TVD’s The Idelic Hour with Jon Sidel

Greetings from Laurel Canyon!

I’m a shock trooper in a stooper / Yes I am. / I’m a Nazi shatze / You know I fight for fatherland. / I’m a shock trooper in a stupor / Yes I am. / I’m a Nazi shatz / You know I fight for fatherland. / Little German boy / Being pushed around. / Little German boy / In a German town. / Today your love, tomorrow the world!

Today my dad would have been 89 years old. I thought about him this week and this morning. As I say in the show, I don’t want The Idelic Hour to be an OB column, but I did feel the need to salute a friend’s dad, his rock ‘n’ roll journey, and epic label.

I believe I bought my first Sire record from Bleecker Bob’s at a rock convention at a seedy midtown NYC hotel in February 1977. “Blitzkrieg Bop/Havana Affair” fittingly came in a green sleeve. At the time I didn’t know what a green sleeve was, but I can honestly say this two sided record was the most crass, primal, and cool sounding band I had ever heard.

It wouldn’t take long before I came to know Sire (along with Stiff Records) as a badge of punk rock. Before that I never thought the “o-hole” (aka label) on a 45 could stand for something. It was a seed, a signpost, to what would become my life’s work.

First wave went from Ramones, Dead Boys, Saints, Undertones, Richard Hell’s “Blank Generation” to “Ca Plane Pour Moi!” Next came the ’80s and it was my turn to join in on the fun.

I remember Matt Dike bringing Madonna to the Soho Studio, the LA nightclub where I was the doorman. Within a few years I was running a nightclub on Layfayette Street in NYC. It was the most fun of times. The club had these large booths and many nights we’d hang with Seymour who might bring Tommy Page over after a session. Fred Maher, Simon F, Dylan Hundley, and Richard Butler and a cast of young NY debutantes drank and snorted deep into the night talking about gigs and records. Seymour always had a seat at the table with anyone young, talented, and passion for a great song.

I followed in his path—well in something—after all he was quite the trailblazer. Please listen in and enjoy an hour of some of my favorite Seymour signings.

Long live Sire Records! Long live Rock ‘n’ Roll!

Idelic Single of the Week: Cola – Keys Down If You Stay