Siren Song

March 26, 2018
Stein’s anecdote-packed memoir tells of his life as a music executive, in what is an entertaining ride though music history. Born into a blue-collar Brooklyn Jewish family in 1942, Stein showed an early passion for record hunting and an obsessive interest in Billboard chart-watching. With a hustler’s determination while still a teenager, he wangled his interests into a job with Syd Nathan, whose King label was one of the great indie record labels in the pre-conglomerate era. After proving himself as a crack A&R manager with good ears, Stein cofounded his own independent label, Sire, which launched a long list of prominent acts of the 1970s and ’80s, including Aztec Camera, the Cult, the Cure, Lou Reed, and the Smiths. Stein’s insider accounts of byzantine record deals and corporate knife-fighting can bog down the narrative, but his true passion burns brightly when discussing his music discoveries and recounting tales of being blown away by the Ramones, having a “blinding obsession” with signing the Talking Heads, getting on the Concorde to check out a group called Depeche Mode, and being pressured for a deal by a pushy club kid named Madonna. Stein wonderfully captures his obsessive love for the bruising music business and introducing music-lovers to new bands—and not going deaf or broke in the process.

April 15, 2018
A memoir detailing the 1966 founding of Sire Records and the author's journey through six decades in the music industry discovering talent like the Talking Heads, the Ramones, Madonna, and many others.Of all the great music men who emerged from the 1960s record industry--from the Ertegun brothers of Atlantic Records to Warner's Mo Ostin, Morris Levy, Jerry Wexler, and Berry Gordy--Stein has one of the most nuanced stories. As the author explains, from his late teens, he knew music was his destiny: "I'd lie on my bed, studying the small print on the sleeves: King, Apollo, Mercury, Aladdin, Excelsior, Atlantic, Miracle, Sun, Chess, Vee-Jay, Modern...all these castles and flags from across the land." After a couple of years working at Billboard magazine, learning the charts and grooming himself as a music journalist, Stein landed with Syd Nathan, the recording legend and founder of King Records, who showed him the "shellac in his veins." Why merely write about music when you can be making music history--and real money? Convinced, Stein packed it up and did two summer internships with Nathan in Cincinnati, where he learned every function of the King empire. Within years, the author had earned lots of money and enough experience to co-found his own label, Sire Records. With Sire, he spent the next couple of decades signing major acts--e.g., Madonna, Depeche Mode, Echo and the Bunnymen--and became a pioneer of the new wave, punk, and post-punk genres along the way. Intertwined with behind-the-scenes tales of mayhem and craziness of the 1970s and '80s, Stein weaves down-to-earth storytelling about his Jewish upbringing in 1950s Brooklyn and his childhood fascination with Coney Island and how it stoked his young imagination, leading to his future life in music.A sometimes-gritty, sometimes-charming memoir that pays tribute to the American recording industry.

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June 1, 2018

In his autobiography, Stein (b. Seymour Steinbigle) offers an insider's view of the record industry from the Fifties to the turn of the century. Part a report about industry wranglings and part confessional, his story begins with internships at Billboard and King Records, where owner Syd Nathan became his mentor. The record executive describes his stint at Red Birds Records and his cofounding of Sire Records with Richard Gottehrer in 1967. He pays special attention to his signing of such stars as art punks Talking Heads, the synthesizer band Depeche Mode, rapper Ice-T, the Smiths, and Madonna. Stein spends the remainder of the book detailing squabbles at Warner Records, which distributed and then purchased Sire. He ends the book with the tragic murder of his wife and the death of his daughter. Regrettably, Stein never addresses the tumult in the record industry during the past 20 years owing to downloading and digital streaming. VERDICT A breezy and intriguing behind-the-scenes look at the rock industry geared to rock fans.--David P. Szatmary, formerly with the Univ. of Washington, Seattle

Copyright 2018 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2018
The Ramones. The Pretenders. Madonna. The Talking Heads. The Cure. Echo and the Bunnymen. It's quite possible we might never have heard these (and many other) now-famous musical groups if it had not been for Stein, who caught their acts when they were just starting out and saw in them the kind of raw talent that could be shaped, nurtured, and turned into something special. Stein, the entrepreneur who is generally credited as being the man who launched the punk/new wave movement (on his own label, Sire Records), recounts his life story in this entertainingly written, conversational book. This is a fun book, full of behind-the-music-scenes stories and personal anecdotes that capture the rockin' spirit of the 1970s, '80s, and beyond. Coauthor Murphy is the author of Cowboys and Indies (2014), a history of the record industry, making him a good choice to help tell Stein's captivating life story.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)