Charles Manson: Encyclopedia II - Charles Manson - Media influence

Charles Manson - Media influence

Manson himself was involved in the production of several music albums including his Lie: The Love & Terror Cult (Performance 1970). One of the first artists to reference Manson was noise music innovator and occult specialist Boyd Rice, a native of California, who had included many references to Manson in his early live performances in the mid-late 1970s. He later visited Manson in jail in the late 1980s and caused a stir when he was searched on one such visit and was found to be in possession of a single gun bullet, although he claimed it was a good luck talisman. However, the authorities thought that there was a plan to hatch Manson out of jail. Boyd Rice was also a consultant and editor to the book The Manson File (hence the prison visits to Manson). Brian Warner (aka Marilyn Manson), probably the most notable artist influenced by Manson, has composed several songs related to Manson, one of these being "The Beautiful People", which is a blatant reference to one of Manson's murders, in which he wrote "How does it feel to be one of the beautiful people?" in blood on the victim's front door. This line originally comes from the Beatles' song Baby You're a Rich Man on Magical Mystery Tour.

Hundreds of musicians have recorded songs related to Manson. These include: Neil Young's "Revolution Blues" (likely the best known, perhaps because he knew Manson); Joni Mitchell's "Same Situation", in which he is referred to as "the Lord on death row"; The Ramones's "Glad To See You Go", the opening track of their 1977 album Ramones Leave Home.

In 1976, Throbbing Gristle, the avant-garde noise group and former performance artists who were based in London, made a film entitled "After Cease To Exist", inspired by a Manson song title, which they used as a backdrop in some live performances, they also referenced a Manson lyric on the cover of their 1980 album "Heathen Earth" and also made reference to a Manson lyric from his song "Sick City" on the same album. They had also used a photograph of Manson as a teenager, on one of their flyers to promote one of their performances. Psychic TV, the group formed by ex-Throbbing Gristle members Genesis P-Orridge and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, included the Manson song- "Always Is Always Forever", on their "Dreams Less Sweet" album from 1983, a year or two later, the group were also photographed wearing Manson T-Shirts. P-Orridge had also used the Manson album "Lie" as a soundtrack to some of the performance art shows with COUM Transmissions and also used tapes of Manson speaking at some Psychic TV live shows.

Devo have been accused of plagarizing portions of Manson's song "Mechanical Man" for their song of the same name. In 1982, Boston hardcore punk band Negative FX featured a picture of Charles Manson, with their logo digitally "carved" into his head, on their self-titled LP. It also featured pictures of Manson family members on the back. This caused much controversy at the time. In 1985, experimental rock band Sonic Youth released the song "Death Valley 69" which was inspired by the Manson murders. In cooperation with director Richard Kern they produced a video clip for the song in which part of the band members were involved in gory scenes.

UK underground electronic music pioneers, Cabaret Voltaire, used Manson's voice from various american radio interviews, which they used in their tracks "Hell's Home", "Kickback" and "Golden Halos" featured on their album "The Covenant, The Sword And The Arm Of The Lord" released in 1985. The London group 400 Blows used a Manson U.S. radio interview as the basis of their track "For Jackie M", which is on their 1985 album "If I Kissed Her, I'd Have To Kill Her First", the title being a quote from serial killer Ed Kemper.

White Zombie attempted to incorporate samples from Manson's Geraldo Rivera interview on their La Sexorcisto: Devil Music, Vol. 1 album track "Warp Asylum", but were denied permission to use them, reportedly by Manson's lawyers. System of a Down wrote the song "ATWA" on their Toxicity album about the media's viewpoints on Manson. (ATWA is an acronym used by Manson, meaning both "Air-Trees-Water-Animals" and "all the way alive."). Ozzy Osbourne recorded "Bloodbath in Paradise" on his "No Rest for the Wicked" album about the California murders.

Transgressive punk rock performance artist GG Allin covered Manson's song "Garbage Dump" on his 1987 album You Give Love A Bad Name. Allin can be seen wearing a Charles Manson T-shirt on the cover of the album. Redd Kross and The Lemonheads have both covered Manson's song "Cease To Exist". Guns N' Roses drew the most notice when they recorded "Look At Your Game Girl" which is a hidden track after the last song on Guns N' Roses' last album (cover album), authored by Manson. This move was made by Axl Rose after meeting the shock rocker Brian Warner who told him about Manson's Lie album and explained how he sampled one of his songs "Mechanical Man" using some lyrics which he reworked into the track "My Monkey" on his first album. The track can be found on Portrait of an American Family. Part of the profits would have gone to him but legal action diverted them to victim Frykowski's son, instead. Brian Warner (aka Marilyn Manson) took the second half of his stage name from Manson. Industrial band Skinny Puppy also used samples in the song "Worlock" pairing them with samples from the The Beatles song "Helter Skelter". He also appears on the album cover for "Rabies" featuring the song.

Alkaline Trio have also recorded a song called "Sadie" relating to Manson and the Family. It appears on both their BYO Records split with the band One Man Army and on their 2005 cd "Crimson".

Florida death metal band Deicide recorded a song in which Manson is the primary subject, entitled "Lunatic of God's Creation". English doom metal band Paradise Lost refer to Manson (unsympathetically) on their album "Draconican Times". On the track "Forever Failure" a sample of Charles Manson's voice is used from the British television documentary "Charles Manson - The Man Who Killed The Sixties". Necrophagia (Phil Anselmo from Pantera) includes a "Charles Manson meditation film" on their DVD "Through the Eyes of the Dead." Another English band from Leicester, Kasabian, take their name from the family member.

So-called "Godfather of Industrial Music" J.G. Thirlwell devoted what could arguably called an entire album to the Manson mystique, with the release of his 1985 album by Scraping Foetus (band) Off The Wheel, titled "Nail." Rife with references to pigs, blood, extermination, race war and so forth, one of the album's tracks is titled "DI-1-9026", which was in fact the phone # at Spahn Ranch, select lyrics of which are "Turn on... Tune in... DROP OUT DROP OUT DROP OUT DROP OUT / Gonna take a dive (TAKE A DIVE) down to 3301 Waverly Drive / The chosen few are gonna arrive 10050 Cielo Drive / The pigs are gonna taste the knife when the chosen few arrive / No-one's gonna be left alive / No-one gets outa here alive / String up the piggies and let 'em have it / It's the pigs' turn now to try the cross / SLIT THEIR SOFT WHITE UNDERBELLIES... LET 'EM KNOW WHO'S BOSS."

Manson is often referred to in rap music as well, most notably by Ice Cube in the title track of the N.W.A. album Straight Outta Compton ("Here's a murder rap to keep you dancin'/With a crime record like Charles Manson.") Also he is mentioned in another Ice Cube song with Dr Dre in Natural Born Killaz ("So fuck Charlie Manson, I'll snatch him out of his truck, Hit 'em with a brick.")

And I'm dancin Portuguese band, Mão Morta, has a song named Charles Manson. Of the many rumors of David Allan Coe, one of them is that he taught Manson how to play guitar in prison. On U2's album, "Rattle and Hum", the song "Helter Skelter" begins with Bono saying: "This is a song Charles Manson stole from The Beatles. We're stealing it back.". John Moran The Manson Family: An Opera with Iggy Pop; Produced by Philip Glass

The Tate-La Bianca Murders have been dramatized in movies several times, most notably in 1976's Helter Skelter, starring Steve Railsback as Manson, and its 2004 TV movie remake, which starred Jeremy Davies as Manson, Bruno Kirby as Bugliosi, and Clea DuVall as Kasabian.

Charles Manson also appeared as a cartoon character in a South Park episode, "Merry Christmas Charlie Manson!".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Media influence", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki