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.