{"id":4642,"date":"2021-03-22T13:41:24","date_gmt":"2021-03-22T13:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/?p=4642"},"modified":"2021-03-22T13:56:56","modified_gmt":"2021-03-22T13:56:56","slug":"charles-manson-sick-city-counter-cultural-musings-from-tsptr-dossier-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/?p=4642","title":{"rendered":"Charles Manson: Sick City \u2013 Counter-Cultural musings from TSPTR. Dossier #1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In the first of regular posts from TSPTR, we step inside the musical presence of CHARLES MANSON<\/strong><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4645\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4645\" style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-4645\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dreubhc7khg61-728x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"633\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dreubhc7khg61-728x1024.jpg 728w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dreubhc7khg61-213x300.jpg 213w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dreubhc7khg61-768x1080.jpg 768w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dreubhc7khg61-1092x1536.jpg 1092w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dreubhc7khg61-1456x2048.jpg 1456w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/dreubhc7khg61-scaled.jpg 1821w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4645\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Charles Manson at the house he shared with Dennis Wilson across the summer of 1968<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Charles Manson channelled all the paranoia, fear and hatred hovering around LA in 1969 into a terrible murder spree that altered the course of American counterculture. Manson did not however exist in a vacuum, he was a well-known part of the LA scene at the time.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-4648\" src=\"https:\/\/www.shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/b417399f2c2fed82ab7b622957f27ea8.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/b417399f2c2fed82ab7b622957f27ea8.jpg 800w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/b417399f2c2fed82ab7b622957f27ea8-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/b417399f2c2fed82ab7b622957f27ea8-768x544.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While it\u2019s been widely reported how Manson came to meet Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, how it ended is not so well known. History records that it was Manson\u2019s proclivity for &#8220;taking&#8221; that ruined his potential creative alliance with Dennis. After \u201cripping off\u201d most of Wilson\u2019s possessions and trashing his house (he\u2019d moved out months before), the &#8220;family&#8221; also totalled his $21,000 Mercedes (half a million dollars in today\u2019s money) and managed to wreck both Brian and Dennis\u2019 Ferrari 275GTB\u2019s in separate crashes while driving around downtown LA. Manson finally capped his lack of gratitude to the ever-generous Wilson by threatening him. One day in 1968 Manson walked up to Wilson holding a single bullet. When Wilson asked him what it was, Manson replied, \u201cIt\u2019s a bullet. Every time you look at it, I want you to think how nice it is your kids are still safe.&#8221;<\/p>\n<!-- Error, Advert is not available at this time due to schedule\/geolocation restrictions! -->\n<p>According to musician Van Dyke Parks, who witnessed the event, Denny gave Manson the \u201cbeating of his life\u201d right there and then in front of a bunch of \u201chip people\u201d. Manson slithered away, embarrassed and enraged, followed by his &#8220;family&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Charles Manson-Cease to Exit.(With Lyrics)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/D1MmHGoKq1Y?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There is a persistent rumour that Brian Wilson himself engineered an entire album of Manson\u2019s music, the tapes of which still allegedly reside in the Brother vaults. The rumour has been consistently dispelled by Beach Boys\u2019 engineer Stephen Desper but upheld by Wilson family friend and collaborator Gregg Jakobson \u2013 as usual with anything Manson related, confusion and misinformation abound. Desper maintains it was Nick Grillo who arranged for Charlie to record some material but none of the brothers were present at the sessions. Desper recounted the moment when a particularly unkept and unwashed Manson placed a gun on the mixing board, he recalls he was wholly unimpressed. Jakobson meanwhile, who was fairly enamoured with Manson, told a different gun related story in a \u201992 <i>Esquire<\/i> interview, in which he describes an incident where Charlie pulled his piece and put it against Jakobson\u2019s head, saying \u201cWhat would you do if I pulled the trigger?\u201d Jakobson replied \u201cWell I guess I\u2019d die.\u201d Apparently, Manson was amused with the comeback and put the gun back in his belt. An incontrovertibly true event however, occurred when The Beach Boys performed a Charles Manson song on primetime US national television\u2026 there they were on <i>The Mike Douglas Show<\/i> in the spring of 1969, swaying dreamily onstage to Charlie\u2019s composition &#8216;Never Learn Not To Love&#8217;, renamed from the original &#8216;Cease to Exist&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=USaaGgZZB4Q<\/p>\n<p>Another Manson penned jam titled &#8216;Sick City&#8217;, written about the ongoing degradation of LA, was among a number of his songs highly regarded by a host of other musicians on the LA scene in \u201968. Charlie\u2019s contacts at that point included some of the most innovative heads in town: not only The Beach Boys\u2019 reigning genius Brian Wilson but also Neil Young and producer David Briggs, Stones and Gram Parsons associate Phil Kaufman and The Byrds\u2019 producer and Columbia Records executive Terry Melcher. The cloud of silence around the question of which LA musicians Manson might have actually played with still maintains. Frank Zappa\u2019s name pops up occasionally, The Manson Family\u2019s canyon-music-spooky-folk sound could have easily found a home on Zappa\u2019s roster of musical eccentrics. Meanwhile, a long-circulating and false rumour that Charlie Manson had \u201ctried out\u201d for The Monkees was started by, of all people, Micky Dolenz\u2026 as a joke! Neil Young has always spoken highly of Manson the songwriter-and-musician, before and even after the murders. Young, had met Manson in the late \u201960s, and wrote and recorded &#8216;Revolution Blues&#8217;, from 1974\u2019s classic <em>On the Beach<\/em>, about Charlie and the \u201cfamily\u201d. In the early \u201980s, Young performed the song live, announcing to the stunned crowd, \u201cThis is dedicated to Charles Manson.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chalres Manson - Sick City - Restored\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/q3rSWPMFsaQ?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>By the beginning of \u201969 Manson\u2019s relationships with the cream of the LA scene were done. He was becoming full-blown monstrous-minded, his criminal origins and prison-born race-paranoia bubbling to overflowing, as he spread the fear of \u201cBlackie\u201d and the \u201cpiggies\u201d to all of the young, blond-and-blue-eyed followers on rhe Ranch, preparing them now for \u201cHelter Skelter\u201d, the race war he\u2019d been predicting. It was the beginning of the end, his out-of-control paranoia and megalomania alienated him from potentially useful industry contacts and destroyed his skewed dream of becoming the next Dylan. His desire for revenge ultimately fuelling the rampage of murder that followed. While more recent rumours of Manson being a CIA stooge only serve to add to the apocryphal tales, it seems the truth about Charlie and his friends on the LA scene will never fully be known and maybe it\u2019s better that way.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Revolution Blues (2016 Remaster)\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2yK504X_wvs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em> To purchase clothing from TSPTR click on the banners or <a href=\"https:\/\/tsptr.com\">here<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<span class=\"synved-social-container synved-social-container-share\"><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-facebook nolightbox\" data-provider=\"facebook\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" href=\"http:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F4642&#038;t=Charles%20Manson%3A%20Sick%20City%20%E2%80%93%20Counter-Cultural%20musings%20from%20TSPTR.%20Dossier%20%231&#038;s=100&#038;p&#091;url&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F4642&#038;p&#091;images&#093;&#091;0&#093;=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2021%2F03%2F384px-Manson1968.jpg&#038;p&#091;title&#093;=Charles%20Manson%3A%20Sick%20City%20%E2%80%93%20Counter-Cultural%20musings%20from%20TSPTR.%20Dossier%20%231\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Facebook\" title=\"Share on Facebook\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/facebook.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-twitter nolightbox\" data-provider=\"twitter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F4642&#038;text=New%20post%20on%20our%20site\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"twitter\" title=\"Share on Twitter\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/twitter.png\" \/><\/a><a class=\"synved-social-button synved-social-button-share synved-social-size-24 synved-social-resolution-single synved-social-provider-mail nolightbox\" data-provider=\"mail\" rel=\"nofollow\" title=\"Share by email\" href=\"mailto:?subject=Charles%20Manson%3A%20Sick%20City%20%E2%80%93%20Counter-Cultural%20musings%20from%20TSPTR.%20Dossier%20%231&#038;body=New%20post%20on%20our%20site:%20https%3A%2F%2Fshindig-magazine.com%2Findex.php%3Frest_route%3D%252Fwp%252Fv2%252Fposts%252F4642\" style=\"font-size: 0px;width:24px;height:24px;margin:0;margin-bottom:5px;margin-right:5px\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"mail\" title=\"Share by email\" class=\"synved-share-image synved-social-image synved-social-image-share\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" style=\"display: inline;width:24px;height:24px;margin: 0;padding: 0;border: none;box-shadow: none\" src=\"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/social-media-feather\/synved-social\/image\/social\/regular\/48x48\/mail.png\" \/><\/a><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the first of regular posts from TSPTR, we step inside the musical presence of CHARLES MANSON Charles Manson channelled all the paranoia, fear and hatred hovering around LA in 1969 into a terrible murder spree that altered the course of American counterculture. Manson did not however exist in a vacuum, he was a well-known [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28,7],"tags":[903,641,323,902],"class_list":["post-4642","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-music-videos","tag-charles-manson","tag-neil-young","tag-the-beach-boys","tag-tstpr","post_format-post-format-video"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4642"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4652,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4642\/revisions\/4652"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4642"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4642"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shindig-magazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4642"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}