美国国家公共电台 NPR--Music industry titan Mo Ostin who worked with Sinatra, Hendrix and Prince dies at 95

Music industry titan Mo Ostin who worked with Sinatra, Hendrix and Prince dies at 95

The music industry is paying tribute to powerhouse record executive Mo Ostin who died "peacefully in his sleep" on Sunday evening, according to a statement from Warner Records. He was 95 years old.

Ostin oversaw¹ the careers of a long list of marquee talent: The Kinks, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Prince among them.

Born in New York to Russian immigrants, Ostin's early years in the business were spent at the jazz label Verve. In 1960, when Frank Sinatra started his own record label, Reprise, he hired Ostin as its administrative² vice³ president. Reprise was eventually bought by Warner Records.

In 1970, Ostin became president of Warner Bros. Records. Under his leadership, the company was home to both mainstream⁴ pop stars like James Taylor and Fleetwood Mac to edgier⁵ artists such as Frank Zappa and The Sex Pistols.

"Mo was probably the most music conscious, music-centric chief executive of a record company in the rock and roll era," says Peter Ames Carlin, the author of Sonic Boom: The Impossible Rise of Warner Bros. Records, from Hendrix to Fleetwood Mac to Madonna to Prince. Ames says, when Ostin took over Warner, he told his employees to change their approach. "He sat them down and he said, 'Look we need to stop trying to make hit records. Let's just make good records and turn those into hits.' "

After leaving Warner in 1993, Ostin went on to head DreamWorks SKG, along with his son Michael and former Warner executive Lenny Waronker.

Among the many tributes, Frank Sinatra's daughter Nancy, a Reprise artist herself, writes that Ostin was "a true force in the music industry and a real sweetheart."

Rapper and producer Q-Tip, who signed with DreamWorks SKG in order to work with Ostin and Waronker, writes, "thank you for all the knowledge you passed on and the contributions from jimi hendrix to prince.. neva Be another."

The Twitter account of the late Tom Petty posts, "Mo Ostin deeply inspired Tom as chairman of Warner Brothers Music division and was responsible for the creation of Wildflowers and the Traveling Wilburys, among many other seminal⁶ musical endeavors. God bless Mo. One of the truly good ones. Our thoughts are with his family today."

Ostin did have his detractors. In 1978, Warner acquired Sire Records which brought the label Talking Heads, The Pretenders and Madonna. Sire founder⁷ Seymour Stein did not have kind words for Ostin in his memoir⁸, calling him "secretive by design" and "a natural-born politician."

In 1994, Ostin reflected on the tension between giving artists creative freedom and the bottom line in an interview with The Los Angeles Times, "You can't measure the value of a quality act by its commercial sales punch. Randy Newman, Van Dyke⁹ Parks, Ry Cooder--those guys [helped us] sign as many acts to this label as some of our biggest sellers because they had this incredible recognition and peer respect."

Ostin was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003.

"Mo lived an extraordinary life doing what he loved, and he will be deeply missed throughout the industry he helped create, and by the countless¹⁰ artists and colleagues whom he inspired to be their best selves," the statement from Warner Records says, "On behalf of everyone at Warner, we want to thank Mo for everything he did, and for his inspiring belief in our bright future."

1 oversaw   

v.监督，监视( oversee的过去式 )

参考例句：

• He will go down as the president who oversaw two historic transitions. 他将作为见证了巴西两次历史性转变的总统，安然引退。 来自互联网
• Dixon oversaw the project as creative director of Design Research Studio. 狄克逊监督项目的创意总监设计研究工作室。 来自互联网

2 administrative   

adj.行政的，管理的

参考例句：

• The administrative burden must be lifted from local government.必须解除地方政府的行政负担。
• He regarded all these administrative details as beneath his notice.他认为行政管理上的这些琐事都不值一顾。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 mainstream   

n.（思想或行为的）主流；adj.主流的

参考例句：

• Their views lie outside the mainstream of current medical opinion.他们的观点不属于当今医学界观点的主流。
• Polls are still largely reflects the mainstream sentiment.民调还在很大程度上反映了社会主流情绪。

5 edgier   

adj.不安的，易激怒的( edgy的比较级 )

参考例句：

• The Hill is an upstart competitor that's a little edgier. 国会山是一个有点边缘化的新晋竞争者。 来自互联网
• Despite the edgier aspects of his personality, Anakin possesses a guileless charm. 除去他性格中的边缘性，阿纳金拥有一种坦率的魅力。 来自互联网

6 seminal   

adj.影响深远的；种子的

参考例句：

• The reforms have been a seminal event in the history of the NHS.这些改革已成为英国国民保健制度史上影响深远的一件大事。
• The emperor's importance as a seminal figure of history won't be diminished.做为一个开创性历史人物的重要性是不会减弱的。

7 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

8 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

9 dyke   

n.堤，水坝，排水沟

参考例句：

• If one sheep leap over the dyke,all the rest will follow.一只羊跳过沟，其余的羊也跟着跳。
• One ant-hole may cause the collapse of a thousand-li dyke.千里长堤，溃于蚁穴。

10 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。