I have already
written before about Charles Manson from an artistic standpoint, but it was not his own, it was somebody else's. Intrigued by the fact he, himself, is a musician, I decided to track down his recordings — but I particularly did not want to review
Lie: The Love And Terror Cult because the songs were written partially by
Dennis Wilson — hence I do not want to review something that may not completely be Manson's own. His prison recordings from the 80s, therefore, are the perfect candidate. Is Manson as good of a musician as people say he is? He's been covered by Guns 'N Roses, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, and The Lemonheads.
My intent therefore, is to concentrate on the music — if possible. The music is from
Charles Manson Anthology 4 found at the Internet Archive. From what I ascertain, it is recorded on a simple tape deck that was given to him as a gift. It is merely Manson and a guitar — with no production tampering.
Here's my initial impressions. Charles Manson is clearly a talented songwriter and probably would have made it big in the music industry if he didn't end up a murderer. Clearly influenced by old fashioned blues and folk, Manson knows what is clearly catchy to the ear. Far from being a mere collection of jingles, dare I say that he has the amazing ability to imbue the songs with soul.
This is the problem. The soul we are talking about is Manson's soul: the man who collected a harem of impressionable young women and moved them to murder. And from hearing his music, I can see why he captivated them. We're not dealing with a simple caricature here. We're dealing with a man who has the ability to make you feel that a personal connection is possible, that he is able to focus all his attention on you and impress upon you something
real.
As I said before, my intent is to focus on the music. However, with a guy like Manson, it is impossible to separate the man from the music because the music itself is so personal. You can tell this from the moment, in one part of the recordings, when Manson yells at a fellow inmate for interrupting him to ask for a cigarette.
"What the fuck are ya interruptin' me for, ya tramp?" he says, "Playing music ain't easy when you got the whole world ridin' on yer ass!"
As the recordings proceed, Manson begins to get less and less musical and slowly moves into the deep end. He begins to rant and rave and you can feel a tangible rage. You'd think that this was just angry ramblings of a street bum — the kind you hear on the street every so often when you know he's craving for a fix. But you know this isn't just anger and it is not harmless. It is a very real anger — one that you know, if deposited into the midst of the unsuspecting, would
act. We know this because we've seen the fruit.
In the end, there is a certain sadness to all of this. The raw intensity that often proves to make music so listenable makes this music unlistenable. What makes a guy like Johnny Cash so admirable makes Charles Manson contemptible — and this is because Charles Manson is actually a
good musician. Why is it that someone as evil as Manson has this amazing ability to make something so catchy and yet so personal, something that appeals so deeply a certain part of your humanity?
I had to turn the music off. I couldn't stand it. What made me stop listening to it was that I discovered I didn't
want to understand Manson. I don't want to understand the distorted beauty of evil.
