Way back in the centuries-past, some time in the 1960's, a young fella from Cincinnati took quite a shine to The Beach Boys. Easy to understand why, man, I mean those cats had some good tunes. The Sound Of Pets, their 1966 masterpiece, knocked The Duke sideways when I first stuck it into a personal CD player in a Dublin hotel room.
"Wouldn't it be nice if we were older?
Then, we wouldn't have to wait so long."
Has there even been a better articulation of adolescent longing? Granted, the fella was far from an adolescent, but shit, man, teenagers had only been invented a couple years ago, the rules were still a little hazy round the edges.
This young fella, though, the one what was so enamored of The Beach Boys, he was so in awe of their studio alchemy, in fact, that he went ahead and made friends with them, and tried to get his own musical career off the ground by weight of association.
"I know Dennis Wilson, man, so y'all better be giving me a record deal, is what, especially since I got some ridiculous fucking jazz-folk bullshit for to sell."
That young fella was none other than Charles Manson, a fella what would take none too kindly to rejection on this particular issue. Realising that his recordings were at best intriguing, at worst diabolically awful, those label-execs directed him towards the door marked "Don't be so fucking stupid", a door which, incidentally, happened to be right next to the one marked "Come on, let's go kill some folks."
Even when the Beach Boys went ahead and recorded one of Manson's tracks, (Cease To Exist, retitled Never Learn Not To Love and appearing on the 20/20 LP), still nobody cared two golden turds for the fella himself.
Those folks at Decca what turned down The Beatles, they must've felt like someone just pissed in their coffee when I Wanna Hold Your Hand went to No.1 in every country from here to Pluto. Similarly, I imagine all those folks what told Manson he sucked, I'm guessing maybe they felt a little pang in their guts round about the morning of 10 August 1969.
Article comments
1 - Chris Kent
Nice work El Senor Duke on the musical history of the notorious Charles Manson. I have only heard clips of the Manson stuff and have never listened to the Lie LP before. I've read multiple books, visited the locales, perused websites but have avoided the music.
If memory serves, the Lie album was released a few months after Manson had been arrested. The remaining members of the Family compiled the tapes, found a producer and released it in the hopes of creating a bestseller, with the profit going towards the defense of Manson and company. The LP sold poorly.
I thought (info from Ed Sanders' The Family) the songs on the Lie album had been recorded in Brian Wilson's personal studio in his home, though I could be wrong. I remember Manson did record there, with several of The Beach Boys (including Dennis Wilson) present. Brian was not impressed, eventually banning Manson & company from his property. Dennis may have nabbed the recordings and given them to Manson later, though they also may have been destroyed.....cannot remember......
2 - Aaron, Duke De Mondo
Chris, thanks for the input. I thought you might be interested in this, actually.
You're right about the Lie album being released for help pay for his legal defense. Thank God they weren't realying on it or nothing or he'd have went down for sure!
Oh, shit...
I don't know about the recording in Wilson's studio, but he probably did, on account of both he and dennis were awful close, and also, you tend to be right most of the time. (most, mind, not all!)
;)
3 - Manson fan
Learn a thing about media and serial killers, they will do anything to portray them as, as bad as possible. Some are bad, but all "gotta" be humaliated in the media and some of it will be rumours. If you look beyond whats theory and shit, I must say killer or not, manson still has lots of nice qualities aswell such as his music. They never really proved he where as guilty as they portray him though, my opinion is that those who did the killing are the worste ones. I see no proof that he brainwashed them, he could might aswell convinced them to join willingly.