Asylum Records
Asylum was founded in 1971 by David Geffen and his partner Elliot Roberts, who had previously worked an agent at the William Morris Agency and operated a folk/rock label. They founded their own management company, and when Geffen was unable to secure a recording contract for Jackson Browne, one of his clients at the time, Geffen and Roberts founded Asylum specifically to sign Browne. Asylum's first releases were distributed by Atlantic Records. The same year, Asylum signed John David Souther, Judee Sill, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell and Glenn Frey (who Geffen encouraged to form The Eagles, with Don Henley, Bernie Leadon, and Randy Meisner.) In 1972, then-folk singer-songwriter Tom Waits signed with the label and released his debut, Closing Time, in 1973. His fifth and final album for the label, Heartattack and Vine, was released in 1980. Asylum's crowning achievement was to sign Bob Dylan, who had been with Columbia Records since the early 1960s but, after a falling out with the company, was looking for a new label. Dylan recorded two albums, Planet Waves and the live Before the Flood for Asylum before returning to Columbia. Columbia reissued Dylan's two Asylum albums in 1981.