Siren Song

My Life in Music

By: Seymour Stein, Gareth Murphy - contributor

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Seymour Stein is America's greatest living record man. Not only has he signed and nurtured more important artists than anyone alive, now 60 years in the game, he's still the hippest label head, traveling the globe in search of the next big thing.

Since the late '50s, he's been wherever it's happening: Billboard, Tin Pan Alley, The British Invasion, CBGB, Studio 54, Danceteria, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the CD crash. Along that winding path, he discovered and broke out a skyline full of stars: Madonna, The Ramones, Talking Heads, Depeche Mode, Madonna, The Smiths, The Cure, Ice-T, Lou Reed, Seal, and many others.

Brimming with hilarious scenes and character portraits, Siren Song's wider narrative is about modernity in motion, and the slow acceptance of diversity in America - thanks largely to daring pop music. Including both the high and low points in his life, Siren Song touches on everything from his discovery of Madonna to his wife Linda Stein's violent death.

Ask anyone in the music business, Seymour Stein is a legend. Sung from the heart, Siren Song will etch his story in stone.

©2018 Seymour Stein (P)2019 Tantor

A Great Life Examined Honestly And Beautifully

“Seymour Stein, sorry I missed you
Have a nice flight home
It's a good day for flying…”

-Belle And Sebastian
“Seymour Stein”

If you are interested personal accounts of music history

I enjoyed this book. With notable exceptions (K.D.Lang and a few others) I could never really get myself to like the music of many of the artists Stein signed, and I was left curious about how he was able to tune-in to it and see the beauty and value. But he sure did. Great narration and all together even, not sensational - just a seasoned old-timer’s account of the world he helped shape.