Music Business

In 1987 I was running Sire for Seymour Stein. He hired me because he felt the powers at our parent company, Warner Bros, didn't prioritize his signings. He was in NYC and they were in Burbank and he felt he needed someone there. That was me. When this new music format came along-- CDs-- only priority artists were getting their records released as CDs… Dire Straits, Prince, David Lee Roth. The only Sire artist with CD releases was Madonna. But Seymour and I were both determined to break our "baby bands" and we both felt the CD was the future of retail.

Tomorrow, Monday, is the last day of Blue America's fundraiser for Keith Ellison and Mike Obermueller, two Minnesota progressive champions. You still have time to click this link, watch a little "Policy of Truth," see a photo of the prize-- a rare and collectible RIAA-certified double platinum award for the Mode's Violator-- and help us make sure Keith and Mike win next year.

Last weekend, when I started drawing the connection between Steve Israel and his constituents, The Princesses: Long Island, a number of people suggested I should have taken a more highbrow approach and drawn the comparison to another, somewhat less culturally repulsive fictional figure, The Great Gatsby. West Egg, a fictional North Shore town invented by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is certainly part of Israel's district, albeit in a pre-Israel era.