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// Seymour Stein - Co-Founder & Chairman, Sire Records
Seymour Stein is the cofounder and chairman of Sire Records, the label that put punk and New Wave - not to mention the maverick likes of Madonna - on the map. One of the last old-school “record men” still working in the music business, Stein succeeded by anticipating the next musical wave and signing its brightest lights. In 1975, for instance, he saw four glowering, black-leather-clad guys from Queens who played lightning-fast tunes in a style without precedent. “It was like sticking my hand in a live electric light socket,” Stein recalled of his first exposure to the Ramones. “The jolt went right through me.” Punk-rock was born with the Ramones’ eponymous first album, recorded for a mere $6,400 and released on Sire in 1976. The reverberations from that groundbreaking release can be felt to this day.
“Seymour’s taste in music is always a couple years ahead of everybody else’s,” observed Gary Kurfirst, who managed Talking Heads - another of Stein’s signings. Whereas someone more commercial-minded might’ve recoiled at frontman David Byrne’s nervous, yelping vocals and offbeat art-pop songs, Stein saw an essential piece of rock and roll’s future. “I was riveted the whole time,” he recalled of his first glimpse of Talking Heads at New York’s CBGB’s. “It was amazing. And, of course, I signed them.”
Stein also saw merit in the Pretenders, who recorded on Sire for nearly two decades. “Without Seymour, I’d still be a cocktail waitress in Akron,” frontwoman Chrissie Hynde said in 1986. Sire has been a goldmine for cutting-edge music, from popular trailblazers like Talking Heads, the Cure and the Smiths to deserving cult favorites like the Flamin’ Groovies, the Dead Boys, Richard Hell and the Voidoids, and the Replacements. From Britain he lassoed the Cult, Aztec Camera, Echo and the Bunnymen and Modern English. Stein even went further afield to sign Australian punk-rockers like the Saints, the Rezillos and Radio Birdman. Along the way, Sire helped revive the notion of tuneful, Sixties-style pop singles with synth-pop classics like M’s “Pop Muzik,” Plastic Bertrand’s “Ca Plane Pour Moi” and Soft Cell’s “Tainted Love.”
Seymour Stein 是Sire 唱片公司的共同创办人及主席，该公司曾把朋克和新浪潮风格，以及像麦当娜类特立独行的音乐家带入主流。Stein也是最后一位还在音乐行业中持续工作的老一辈“录音人”， 他的成功来自准确预测下一股音乐潮流并与其中最耀眼的人才签约。早在1975年， 他目睹了四位来自纽约皇后区身穿黑牛皮装并且带着坏脾气的男孩，他们以一种从未有过的风格演奏着闪电般快速的旋律。 “感觉就像把我的手深入一个通电的电灯插座”，当Stein回忆起他第一次感受Ramones的音乐时他说，“电力穿越了我的身体”。在Ramones的第一张专辑问世的同时，朋克摇滚也诞生了。虽然这张由Sire唱片公司发行的专辑只耗费了6400美金的录制费，由它所引起的破天荒回响在今天仍然能被人们感受到。
“Seymour的音乐口味永远走在他人的前端”，乐队Talking Heads的经理Gary Kurfirst 谈到，他经营的乐队也是签约于Stein公司下的。任何有商务头脑的人都会对Talking Heads的主唱David Byrne的神经质尖叫唱法和不合拍的艺术流行歌曲而畏缩。反而Stein在这之中看到了摇滚乐未来里的一个重要部分。 “我被它深深的吸引了”， Stein 回忆起当他第一次在纽约的CBGB录音棚里看到Talking Heads的感受。“太美妙了，我当然与他们签约了”
Stein也看到了Pretenders乐队的优点，让他们为Sire唱片公司录制了将近20年的作品。“如果没有Seymour, 我可能还是亚克朗市的一位鸡尾酒女招待”，主唱Chrissie Hynde曾在1986年谈到。 Sire唱片公司是尖端音乐的金库，从流行先锋Talking Heads, the Cure和the Smith到值得受狂热崇拜的the Flamin’ Groovies, the Dead Boys, Richard Hell 和 the Voidoids 和 the Replacements。 从英国他拉来了the Cult, Aztec Camera, Echo and the Bunnymen和Modern English.。Stein甚至还远征至澳大利亚与朋克摇滚乐队the Saints, the Rezillos和the Radio Birdman签约。在这个过程中，Sire以合成器流行经典，例如M的 “Pop Muzik”, Plastic Bertrand的“Ca Plane Pour Moi”和Soft Cell的”Tainted Love”帮助复兴了强旋律感的六十年代风格流行单曲。
