friend

Remembering Robert Goldstein, NPR's Music Librarian And Our Friend

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We're going to take some time now to remember one of our dearest colleagues. Robert Goldstein was NPR's music librarian for 20 years. He went on to become a manager in our research and archives division. He was also an accomplished 2 guitarist who shared his love of music with our audience in stories that he wrote for broadcast and online. We lost Robert late last night after a prolonged battle with cancer. He died at home in Washington, D.C.. He was 66 years of age. Two of his colleagues are here to remember him, Bob Boilen, the co-host of All Songs Considered, and arts editor Tom Cole.

TOM COLE, BYLINE 3: If there was ever anyone who could be said to have the soul of a musician, it was Robert. He lived and breathed it and talked about it all the time. He was always emailing links preceded by the phrase check this out.

BOB BOILEN, BYLINE: Music got us both our jobs here at NPR. As director of All Things Considered, part of mine was to pick the music in between news stories, and Robert was my go-to guy. But he was more than that. He envisioned a new music database for NPR based on his deep knowledge of how music was used here. And without a roadmap, from scratch, he was instrumental in getting it built. It became an even more sophisticated archive database.

COLE: Robert's enthusiasm for music was such that he knew 2011 marked the 60th anniversary of the Fender Telecaster. And he wanted to share that knowledge with the world on the radio.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

ROBERT GOLDSTEIN, BYLINE: The Telecaster has been in continuous production since February 1951. For those who worship in the church of guitar, it holds sacred status as the eldest 4 of the electric guitars Holy Trinity - Stratocaster, Les Paul and Telecaster.

BOILEN: Robert was a huge Keith Richards fan. So when the Rolling Stones guitarist's 65th birthday rolled around, Robert was ready to celebrate.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

COLE: In today's music business, a field of endeavor where creativity can be measured in fruit fly lifespans and where a lengthy 5 career compares unfavorably to that of the average NFL player, Keith Richards is a titan, the surprisingly still-living embodiment of everything we think of, everything that has come to mean to be a rock musician.

BOILEN: And Robert was one.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "THE ONLY ONE OF YOU")

URBAN VERBS: (Singing) The only one of you. I thank God for you.

BOILEN: That's one of D.C.'s premier 6 bands of the late 1970s and early '80s, Urban Verbs, and that's Robert playing guitar. But he was more than the band's guitarist and composer. Just like at NPR, he was the unassuming behind-the-scenes guy who got things done. If it wasn't for Robert's efforts to organize the first rock show at a downtown restaurant, there would never have been what that space became, the famed 9:30 Club.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BOILEN: That's a demo that Brian Eno produced for Urban Verbs. He'd heard the band at CBGB and wrote the young musicians a long, enthusiastic letter offering to work with them. Urban Verbs made two albums but never quite caught on.

COLE: But Robert never gave up on his dream. After the band broke up, he composed and recorded more than 30 scores for films, TV and theater. In 1985, the Phillips Collection asked him to compose a soundscape to accompany the museum's collection of early 20th century art. It was before he started working here, but it was a big enough deal that NPR interviewed him about it.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

GOLDSTEIN: One of the things that I enjoy doing is trying to use the guitar in such a way that it doesn't really sound like a guitar. And this piece in particular, a lot of the sounds I've gotten from the guitar are more reminiscent of bowed strings 7 of violas or violins and some other things are perhaps more flute-like.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

BOILEN: Robert Goldstein never stopped playing music. He organized a concert that included a reunited Urban Verbs, even as he was battling cancer. And he never stopped envisioning ways to make NPR's archives a better resource for his colleagues. But perhaps his finest moment on the radio was his essay about being in the audience at Woodstock.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

GOLDSTEIN: My own most indelible Woodstock memory is what current parlance 8 terms a teachable moment. I call it the parable 9 of the hot dogs.

BOILEN: Robert was tasked with finding food for his starving circle of friends right in front of center stage. It took him three hours of trudging 10 through the mud, standing 11 in line and trudging back without taking a single bite for himself, only to see all of the dogs disappear into a mass of grabbing hands.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED BROADCAST)

GOLDSTEIN: So my oft-recounted amusing if cautionary Woodstock fable 12 imparts this lesson, that familiar message we all know from air travel - always put on your own oxygen mask first before assisting others. The official Woodstock message, the festival slogan, was three days of peace and music. That still sounds pretty cool, though to this day I try to avoid huge crowds and hot dogs.

(SOUNDBITE OF JIMI HENDRIX SONG, "VOODOO CHILD")

BOILEN: Rest in Peace Robert.

COLE: And save us a hamburger. I'm Tom Cole.

BOILEN: And I'm Bob Boilen.

(SOUNDBITE OF JIMI HENDRIX SONG, "VOODOO CHILD")

SIMON: Thanks, Robert. This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Scott Simon.