Charles Manson's Aspiring Music Career

  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.

Cease to Exist: https://youtu.be/D1MmHGoKq1Y

Never Learn Not To Love: https://youtu.be/49bxJKLI5d8

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 8^th and 9^th, 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 6^th, 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