Charles Manson's Aspiring Music Career
Charles Manson is household name
that to this day, is hardly unknown. The leader of a cult that
incited murder, hatred, and other crackpot conspiracies, he
notoriously spent the rest of his life in prison, dying in 2017.
What
many people may not have
known about the 5’2” Manson, is that he had an interest in music,
even recording a few albums. Charles’ interest in music started
around the time he was incarcerated in McNeil Island Penitentiary in
Washington state. While there, he was taught how to play guitar by
Alvin Karpis, a bank robber.
In
June of 1966, Charles was transferred to Terminal Island Prison,
where he met Phil Kaufman. Kaufman was incarcerated for a felony
conviction of smuggling marijuana. While the two were in Terminal
Island together, they came to become friends. He reportedly found
Charles “congenial” company, and would listen to him play his
steel guitar. At one point in the prison, a guard taunted Manson that
he would never get out, and allegedly, Charles looked up at the and
said, “Out of where?”.
Apparently,
Phil Kaufman found Charles Manson to be “very bad at guitar”, but
at least good enough to potentially gain a contract as
singer/songwriter. Before Manson was released, Kaufman gave him the
name of “Gary Stromberg” at Universal. He advised Charles to wait
a few months and get used to the free world again, work on his
material, and bring the most polished songs to the table when seeing
the producer. Kaufman also believed that Charles Manson was self
obsessed. Later on when Kaufman was released, he lived with Charles
and the family for some time, but later became estranged when Kaufman
proved to not have interest in being a follower.
Months
later, Manson went to see the producer Stromberg at Universal, with
recommendation for Kaufman. Allegedly, Manson was “unfocused and
amateurish”,
which would result in a disappointing recording session.
Paroled
in 1967, he moved to San Francisco, and met Mary Brunner. He moved
in with her, and eventually moved in 18 women into the apartment they
were at. The two traveled around the state of California and various
other parts of the US and Mexico with 8-9 other women before
eventually landing in Los Angeles, thanks to Charles’ interest in
having a career in music.
Manson
had contacts to Universal Studios through his prison friend Phil
Kaufman, and the family would go to parties with the rich and famous
in Hollywood Hills.
Allegedly,
Beach Boy Dennis Wilson picked up two hitchhiking family members
Patricia Krenwinkel and Ella Jo Bailey and brought them back to his
house for a few hours. When he returned home in the early hours of
the morning, Charles Manson was at his driveway, and started kissing
his feet after reassuring Wilson that he wouldn’t harm him. When
they went inside his house, Wilson found 12 people in his house,
mostly women.
Manson
and members of the family would practically move in with Wilson,
where he would sing and talk with Charles. Wilson paid for studio
time for Manson to record songs, and introduced him to various
businessmen, such as Gregg Jakobson. Jakobson was impressed with
Charles’ philosophy and paid for him to record material also.
When
Manson’s prison buddy, Phil Kaufman, was released, he lived with
the family for some time, as stated before. Phil would continually
urge Charles to record some of his songs, and in the summer of 1968
Manson recorded about ten or so songs at the Beach Boy’s Studio.
The tapes are apparently unreleased to this day, though the Beach
Boys took Manson’s song “Cease To Exist”, and released a
version of their own called “Never Learn Not To Love”, only
barely changing the lyrics from Manson’s.
The
Beach Boy song is credited to Dennis Wilson, who paid Manson in
exchange of the credit of the song with cash and a motorcycle. When
Manson heard that the lyrics were changed a little from the original
version, he was apparently upset.
Among
the people that Dennis Wilson introduced to Charles Manson was Terry
Melcher, another music producer.
Melcher
was apparently interested in recording some of Manson’s music for a
period of time, and even recording film of his life at the Spahn
Ranch with the family, and their “hippie commune experience”.
Manson met Melcher at his house on Cielo drive.
Eventually,
Charles did
audition
for Melcher, but he wasn’t signed. Melcher still wanted to record a
movie of the commune, but that fell through at one point also, when
Terry saw Manson get into a fight with drunk stuntman on the Ranch.
After this, Wilson and Melcher severed tied with Manson, which of
course angered him.
Terry
Melcher moved out of his house on Cielo Drive, with the owner leasing
it to Sharon Tate and her husband Roman Polanski. Charles would still
come to the house sometimes asking for Terry Melcher, even though he
was told that Melcher moved.
On
August 8th
and 9th,
1969, the Manson family committed the infamous murders of they are
known for today. The site of the murders was Terry Melcher’s old
house on Cielo Drive, where Sharon Tate, Abigail Folger, Jay Sebring,
and others were killed. Apparently, some law enforcement thought
that Manson and the family did not realize that Melcher moved out,
but Tex Watson, Manson family member stated that they in fact knew.
Allegedly, Manson knew that Melcher moved, because there was note
left for him at his new place in Malibu. Susan Atkins, another Manson
family member, stated that they chose the house because Terry Melcher
told them things that he never came through on. Because of the
events, Melcher went into hiding, and even had psychiatric treatment.
Once
Charles Manson was arrested, he stated that he had his followers sent
to the house to kill Terry Melcher and his girlfriend. When being
held for his charges, Charles would call up his old friend Phil
Kaufman usually five times a week (despite only 3 calls being
allowed). Manson would tell Phil to “please put out my music”,
and Kaufman recalled him being anxious about his music being heard.
On
March 6th,
1970, Manson’s first album was released. It was pressed on vinyl
through Awareness Records. The cover was a parody of a TIME magazine
cover that featured Charles Manson. The album had Manson’s original
song “Cease To Exist” on it, that had been previously bought and
changed by the Beach Boys. Even though there were 2000 copies, only
300 sold.
In
1997, another album, The
Family Jams,
was released, but it didn’t feature any actual vocals of Manson.
He was credited with having written all the songs, with most of the
male vocals having been sung by Manson family member Clem Grogan. The
songs were recorded in 1970, when all the family members were to get
together to record music for Robert Hendrickson’s Manson Film.
The
album was recorded during the murder trials with the song "Get
on Home" containing the eerie line referring to the killers
carving x's into their foreheads.
"When you
see the children with x's on their head, if you dare to look at them,
soon you will be dead."
In
the 1980’s Henry Rollins produced an album of acoustic songs for
Manson, which was titled ‘Completion’. It was supposed to be
released on SST Records, but was canceled when there were death
threats for working with Manson. Only 5 tests were pressed, and 2
remain in Rollins’ possession.
Charles Manson’s final album, One
Mind, was released in 2005. It is comprised of poems, songs,
speeches, from his jail cell, all done a personal tape recorder. It
was re-relased in 2008 under a creative commons license, then
re-released again in 2014 by Manson’s non profit organization, ATWA
(Air, Trees, Water, Animals).
POST SCRIPT NOTE: I have stated in the beginning of this post that Charles Manson was 5'2". A simple google search has stated that he was this height. As I have read more books about the family, it turns out that Manson was anywhere from 5'2" (as stated in Helter Skelter), to potentially even 5'6" (as stated in Manson a book by Jeff Guinn).
[SOURCES]
wikipedia
cielodrive.com
