Big fan of Anne Murray? Check out this collection at U of T
Torontonians listening to Anne Murray’s music for more than 40 years can now hear rare versions of her songs while scouring a one-of-a-kind collection of Canada’s Songbird’s contracts, letters, albums and photos.
Murray, the 72-year-old country and pop legend, last week gave a massive collection of records from her career to the University of Toronto Library. It includes every one of her albums released in every territory in the world, rare test recordings, 881 photographs, scrapbooks from the 1970s, all her concert contracts from 1970 to 2006, and more.
“What happened was that I
was moving from a house into a condo and when we closed my offices, I
had all this archival material that we had saved, kept,†she told the
Star on Friday.
Murray, who described herself as a “purger†said she thought about throwing away much of the stored items. But when she was put in contact with U of T archivist Brock Silversides, her mind was changed.
“Brock presented a great case for what would happen to all of this and that it would be available to everybody,†she said. “Now that it’s done I’m happy about it.â€
“(Murray) is unbelievably important for the music industry,†said Silversides, director of the Media Commons, where the archive is now housed. “It sounds corny, but her music has been the soundtrack to many peoples’ lives.â€
It’s Silverside’s job to curate and preserve audio and video-centred archives at the university — a job he’s been doing since 1980.
The Media Commons includes donated archives
from dozens of notable Canadian artists, including the rock band Blue
Rodeo and film director Atom Egoyan.
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