Steve Wynn - 'I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Memoir Of Life, Music, And The Dream Syndicate'

'I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True: A Memoir Of Life, Music, And The Dream Syndicate'

Summer 1984. I've got the back lounge of this tour bus all to myself, partly because I m the lead singer but more likely because it means the rest of the band won t have to deal with me for the rest of the day. Just two years earlier I was flunking out at UCLA, working the day shift in a record store, living out of my father s basement. Now I m living the million-to-one reality of touring the country with my band, The Dream Syndicate, opening for up-and-coming rock darlings REM, and making a big-budget sophomore album for A&M Records. I m also untethered and unbound, drinking a fifth of Jim Beam every day, barely speaking to my best friend and guitarist, and looking for trouble in all the wrong places. How did I get from there to here? And how do I get out? Stick around and find out. I ll be here, dreaming my dream . . . I Wouldn't Say It If It Wasn't True is a tale of writing songs and playing in bands as a conduit to a world its author could once have barely imagined -- a world of major labels, luxury tour buses, and sold-out theaters, but also one of alcohol, drugs, and a low-level rock n roll Babylon. Beginning with Wynn s childhood in California in the 60s and 70s, the book builds to a crescendo with the formation of the first incarnation of The Dream Syndicate in 1981 as an antidote to the pre-packaged pop music of the era. It charts the highs and lows of the band s early years at the forefront of the Paisley Underground scene alongside Green On Red, Rain Parade, and The Bangles; the seismic impact of their debut album, The Days Of Wine And Roses; the spiralling chaos of the sessions for the follow-up, Medicine Show; the dissolution of the band s first line-up and the launch of a second phase of The Dream Syndicate with Out Of The Grey and Ghost Stories; and more, culminating with the release of the landmark live album Live At Raji s. This is Wynn s story, but it also features some of the biggest and most colorful characters of the period, offering a detailed field guide to the music business that manages to both glorify and demystify in equal measure. And, ultimately, it s a tale of redemption, with music as a vehicle for artistic and personal transformation and transcendence.