Manic Street Preachers Biography - Mik Middles - Paperback Book

Some winds blew my way to steer me to this book, after years of loving and listening to the Beatles, and of being an original member of the "Beatlemania" wave. Maybe it was something that somebody said about Brian Epstein, the man who "made" the Beatles, but I took myself over to the library and chose this book. I'm glad I did.

Having been swept up in the wave, I had no idea what was behind it. In fact, Brian was behind it, and this book tells about the boy, the man, the man's career, the Beatles and their career, and in fact pop music in general and its arc. It also shows us how the music business has changed from the days when a man who works in the record department of his parents' furniture store could walk into "The Cavern" in Liverpool and see a promising young band and shoulder them, to today, when everything is big business.

Brian was brilliant, Brian had integrity, and Brian cared. With all his friends, he was also lonely, having thrown himself into his performers, and was caught between his Jewish heritage and love for his parents, his homosexuality (which his parents, by the way, accepted), and society's norms, when at that time homosexuality was a crime in the UK. Today we don't see that much integrity and we don't see that much caring for the personal side of ones protegees - just remember Michael Jackson and how his managers pushed him to go on stage and perform an enormous number of shows, when he was sick and ill.

The book contained so much detail. Coleman did an amazing job of research. Some readers may learn more than they want to, but there's no doubt that Brian's life, though short, was complex, that he touched many, and that he singularly had a major influence on the direction of music as we know it today.

It was sad to read that John Lennon had some anti-Semitic streaks in him and that he frequently berated Brian both for his homosexuality and for his Jewishness. It was interesting to read about John, Paul, George and Ringo from the perspective of individuals who knew them closely, and from their interactions with Brian.

I enjoyed reading about Cilla Black, who's talent I (perhaps being an American) had never known of, and I went online and saw her performances, which were knockout. She was a Brian discovery, too.

In the end it was a little difficult to follow the time sequencing of everything, the writing sometimes moved forward then shifted backward then forward again, but this book was worth it and provides a very 4-dimensional view, OVER TIME, of people, places and industries who we now take for granted.

That said, we too often lose our perspective on what we take for granted today. This book gives us a thorough and human view of how the world literally turned on Brian Epstein's discovery and stewardship of four young musicians who, with their brilliant musicianship and sparking personalities, literally changed the world.