"If only, man. If only I'd let him put out his stupid damn 6th form crap."
The Beach Boys, too, must've felt a bit weird about it all. Maybe we shouldn't have put that song on there after all, they may have mused.
The Beach Boys, of course, aren't the only rock n' roll types to have recorded a Manson composition. They are, granted, the only ones to have done so before he went ahead and killed a few folks on account of John Lennon told him to or some such demented shit.
Guns N' Roses, for example, included a cover of Look At Your Game, Girl as a hidden track on their fairly embarrassing covers album The Spaghetti Incident? Stunt-work it may have been, but it did illustrate one especially troubling fact; Manson could write a tune.
Look At Your Game, Girl is one of the great "lost" recordings of the 1960's. A haunting, disarmingly perky affair that, thanks to both recording methods what left a lot to be desired and also the later antics of the songwriter, sounds unpleasantly threatening to contemporary ears, particularly if those ears belong to The Duke, who found it highly threatening indeed.
It's nothing, though, compared to the faintly psychedelic folk of People Say I'm No Good. "They all look at me and they frown", Manson sneers. "Do they really think I look so strange?" Who knows, man? Some folks get all uppity when they see a swastika on a forehead, I guess. Go figure.
"The young might not be so dumb after all", he spits. "And from the young you might learn."
Obviously, statements like these ensure that the recordings take on a truly disturbing air in light of what happened shortly after, but at the time, would anyone really have guessed this moaning son of a bitch was any more demented than any of those other folks smoking the drugs and writing the tunes? To be honest, if I'd a been there, I'm pretty sure I'd have been more suspicious of Jim Morrison.
The track just kind of pitters out, not really reaching a climax of any worthwhile nature. It feels like some lonesome cry carried along on some dust-flecked wind, just passing by our ears and then moving along a bit further up the road.
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.