A handwritten note from Morrissey to Sire Records’ then VP/General Manager Howie Klein, with Morrissey’s hand-made hanging ornament of Sire founder Seymour Stein, and addressed envelope.

On a sheet of paper, Morrissey has taped a UK cassette j-card for his 1992 live album Beethoven Was Deaf.  This album was released in a number of countries, but not the US.  Below the j-card, almost certainly in reference to Stein not releasing the album, Morrissey has written:

Howie,

Seymour is a Meanie!

[signed] Well Wisher

Adding insult to injury, Morrissey has sent Klein his home-made hanging ornament of Seymour Stein posing relaxed in a Hawaiian shirt.  Morrissey has constructed this by collaging a photograph of Stein over a purple and blue sky, gluing this to a piece of foam core, cutting it out, laminating the front and back, and hanging it from a loop of fishing line.

The note and ornament were sent to Klein in an envelope hand addressed by Morrissey, postmarked February 22, 1993.

Note: 11″ x 8 1/2″, sent folded in half, ornament 3 1/4″ x 5 3/4″, envelope 10″ x 7″

Recordmecca’s Jeff Gold was a close friend of Klein when both worked at Warner Bros. Records, and acquired this from his estate.  With Recordmecca’s written lifetime guarantee of authenticity.

________

As Billboard Magazine noted, Howie Klein was an ‘influential and forward-thinking record executive and political activist whose artist-first philosophy helped bring alternative music into the mainstream…Widely respected for championing creative freedom and resisting censorship, Klein left his mark on the music business through influential roles at Sire Records and Reprise Records, as well as earlier work in radio and indie labels.’

In 1987 Howie joined Seymour Stein’s Sire Records, a division of Warner Bros. Records, as VP/General Manager, working closely with artists including Lou Reed, the Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode and Morrissey. In 1997 he was promoted to President of Warner’s Reprise label, overseeing a roster that included Green Day, Alanis Morissette, Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, Wilco, Fleetwood Mac, Paul Westerberg and Enya.

In 2001, he left Reprise after the Time Warner-AOL merger, directing his attention to progressive political causes.  Klein passed away in December 2025.