Hi Bob:<\/p>\n
Long term friend Stephen Budd copied me in on your recent email relating to the sad departure of Seymour Stein. \u00c2\u00a0I felt compelled to respond\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6so here goes!<\/p>\n
Your observations and stories about Seymour have had me reminiscing since I woke up this morning. \u00c2\u00a0We go back a long, long way that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s for sure\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6mid to late 1960s when I was primarily working for The Decca Record Company Ltd. \u00c2\u00a0My plans to launch my own record Blues label were already underway by 1964\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6some three and a half years later Peter Green left John Mayall\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bluesbreakers to form Fleetwood Mac and then I had to leave the staff at Decca to become an Independent Producer. I guess that was around the time I first met Seymour\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6the Windsor Blues Festival that he alluded to amongst those emails that you listed. Anyway, I truly do not have the time right now to delve back into my memory \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcbank\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 but I would like to say how much I enjoyed reading about those priceless memories. \u00c2\u00a0He was very kind to me in those early days\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6flew me to New York and put me up at his apartment. \u00c2\u00a0Showed me Chinatown\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6introduced me to Henry Glover and Bobby Robinson\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6and endless stories, mainly about Syd Nathan! \u00c2\u00a0He could tell a story too with impersonations and sound effects\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6hilarious. \u00c2\u00a0They were great times\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6never to be forgotten and never to be beaten either.<\/p>\n
I will check my Inbox so see what I have from the man himself\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6we were corresponding about this and that but not sure about the content. \u00c2\u00a0That was at the time when the Blue Horizon label was being resurrected\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6maybe three years ago? \u00c2\u00a0I was in touch with both Seymour and his daughter Mandy.<\/p>\n
Anyway, thank you again for brightening up what would have been a very sad day. \u00c2\u00a0We will all be celebrating his life as he surely gave so much to us. \u00c2\u00a0One of a kind\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6gone but never to be forgotten. \u00c2\u00a0R.I.P. Seymour Steinbigle<\/p>\n
Best to you\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n
MIKE VERNON MBE<\/p>\n
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I first met Seymour in the seventies when I was in the international division at EMI. I had managed to get the USA as one of my \u00e2\u20ac\u0153markets” and started licensing records that Capitol would not, or had not released in the USA. He had Sire, an indie then, and a series of compilation albums called The roots of British rock I believe. He came to see me at EMI but before he came I checked his deals to find that he had not possibly been accounting \u00e2\u20ac\u0153regularly\u00e2\u20ac\u009d. So I arranged with the lawyer at EMI that he would come in halfway through the meeting and threaten him for non payment as a sort of spoof. Well Seymour gave me the best line ever. He said “I have live artists. I have to pay them before I pay your dead artists.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I ended up licensing him some more records and licensed his partner at Jem an early Floyd solo record that had been out for ten years in the UK. Rupert Perry threatened to get \u00c2\u00a0me fired for that but Bob Mercer stood by me. When I went in to A and R at EMI we stayed in touch and later on at Polygram I managed to give him as many records as I could including Tainted love, the deal for which we did on a napkin in some dive. He was one of the greats and enjoyed all sorts of music. I even \u00c2\u00a0licensed him the great David Rudder from Trinidad who we signed to London with him taking the US. He was a regular at Carnival in Trinidad and went to the tents there where he knew all the calypsonians performing.What a great record guy.<\/p>\n
Roger Ames<\/p>\n
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Great piece on Seymour.<\/p>\n
He was a wonderful character.<\/p>\n
I would often bump into him in London, not going to shows but buying antiques and paintings.<\/p>\n
He loved going to the auctions.<\/p>\n
This was his great hobby.<\/p>\n
Seymour was from the great era of finding fabulous artists and selling them to anyone who would listen.<\/p>\n
He had amazing foresight in choosing his music.<\/p>\n
He will be greatly missed.<\/p>\n
Harvey Goldsmith<\/p>\n
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BEST POSTING EVER, A COLLECTION OF SEYMOUR COMMENTS, THANKS BOB<\/p>\n
I KNEW SEYMOUR AND LINDA IN THE 70\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S WHEN THEY SIGNED MY FIRST BAND ( I WAS THE ROAD MANAGER) \u00c2\u00a0STANKY BROWN GROUP TO SIRE.<\/p>\n
EVERYTHING I HAVE READ DESCRIBING SEYMOUR IS TRUE AND THEN SOME, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122LL LEAVE MY STORIES FOR ANOTHER DAY AND TO THOSE WHO KNEW HIM BETTER<\/p>\n
BERT HOLMAN<\/p>\n
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Wow!
\nThose emails are incredible!
\nHe was always completely charming when I met him.
\nOne of the all time greats.
\nThey don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make them like him anymore.<\/p>\n
Richard Griffiths<\/p>\n
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Thanks for sharing your Seymour Stein stories and letters. I was fortunate to have spent some time with him when he attended a Gountty Radio.Seninar convention at the Opryland Hotel sometime in the 90s. I had met him before through our mutual friend Richard Gottehrer, at a Madonna party at the Red Parrot and several times before that in the 70s at CBGBs, but we had never had the chances to talk. He was a record man who really loved the music, and I had learned not to take that for granted. Folks who worked with\u00c2\u00a0him at\u00c2\u00a0King had told me that he could identify any record in their catalog by number\u00c2\u00a0 He was full of great stories as expected.\u00c2\u00a0 Truly one of the all time greats.<\/p>\n
Ed Salamon<\/p>\n
Nashville\u00c2\u00a0 TN<\/p>\n
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Very sad news to wake up to this morning, I can’t count on the number of Sire Records in my collection, from a reissue of the Nuggets garage rock compilation (originally on another groundbreaking Warner acquisition, Elektra) through the Ramones and Talking Heads to the English Beat and Echo & the Bunnymen, and of course Madonna (I have nearly all of her 12” singles, right up to her dismantling of American Pie). One of the best hours of my life was spent in Seymour’s company, when he came to Halifax for the East Coast Music Awards & Conference (and also for the seafood, I’m sure), and he invited me to lunch after we’d had a particularly robust phone interview (we even talked about the Strangeloves, and Manny’s Music Store) before he came to town.<\/p>\n
It was a fun, freewheeling chat about music and some of his other passions. Mostly I remember asking him why the Monkees weren’t in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame (“Because some people in charge say it’ll happen over their dead bodies”) and asking him if he grew up listening to the Yiddish comedy records of Mickey Katz, whereupon he told me a story about recently being at a birthday party for Jennifer Grey, daughter of Broadway legend Joel Grey, whose father was Mickey Katz, the original “Weird Al” Yankovic of parody songs. I gather they sang a few bars of The Barber of Schlemiel and Duvid Crockett, King of Delancey\u00c2\u00a0Street together. He asked me what some of my favourite Sire artists were, and Echo & the Bunnymen came to mind, which apparently was a signing he was very proud of, even if they didn’t get a North American hit until their fourth album with The Killing Moon, a song that’s become an indie-goth classic, and is frequently licensed for film and TV shows. I loved that Seymour played the long game, and let artists develop their talent, and believed in the power of a strong catalogue. My life would have been very different without Sire Records as its soundtrack.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
~Stephen Cooke<\/p>\n
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He wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the average record exec indeed. He was one of a kind and I too was privileged to know him. If you had one conversation with him about music, you would immediately understand the depth of his knowledge on music: he would reference songs and artists I had never heard of, ad infinitum. It was like taking a Master Class on pre-Beatles rock and roll and music business. One time we were at a Thai restaurant and he stopped eating and paused when a random song came on the restaurant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stereo system, he looked perplexed and confused while he was trying to place the song and then eventually he smiled that cheshire cat smile and said in that Brooklyn accent of his, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Leiber and Stoller of course\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6they were just the absolute best!\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n
I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know him in his 80\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s heyday, but through his daughter Mandy, I got to know him and spend time with him in the last 15 years of his life. He really liked a Joseph Arthur tribute record to Lou Reed I was involved with (he pointed out he and Lou were born a month apart and that he had released his \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcNew York\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 record) and wanted to sign it but couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get his team on board. Regardless he wanted the other label interested (Vanguard) to know he was interested with hopes that it would get the advance and their enthusiasm up. I thought that was a classy move. He also once tried to put me in touch with Morrisey, who I had expressed interest in managing but forewarned \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcyou do know what you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re getting yourself into, right?!\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p>\n
In 2011 he came to Montreal for the Pop Montreal Festival and I met him at the airport, brought him into the city and later at night, when I figured he would probably prefer sleeping, we met up and went around to some clubs, checking out acts. He would hobble his way up and down flights of stairs with his cane but once he was in the room and there was music being played, you could tell he was in his element. He would soak it all in and afterwards would bounce around introducing himself to these young acts saying he was \u00e2\u20ac\u2122Seymour Stein from Sire Records,\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and I would wonder if these young acts had any idea of who he was and what greatest they were standing in front of.<\/p>\n
The last time I saw him was at the 2018 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony. I walked in and saw him sitting down so I went to say hi to him. He immediately pulled out his phone and called Mandy and handed me his phone so I could say hi to her. What an amazingly soulful man he was, and true visionary.<\/p>\n
Peter Wark<\/p>\n
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My best Seymour story : Apologies for brevity , am on the\u00c2\u00a0move…<\/p>\n
We managed Ian McCulloch in the\u00c2\u00a090s signed\u00c2\u00a0to\u00c2\u00a0Sire\/Warners.<\/p>\n
I drove Seymour from London to Liverpool. He fell asleep so I ragged his car and did 156 mph down the M1. He then woke up and was laughing encouraging me!!! He said it was the fastest he’d ever been and it woke him up. It was 1995 and you could do it then. Not now\u00c2\u00a0with cameras etc.\u00c2\u00a0We were going up to see Electrafixion play at the lomax. Mac and Will (Echo and the Bunnymen) had just got back together and were speaking again for the first time since the Bunnymen split years earlier at their peak. I took him to the Jung Wah – best chinese rezzo ever in Liverpool, sadly no longer there. My great grandparents lived there originally (before Chinatown) when they got off the boat from Russia in the early 1900s thinking they were in NY!\u00c2\u00a0I explained the history and he laughed his head off again. He absolutely loved the food – traditional Cantonese. We actually saw one of his bands there – the long forgotten\u00c2\u00a0 Singing Ringing Tree. We then all went to the lomax for the gig. And then I drove him back to London – at a more conservative 130 mph -\u00c2\u00a0 after hanging out with Mac backstage. He said it was one of the best nights ever!!!<\/p>\n
Darren Michaelson<\/p>\n
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Thank u for this stunning ‘from-the-horses-mouth’ view of Seymour Stein.<\/p>\n
He traversed the world continually seeking the very best in music – so we were lucky to meet him even here in South Africa. He had success with Johnny Clegg and Juluka from Johannesburg – and continued to scour our musical landscape.<\/p>\n
In Cape Town and Joburg we had lunches and dinners of epic proportions – with all the stories in your article – and many more.<\/p>\n
The best was when Seymour would fearlessly sing all these songs of yesteryears with great love and joy – in his shaky but beautiful voice – lyric perfect. He would do this in the middle of restaurants. He would astound us by ordering double main courses!<\/p>\n
I loved him. The only disagreement we ever had was whether Chubby Checker should be in the Rock Hall of Fame. His opinion was an emphatic ‘no’ – whilst I thought he should be. Not sure who ultimately prevailed …<\/p>\n
He was a mensch. He made our music business a place of true magic.<\/p>\n
Salutations, Seymour<\/p>\n
Patric van Blerk<\/p>\n
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This really hit me hard.<\/p>\n
I was always amazed\u00c2\u00a0that you would see Seymour at all the showcase events around the world. Checking the bands out. Cane in hand. I saw him everywhere. We spoke about\u00c2\u00a0China and India often. He always had time to say hello.<\/p>\n
The conferences\u00c2\u00a0then started having him do the “this is your life” keynotes\/panels – and then the book tour – but it was always the shows that blew my mind. This guy – out in the clubs – doing what I was doing and doing what none of his peers were. Hell – you didn’t even see the A+R’s out, but there he was. My youth was shaped by Sire.<\/p>\n
I hate to see a true music man go. Really one of the last label heads that you can name and that you care about – that was out there.<\/p>\n
I was trying to think of Sire releases that were not good. There were not many! When I worked in retail as a kid \u00c2\u00a0– there were not a lot of Sire releases in the cut out bin. Lot’s of MCA and Atlantic!<\/p>\n
I did get to have dinner with Seymour. Chinese\u00c2\u00a0of course. You are so right about his eating. What a production!<\/p>\n
I will really miss seeing him out there.<\/p>\n
Adam Lewis<\/p>\n
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Excellent salute to Seymour Stein, Bob. His encyclopedic knowledge of music never ceased to astonish, and extended to Chinese pop hits of the 40\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s and 50\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s. I was up in his office once and mentioned I had an album out of Chinese pop classics from that era\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand he proceeded to sing a famous Chinese song, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Megui, Megui\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, a\/k\/a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rose, Rose, I Love You\u00e2\u20ac\u009d, \u00c2\u00a0in the original Mandarin.\u00c2\u00a0https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_-vv-tgoab0\u00c2\u00a0Not only that, but he informed me that the song\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s singer Yao Lee was still alive and in her 90\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s living in Hong Kong\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand that her song had been re-recorded with totally different lyrics in English by Frankie Laine, where it made #3 on the Billboard pop charts in 1953. Another time I ran into him at Pop Montreal and over tea lobbied him for inclusion of Captain Beefheart in the Rock \u00e2\u20ac\u2122n Roll Hall of Fame, telling him that most of the artists he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d signed during the Punk era would agree with me. He looked at me and with a straight face said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Gary, my friend Neil Sedaka\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not in there! How do you think I feel about that??\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Total legend!<\/p>\n
Gary Lucas<\/p>\n
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My old group Morcheeba was signed by Seymour to Sire after Jac Holzman had our first couple of albums on Discovery.<\/p>\n
Seymour loved us. We couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe our luck we had no ambitions to break the States, we were doing great Worldwide but to be signed by two of the greatest golden eared moguls of all time was all I needed. Talk about a pat on the back.<\/p>\n
Whenever we were in the same city Seymour would take us to the best restaurants and tell us great stories. We were sitting at a swanky eatery in Manhattan and Michael Caine walked in. Life was never dull when Seymour was in town. Our song \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Rome wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t built in a day\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was one of his all time favourites and he used to croak the melody to us. We were so happy hanging. They said he used to collect British bands and Antiques from West London, and he had great taste for both. He lasted much longer than I imagined given his lifestyle but he always had that great smile and those sparkling blue eyes so I guess he had other plans. Rest in Peace Seymour! You gave a young British man validation beyond his imagination. Thank you.<\/p>\n
Paul Godfrey<\/p>\n
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I was incredibly fortunate to work for two absolute legends in my record label days – and Seymour was one of them.\u00c2\u00a0 Sire Records was a bit of a mess by the time I got there in the late 90’s, but working in the West Coast A&R Dept with Bud Scoppa and Andy Paley was definitely a career highlight.\u00c2\u00a0 If you were courting a band and you were able to get Seymour to a dinner with them – he was magic.\u00c2\u00a0 He had an incredible ear and was responsible for so many of my favorite bands and records; it was both and honor and a thrill to work for and get to know him.<\/p>\n
-Gregg Bell<\/p>\n
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Seymour called me out of the blue about ten years ago because he wanted to get his memoirs out before it was too late. \u00c2\u00a0My friend Ivo Watts-Russell referred him to me. \u00c2\u00a0He didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a literary agent but had\u00c2\u00a0heard through grapevine\u00c2\u00a0I could help him get a writer and a book deal with an editor at a major house with no agent fees. \u00c2\u00a0He was right, and I\u00c2\u00a0got him superb music writer Gareth Murphy, plus\u00c2\u00a0SMP editor extraordinaire,\u00c2\u00a0Elizabeth Beier. \u00c2\u00a0Even though extracting the right stories from Seymour was painful, Siren Song\u00c2\u00a0was a damn\u00c2\u00a0good book. \u00c2\u00a0Some stories pissed people which attested to the accuracy. Mo Ostin was not pleased.<\/p>\n
But it was just fun hanging out with Seymour, him\u00c2\u00a0stopping mid sentence in a story to call Andy Paley to make the details were right.<\/p>\n
And there was always food, messy but delicious. \u00c2\u00a0And too much wine.<\/p>\n
He lived big, a true character.<\/p>\n
Jeff Capshew<\/p>\n
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Beautiful tribute Bob.<\/p>\n
Seymour Stein was cut from a different cloth. \u00c2\u00a0Nobody knew music like he did.<\/p>\n
I just went back to listen to your interview from 2018.<\/p>\n
I loved this interview too from 4 years ago in Please Kill Me.<\/p>\n