Dedicated to Mighty Idy and the great Seymour Stein
Mighty Idy- DMZ DMZ (following Hocus Pocus- Focus s/t)
Shake Some Action- The Flamin' Groovies Shake Some Action
Cretin Hop- The Ramones Rocket To Russia
Blank Generation- Richard Hell & The Voidoids Blank Generation
3rd Generation Nation- Dead Boys We Have Come For Your Children
All For The Love Of Rock & Roll- Tuff Darts! Tuff Darts!
Murder City Nights- Radio Birdman Radios Appear
Jump Boys- The Undertones The Undertones
Flying Saucer Attack- The Rezillos Can't Stand the Rezillos
Private Affair- The Saints Eternally Yours
^Pop Muzik- M s/t
Ça Plane Pour Moi- Plastic Bertrand Ça Plane Pour Moi
Bed and Breakfast Man- Madness One Step Beyond
Rock 'N' Roll- Gruppo Sportivo Mistakes
Tattooed Love Boys- The Pretenders Pretenders
One Way World- Secret Affair Glory Boys
Mirror in the Bathroom- English Beat I Just Can't Stop It
Alex Chilton- The Replacements Pleased To Meet Me
This Charming Man- The Smiths The Smiths
Head Gone Astray- The Soup Dragons Hang Ten
Trampoline- Greenberry Woods Rapple Dapple
Seems So- The Apples in stereo Tone Soul Evolution
Style It Takes- Lou Reed & John Cale Songs For Drella
Thought I'd Seen Everything- Richard X. Heyman Hey Man!
>Don't Look Back- The Remains Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era - 1965-1968
This Kind Of Music- Jonathan Richman Jonathan Sings!
You're The Best- The Paley Brothers The Paley Brothers
Untouched (excerpt)- The Veronicas Untouched
Wanna-Be Angel- Foxy Shazam Foxy Shazam
Seymour Stein- Belle & Sebastian The Boy With The Arab Strap
^Power Pop Peak: #1 Billboard Hot 100 11/3/79
ALL SacroSet[s]: Sire Records
>Power Pop Prototype: 1966 (Sire Nuggets reissue 1976)
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| Richard Gottehrer on the left. |
and European releases in the US. The label's first hit came in 1973 with "Hocus Pocus" by Dutch prog rock band Focus- the instrumental at the top of this week's show. By the mid-70's Richard Gottehrer was missing the studio and amicably left the label, going on to produce numerous AKG artists like like Blondie, Marshall Crenshaw, The Bongos, Robert Gordon, The Fleshtones and The Go-Go's. |
| Gottehrer & Go-Go's |
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| Ramones, Iggy, Seymour & Linda Stein (she saw The Ramones first) |
Signing NYC artists was just the beginning for Stein. After The Ramones he went on a tear, licensing fantastic bands from around the world for US release, a few of whom we played tonight:
Australia: The Saints, Radio Birdman
Ireland: Undertones
Scotland: The Rezillos
The Netherlands: Gruppo Sportivo
Starting in the mid-70's, Sire also released a treasure trove of double album compilations of 60's artists whose music was largely out of print. Sire's reissue of the legendary Nuggets compilation was cited as an inspiration to numerous bands in the US and England. Never being a Beatles or Stones fan, I had largely written off the 60's but Nuggets, lovingly compiled in 1972 by future Patti Smith Group guitarist Lenny Kaye, blew my mind- so many great songs by bands I had never heard of. Likewise the Sire Vintage Years compilations from The Troggs and Pretty Things- amazing music that I never would have heard were it not for Seymour Stein.
To Stein it was all just rock & roll yet in the late 70's one of the consistent barriers he faced was getting his bands, many of whom the music press were calling "punk," played on FM radio in the US. His solution was to try to make "New Wave" happen instead. Needless to say, it didn't work as within a year "New Wave" would be more associated with groups like The Cars before being completely co-opted in the MTV era by bands like Duran Duran and Flock of Seagulls. The Dead Boys New Wave? That was never going to happen.
joined the label in 1983, signed by Stein from his hospital bed while he was undergoing treatment for a heart condition. Madonna was a game-changer for Sire selling hundreds of millions of records and posting 29 of the label's top 50 hits over the course of its history. |
| Stein (far left) and The Replacements |
In 1985 Stein signed The Replacements, one of my favorite bands at the time. Coming full circle, Tommy Ramone (under his real name Tommy Erdelyi) produced the record, called Tim, a difficult task as the band had already started down the road of self-sabotage/fear of success that would be their downfall a few years later (outlined in the blog post for Show #178). Sire passed on hair metal in late 80's and grunge in early 90's, instead signing a diverse array of artists like Dinosaur Jr, Ministry, Belly, Ice T and Uncle Tupelo, all likely underwritten by Madonna's stellar sales. Like all labels, Sire's fortunes were upended by the internet in the 2000's though it did manage to sign groups like The Veronica's from Australia and Cincinnati glam rockers Foxy Shazam.
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| Foxy Shazam |
I'll let the man himself finish this post in an excerpt from a 2018 interview he gave Terry Gross on NPR:
GROSS: Seymour Stein, welcome back to Fresh Air. In your book, you write, "I'm a hitman, a record business entrepreneur. What I'm not is a producer like Phil Spector or Quincy Jones. I can't play any instrument. I can't operate a studio. My exact job description is A&R, artist and repertoire, the old showbusiness term for talent hunting." How do you think not being a musician has been both a shortcoming and an advantage for you?
STEIN: Well, I think that for me it's been somewhat of an advantage because what I listen to first and foremost are the songs. And I always feel that an artist as a performer can always get better and usually does. The same thing with a musician - they usually get stronger, you know, as it goes along. But the songs have to be great from the very beginning, and that's what I've always looked for in all the different categories and fields of music that I've signed artists in. It's always been the songs.
RIP Seymour Stein 4/18/42- 4/2/23.
There will never be another like him.
ALL KINDSA GIRLS #180 SIRE RECORDS SPECIAL
