You can’t make it without a manager.

With hindsight you’d think that the Beatles were fully-formed, waiting to be picked up by a label and blasted into the stratosphere.

But nothing could be further from the truth.

Of course there’s the story, the facts, but even more interesting to me is the identity of these people, who they were, what motivated them, what sustained them?

Brian Epstein was a terrible student, who didn’t even serve a full term in the military and ultimately became ensconced in his family’s business, mostly furniture, but he opened a record department…

Funny to think about the importance of retail today, it was everything prior to the internet, it was where the sales transaction took place, where the rubber met the road.

And Brian was an active manager of the store, stocking all the hits and writing in the local music paper, having star-studded openings of new outlets, but there was nothing in his past that would have you believe he’d go into music management.

But then he saw the Beatles. And not only did it change their life, but his too.

Brian was a classical music fan. He was relatively upper-crust, he was out of place at the Cavern Club, but what he saw there…

Not only a performance, but the reaction, and the reaction is key.

So he proposes to the Beatles that he become their manager and they say SURE! They’ve been around the block, they don’t expect much, if this rich guy wants to give them some money and promote them, they’ll take that ride.

Not that overnight success is imminent. Brian can’t even get them better gigs. As for a record deal, he keeps striking out, until he ultimately gets connected with George Martin.

Epstein gets a bad rap, over the inadequate deals he made. But what people forget is HE WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO DO IT, HE WAS THE PROGENITOR!

Sure, there were pop acts before the Beatles, but always time-stamped, evanescent. You went for the quick buck as opposed to the long term, there was no belief there’d be a long term.

And there were underlying circumstances. Northern Songs? It went public as a tax dodge. And John and Paul selling shares shortly after it was floated on the exchange? That was a way of getting cash. No one could foresee these songs would be worth so much more than half a century later.

Ditto Apple. It too was a tax dodge. Conventional wisdom was that the Beatles had a hunger, wanted to spread their wings and have their own company. But Apple was just a way to avoid paying taxes, they had no idea what they were going to do with the company.

As for the bad merch deal… No one had sold this amount of merch previously, and Epstein changed the percentages mid-term in the boys’ favor. Was Epstein the first to call his charges “the boys”? I’m not sure, but that’s what acts are referred to in the U.K. to this day, no matter how old they might be.

If not quite ruffians, the Beatles’ image was more in the gutter, more punk than rattle your jewelry cleanliness. Epstein insisted on the suits, and the Beatles went along BECAUSE NOTHING ELSE HAD WORKED!

It was totally different from today. Where everybody is a student of the game and does their best to retain artistic control and get the lion’s share of the money from day one. What is a reasonable percentage from a movie deal?

“A Hard Day’s Night” was not the first pop act film. They were throwaways at best. No one foresaw the juggernaut the flick would become. Should Epstein have hired an attorney sophisticated in the business? Sure, but how many were there? Even better, how many savvy music business attorneys were there? No, Eppy was making it up as he went along. Always with the band’s best interests at heart.

This is stressed, how he wanted the deals to be fair, he didn’t want to rip them off.

Having said that, HE SPENT!

Now you’ve got to know, you’ve got to spend to make it, like Brian buying up copies of “Love Me Do” in the hope of it storming the chart.

Success requires money. And it was more about image and lifestyle than cash anyway. It was a ride, which was gonna end, enjoy it as you go.

It’s totally different today. Almost all managers are behind the scenes. Become a public figure and you risk getting fired, the act becoming jealous, wondering if you have its best interests at heart.

But Brian? He hosted TV programs… He was in the public eye far beyond any manager today. The only person even close is Sharon Osbourne, but her path was different, who knew “The Osbournes” TV show would be such a hit?

Then again, Sharon never signed the deal, such that when the show was a success, she could go in and renegotiate.

A modern tour?

They run the numbers before a deal is even made. Encompassing advances, ticket prices, costs… Whereas back then it was much more seat of the pants. We’re going to earn a pile of money, that will cover all our costs, right? Was anybody truly keeping track of the costs?

So the book stresses the price of Epstein being Jewish and gay.

But what was most interesting was that once he built it, once he’d been there and done that, Brian lost the passion, he got depressed. He’d broken the Beatles, now what? And he couldn’t sustain a love relationship.

So he was a unique guy who didn’t fit in anywhere else.

As are all the great managers. They’re all outsiders, rule-breakers, who are usually laughed at before they triumph. You see they believe before anybody else does, and then make their vision real.

This is a dry book. And not all of it is brand new. And there is no smoking gun, other than raising the issue whether Brian was murdered…

But who was this guy who found, molded and broke the Beatles?

I’d like to tell you every detail is here, but it’s not, yet there’s more than I’ve encountered previously.

Then again, managers always operate behind the scenes, with smoke and mirrors. The truth? That is fungible.

If you’re hungering for more Beatles info, here you go.

As for lessons…

Great managers are born, not made. You can’t learn the trade in school. And even at this late date there are few rules.

There’s no safety net. You’ve got to keep both sides of the transaction happy. You know people only want you when you and your charges are hot.

It’s a balancing act.

This was not Colonel Parker, behind the scenes, refusing to let Elvis tour Europe for fear of being arrested himself. And Epstein never wanted to compromise the vision, turn the band into movie stars and Vegas performers.

But no one could foresee what great writers the Beatles would become, who they’d become.

Except Brian.

Who ended up lonely and depressed and taking too many pills…

People think once you make it, all your problems are solved.

But that’s just when they begin.

And if you’re at wits’ end, who do you call, who do you talk to, who has had the same experiences?

I mean who does Madonna call to commiserate? Or Mick Jagger?

You’re out there alone.

As was Brian Epstein.

As are the greatest managers.

Today the landscape is clear, the path is well-trodden. But back then, Epstein was breaking trail for his boys.

It was a different era.

But the band and its music were more vital than any of today’s acts, Beatlemania has never bitten the dust.

This is where the ascent truly started, when they started working with Brian Epstein.

Now, for a palate cleanser…

The number one criterion for a book is readability. It’s got to be something that people want to read!

Which is why you can buy the vaunted award-winner, the book with all the hype, and find yourself falling asleep on the second or third page. Those people are not writing for readers, they’re writing to impress their brethren, usually overeducated people who believe descriptors are the essence of good literature.

Now I’ve been on a run of mediocre books. It’s late at night, I pick up what I’m reading and within a page or two I’m not in the mood and I find myself on my iPad, doomscrolling and watching ski videos. I’m not proud of this, I don’t like wasting time, but I haven’t found a book that has called out to me, that I wanted to read, that I had trouble putting down, until “The Shampoo Effect.”

My expectations were not high. I read Jenny Jackson’s previous novel, “Pineapple Street,” and it was middlebrow at best. Satisfying but not life-changing. And I’m trying to avoid books like this, which are about killing time more than emotional fulfillment.

But it was long after midnight and I started “The Shampoo Effect” and was immediately hooked.

What do we have here…

Thirtysomething millennials, dealing with children and everyday obligations, all the questions of life.

This isn’t about politics.

It’s partially about family. Why did your parents get married, did they get divorced? Never underestimate role models.

Who do you hook up with and why.

And that person of your dreams from long ago, are you destined to be with them or in truth have you outgrown them?

So the setting is the north shore, up the coast from Boston. It’s hard to leave a coastal town, don’t underestimate the pull of the beach. And despite so much lousy weather, which requires character to endure, the people in this area stay. As do the people in “The Shampoo Effect,” except for the interloper, Caroline, who is there to write a book.

But Caroline has her own issues… Her mother is a very successful novelist, far from stupid, but narcissistic. Ever call someone wanting to convey important emotional news and they’re so busy talking about themselves, doing chores at the same time, that you don’t even bother? That’s what Caroline is confronting.

So many issues of life…

Do you marry your partner…do you need to?

And it’s the modern world, with betting apps, and people living beyond their means, one bad bet away from losing everything.

Do you stand up for yourself or go with the flow?

If you make trouble will there be trouble?

Now one good thing about “The Shampoo Effect” is you don’t have to wait until the end for certain action to happen. You know, when you can foresee what will happen between two people and you’ve got to read the rest of the book to get there. Not in “The Shampoo Effect,” the action moves right along. The expected occurs, then what?

Now let me be very clear… This is not highbrow literature. I’m not recommending “The Shampoo Effect” to change your life, because it won’t. But you will resonate with some life dilemmas and choices.

This is made for a market. Avid female readers. But it’s a cut above most of the predictable dreck.

So if you’re a woman who goes from one novel to another, read “The Women” by Kristin Hannah… Hannah is a cut above Jenny Jackson. But having said that, what happens in “The Shampoo Effect” rings more true.

And you’ll get totally caught up in its world. The world of everyday life, not the one of people promoting themselves online.

As for men… There is a certain type of male that likes to read fiction and is very interested in relationships and family dynamics. They will enjoy “The Shampoo Effect.” If this doesn’t describe you, don’t even start.

On one hand “The Shampoo Effect” is a summer beach read.

But really, it’s a cut above that. Not a huge cut, but definitely on a somewhat higher plane.

Life is all about people. How they react. Their choices. And that’s what “The Shampoo Effect” is all about. It’s not going to win any awards, at least none of the major ones, but if you are a reader and you like to be engrossed in a book that calls out to you, I recommend it.

If I see one more inane, insane article about the uptick in CD sales…

They’re merch, not carriers of music, as anyone on the inside will tell you. Hell, most kids today don’t even have access to a CD player, never mind a cassette deck or Walkman to play the ancient tape format the press kept telling us was back over the past couple of years.

What is it about our retro society that it refuses to accept progress? We’ve got a whole political party based on bringing us back to a theoretical past that was supposedly better, oldsters decrying the internet, even those who abhor all the technological improvements in automobiles… Yes, there was an article saying that customers are looking for tech free cars. I’m sure there are a few. Just like there are people who still don’t have smartphones or a streaming TV account. This reminds me of that old AOL news story saying the new fashion was a split tongue. I haven’t heard anything about this since, never mind never encountering someone with this self-inflicted physical deformity.

So Luminate, the renamed SoundScan, announced in its midyear report that CD sales were up 16%. That seems significant in the abstract, but percentage increases are secondary to sheer unit volume. Total CD sales were 16.3 million units. De minimis. Hell, there have been single albums that have sold more.

But it gets even worse…

Luminate. Charts. They exist for the industry itself. And the rules are constantly rewritten to satisfy that industry, forget truth. And the bottom line is physical sales are worth much more than streams on the chart. Even though streams represent the vast bulk of consumption, probably just about all of it…just because you bought physical product, that does not mean you listened to it, never mind over and over again.

So in order to get to number one, acts release their new albums in multiple physical formats, driving their hard core fans to purchase not only one, but multiples. This isn’t about music, but fandom. Collecting. No different from Beanie Babies or Pokemon cards. And it’s relatively inexpensive compared to the cost of tickets and merch at the show.

So…

BTS alone accounted for approximately 3.5% of the CD sales. There were four different CD versions of the Korean group’s last album, “ARIRANG.” As well as eleven different vinyl versions. But vinyl is much more expensive (and more profitable!) than CDs. So some fans will forgo vinyl for CD. But one thing is for sure, people are buying CDs of albums easily accessible on streaming platforms, oftentimes multiple CDs, as a badge of honor, a badge of fandom.

Now the interesting thing is if you take out K-pop, CD sales only increased by 6.7%. That’s right, almost ten points of the percentage increase, more than half of the bubble, was K-pop alone. Driven by multiple iterations of the same album.

Paul McCartney released six different CD versions of his latest album, “The Boys of Dungeon Lane”… Overall, there were twenty six physical versions… How else is he going to get to number one? When it comes down to listening… The new album is trumped by scores of acts and tracks on streaming platforms.

Ditto Madonna. “Confessions II” was released in four different CD iterations. There were fifteen physical variants overall. It’s no surprise it entered the chart at number one. But the streams, the actual consumption, how almost all listening is done, are positively anemic. Not a single track breaks nine figures on Spotify. None of them break fifty million. None of them break thirty million. She’s got one track at 24 million and two others in double digit millions and that’s it. But if you read the press, you’d think that Madonna is back, she’s got this monster new album! Nothing could be further from the truth.

Harry Styles, Ariana Grande, Ollivia Rodrigo, Gracie Abrams…what do they all have in common? Their new albums all had multiple CD versions and they all debuted at number one! Hell, even the Rolling Stones released their new album in multiple CD versions. But the new Stones album, “Foreign Tongues,” which was released with such noise? Not a single cut, not one, has eight figures of streams on Spotify, that’s right, not a single one has ten million streams…not a single one even has five million streams!

But we are subjected to article after article, videos even, waxing rhapsodic about this return to the CD format, how the younger generations are finally waking up, abandoning streaming to listen to music the way their forefathers did.

I can’t stop laughing.

The only story here is how acts are manipulating the chart via multiple versions of their new album. That’s the entire story. Return to CD? Are you NUTS?

Today it’s all about convenience. Even more interestingly, most of these new albums can be listened to in better than CD quality on streaming platforms! CDs are from forty-plus years ago. Are you dying to drive a car from 1982? Hell, let’s get rid of Amazon and Door Dash and make you drive to the store to find out they don’t have the product you’re looking for. Oh, that’s another thing the older generations want to return to… Isn’t it so sad that physical retail is dying…

Oldsters hate change and the somnambulant media picks up on any top line news and runs with it, doing almost no investigation.

Then again, if we can’t even agree on political facts, what are the odds we can agree on something as trivial as CD sales. And they are trivial.

Let’s look at video games, which are still pooh-poohed by the educated. One game, Meccha Chameleon, which you probably have never even heard of, was released on June 10th and has already sold in excess of thirteen million copies, talk about a hit!

Record companies keep talking about superfans, trying to eke out more from them on streaming, something that has not come to pass despite years of hype, but one thing is for sure, just like paying handsomely for tickets to see their favorite acts live, fans will pay for multiple physical products to feel closer to the act.

We live in a streaming world. It’s all about consumption, not sales. Look forward, not back. Do not be swayed by clickbait headlines and the words of the ignorant. There is no CD listening revival. None whatsoever. Sorry.

(I don’t recommend you watch the below trailer, best to go in fresh)

I know you’re waiting for Tuesday when “Fauda” returns to Netflix to get your hit of Israeli TV…

Don’t let your views on Gaza dissuade you. The Israelis and the Danes make the best television, and watching “Unconditional” reinforced that fact, even though the plot devolves into the fantastical and the ending is less than satisfying.

You know it when you see it. Isn’t that what that Supreme Court Justice said about pornography? As soon as I tuned into “Unconditional” I knew I was watching something on a whole ‘nother plane. This ain’t “Furious,” this ain’t some American production with good-looking actors and a focus on production values, this is life.

That’s what I’m always looking for. People e-mail me about fantasy…I’m not saying you cannot like it, but it’s not for me. I want something visceral, that gets into people’s identities and feelings.

Maybe that’s part of being Jewish.

And this is definitely a Jewish show. Not because there’s any religion involved, but because of the PERSONALITIES!

Orna, the mother, is being questioned by the authorities…

Lesson number one, you don’t bark back. You stay calm and say “Yes sir” and “No sir”… But not Orna!

Israelis are notoriously pushy. But this is a palate cleanser from the good-looking actors who never get down to the nitty-gritty, where the issues are danced around as opposed to delved into.

I don’t want to give away any of the plot, because surprise is key in this show, especially at the advent. You’ll be wowed at the happenings in the first episode, probably the second too.

But then it quiets down to more of an everyday story in Israel… What I mean is you’re not on the edge of your seat.

And “Unconditional” is set in the present day. Which is refreshing, all the modern technology and mores are employed. We live in a world where everybody is attached to their handset, this is how you communicate, this is how you get your message across, this is how you influence people.

Yes, Orna hires a media strategist to get her message across. Should she obey this woman or the government, which says they’ve got things under control and should just be trusted?

When they’re in Moscow, the vibe is palpable. This is not America, different rules apply. There’s a sense of danger, you can never truly relax.

As for the scenes in India… They go to Goa, like like in that old Alabama 3 song! (You may not know that, but Goa is a legendary respite for Brits and so many others.)

But that’s a minor point. Bottom line, who should you trust? And when you’re in a foreign land… India is as untogether and uncontrolled as Moscow is tight.

Orna is the mother of Gali. (I’d mention the Israeli names, but you probably wouldn’t recognize them anyway.) Orna had Gali when she was 23, they grew up together, they’re best friends…is that the kind of relationship you want to have with your kid?

As for Gali herself, who is now Orna’s age…

It all boils down to an issue of judgment. You either learn it growing up or you don’t, and too many people do not.

This blows my mind on a regular basis. People who do things that if they just stopped for a moment and contemplated the potential consequences they would not. Especially younger people, they believe they know it all, that there’s no risk, that they won’t get caught…OH YEAH?

As for Orna… She’s unsophisticated. And at times stupid. Occasionally you’ll wince at her naïveté, but don’t let that prevent you from continuing the series.

And then there’s Rita… She works for…exactly who is not clear, but it’s definitely a branch of the government. What is her priority, Orna and Gali or her bosses? Furthermore, Rita is played by Evgenia Dodina, one actress you may recognize. They don’t have roles, performances like this in American productions. Dodina is 61, but she’s not doddering. And she hasn’t had plastic surgery. As for her hair…is this a style or bedhead, does she just not care? Rita is driven, but world-weary, confident sometimes to a fault.

“Unconditional” always keeps you guessing. Not in a false way, not in a manipulative way. You think you know how things are going to play out, but then they do not.

Let me reiterate. There will come a point not quite halfway through this show where you’ll shrug, be disappointed how the plot turns. Prior to this everything is so real, so believable.

Then again, unlike most series, even the final episode does not go according to the anticipated plan in your head.

As for that final episode…you’re looking for more of a wrap-up. It’s not that they’re leaving threads loose to set up a second season, it’s all there, but you want more…more explanation, more lay of the land.

So “Unconditional” is an imperfect series. But I thought about it all day, looking forward to watching it at night. It was the most satisfying adventure I was having. And how could it be on Apple TV and me not know about it? I mean Apple puts out so little stuff.

I guess because it’s Israeli. I was researching shows and found it and was stunned that it was right up close and personal, just a click away.

I’m not saying you’ll be thinking about “Unconditional” for weeks after you finish it, this is not “Adolescence,” but there’s an edge, you get involved, there’s a sense of real life absent from most productions.

I know I’ve overhyped you. And I know there are people who won’t watch shows with subtitles. And I know I said that “Unconditional” is ultimately flawed. But this is the kind of show I look for, that I live for. These are the experiences I crave, not two-dimensional, not all image… Life is about choices, which ones have you made?

Hopefully not the same ones as Gali.