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A review by rebus
The Fifth Beatle: The Brian Epstein Story (Anniversary Edition) by Philip R. Simon, Andrew C. Robinson, Kyle Baker, Vivek J. Tiwary
3.75
I've never felt any great love for the Beatles and didn't think they stood for any progressive politics--they were indeed tools of the establishment and mere liberals--but I have heard all of their work and read a couple of biographies and do find the story somewhat interesting in terms of the marketing and sales of records. This story, however, is almost pure myth and reveals things far more unsettling than what Andrew Loog Oldham said were the 2 great marks against Epstein from society (yes, being gay at that time was awful, and no, being Jewish has NEVER affected their financial situation, being the richest people AND religion per capita on earth).
Epstein did things that were time honored in his cultural tradition. While a very sad and lonely nice guy who popped a lot of pills--give the authors credit for not covering that up in the manner of films like Ray or Cash--he also cheated, lied, and manipulated in order to make the Boys a success. He inflated their chart image by buying up singles in the thousands (and even 10s of thousands) for his record shop, engaged in other forms of accounting trickery, and basically bribed Ed Sullivan to get the lads the headlining gig on that show (Ed was less than impressed and thought them more of a Fad Four than fab).
The dialog also doesn't ring true, suggesting that the Boys all spoke in clever and cheeky phrases littered with song lyrics, and the entire graphic novel suffers from its own professed desire to be more myth than fact.
It's a good read, informative about a lesser known figure in the tale, and has exceptional artwork. It's just not the masterpiece everyone made it out to be.
Epstein did things that were time honored in his cultural tradition. While a very sad and lonely nice guy who popped a lot of pills--give the authors credit for not covering that up in the manner of films like Ray or Cash--he also cheated, lied, and manipulated in order to make the Boys a success. He inflated their chart image by buying up singles in the thousands (and even 10s of thousands) for his record shop, engaged in other forms of accounting trickery, and basically bribed Ed Sullivan to get the lads the headlining gig on that show (Ed was less than impressed and thought them more of a Fad Four than fab).
The dialog also doesn't ring true, suggesting that the Boys all spoke in clever and cheeky phrases littered with song lyrics, and the entire graphic novel suffers from its own professed desire to be more myth than fact.
It's a good read, informative about a lesser known figure in the tale, and has exceptional artwork. It's just not the masterpiece everyone made it out to be.