In article <1998040702321400.WAA21046@ladder01.news.aol.com>,
Lizzie909 <lizzie909@aol.com> wrote:

>When I read books about the Beatles, anything that mentions Brian Epstein is
>bad.   Almost every book I read bashes him for being a crummy manager; they
>list his faults and not his good points.  I just think it's unfair for these
>authors to sit behind their typewriters/computers and criticize a man who
>brought the Beatles into the public eye.  Brian Epstein was inexperienced, so
>he was bound to miss things.  He didn't take full advantage of the Beatles
>marketing potential (which is almost an understatement considering so many
>items were sold with the Beatles name on them).  He took a lot of flack from
>his peers, critics, and from the Beatles themselves (especially Paul McCartney
>considering how bossy he was).  Everybody seems to be missing the main point--
>he made the Beatles.  The Beatles had their music, but he created their image
>to go with that music.  Can anyone honestly say that the Beatles would have
>been as popular without Brian Epstein??

Brian was first and foremost a businessman, impressive of demeanor and
earnest of belief. And he was one of the few originals---among family and
local fans---to believe unequivocally in the Fabs.

A group of bandmembers will always believe in themselves;  they must in
order to survive. Hence their game---'The toppermost of the poppermost".
 
But they cannot necessarily speak the language of promoters, contractors,
press representatives, club and concert bookers, and if there's a semantic
mismatch in those areas, there won't even a modicum of fame, even if
they're blazing with talent.

Someone has to be the go-between, the messenger who convinces the
unconvinceable that he has the biggest phenomenon in creation. Bigger,
perchance, than Elvis?

The Beatles went through a few managers, official and not-so-official:
Allan Williams, Nigel Whalley, even Stuart Sutcliffe and Pete Best (the
latter two masquerading as mediators in the mad rush to make the grade)
but found limits to their success. Sure, Hamburg was nice; Allan Williams
was responsible for that. And had they remained with him, the Fab Foursome
might just now be anticipating retirement from their day jobs while
looking back on the fun they had as teens on the Reeperbahn. 

Oh, yes, and they would have made that one record, "My Bonnie". Pretty
good little number too. Might have made the charts, if they'd had the
right management. Hell, they Beatles *might* have been as big as Tony
Sheridan!

Within weeks of their agreement with Brian Epstein (which involved several
meetings and an almost intuitive go-ahead from Lennon), they were getting
better salaries for their live gigs...not much at first, but an
improvement. Brian also booked the Fabs on the same bill with bigger
bands, to associate them with more prestigious co-stars. 

Within four months of Brian's managing them, they debuted on BBC radio...a
Northern band at that!

Within weeks, the Beatles had their first British recording studio
audition...at Decca. Decca blindly picked Brian Poole and the Tremeloes
as their band of choice, rather than the Beatles, but that seems to
have been a logistical decision: Poole and crew lived near London.

All was not lost. Brian persevered, and so did the Beatles.

Within half a year, the Beatles recorded a second audition, this time
at Parlophone. As some of you may have guessed, this is the one that
took.

Within ten months, the Fabs were recording their own single, both sides
penned by the previously-unheard-of duo of McCartney and Lennon...and
had successfully convinced their producer to leave off already with
tin-pan-alley piffle (viz., "How Do You Do It?"). 

Within eleven months, the Beatles had recorded their first number-one
single.

You know what came after that.

Let it be clear: Brian Epstein did not invent the Beatles. They had
invented themselves. But their image required focus. Brian helped them
realize that during a time when the Fabs couldn't muster the clout to do
it themselves. Their youth and class worked against them in any attempt at
self-management---though ironically these were two vital elements of their
creative fire. 

Brian helped them refine a graphic, visual image, and as much as you might
want to scoff at the suits and stage-presence, it worked---that curious
combination of tonsorial rebellion and sartorial suavity. Couple this with
an already-proven photographic ideal (Astrid Kirchher's stark, grainy
shots were the inspiration for choosing Bob Freeman's famous style) and
there's suddenly a balance between the image of the men and their musical
beat.

Brian worked relentlessly for them, exploring avenues that had seemed
closed just months earlier (he'd already been turned down by EMI once
before; then he sought out George Martin, A&R man on their lesser label).

Even when the Beatles thought it was hopeless, Brian didn't. 

Just as they had done---closing off all other alternatives for work
or remuneration---Brian had made the Beatles his wager in pop music's
lottery. He had to succeed...because they had to, as well.

Epstein's gifts were not financial or economic ones. Admittedly he *did*
underestimate the Beatles' worth (to their consternation as well as his),
and perhaps because his vision was limited, he failed to secure for them
the most vital sustenance of all: rights to their own publishing empire.

But that's a tangled story, and its loss is less one man's fault than it
is an inability on the part of many (even on the part of the songwriters
themselves) to anticipate the future. 

Brian loved them, too...however you want to interpret that. More clearly
than anything, he felt both paternal and beholden to them. 

From the time he offered to manage them, his life was theirs, and his
belief in their own genius impressed the Foursome themselves---as well as
weary record executives who were unused to encountering such managerial
persuasiveness and conviction.

And of course there's one more vital point.

Had Brian not been there, it's likely that neither you nor I would be
sitting here today, enmeshed in the unutterably extraordinary sounds the
Beatles created. 

Except for a few lucky souls from Liverpool (who might have recalled---had
they cared to---what heat there once was at a little spot called the
Cavern), not one lyric, not one note, might have emerged from Merseyside
to illumine our time. 

How dark these decades would have seemed (in hindsight) without those
circumstances of history...and without the persistence of one man who
shared a dream of fame with the Fabs---the group that still determines and
inspires the direction of pop music. Dare I say it? They always will.

-- 
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"Don't say that I told you so!"
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saki (dlm3@midway.uchicago.edu)