While Charles Manson was holed up in San Quentin, someone surreptitiously snuck basic recording gear into the serial killer’s cell. That basic gear, plus Charles Manson, a guitar, and a total lack of discretion, resulted in the album you see at right: Charles Manson Live at San Quentin. From what I can tell, no payment was ever received for his work on the record — which resulted in some crazy ass angry phone calls to his lawyer. Maybe Charlie was screwed, but a serial killer isn’t exactly a sympathetic character.
I highlighted "Marily Monroe Was My Childhood Shame" in the title to this post because it seemed like a nice, fucked-up, pop-culture reference that reminds us how mixed up life was in the late 60s & 70s. A beautiful period for pop culture — but the flipside to that creative explosion was a profound sense of cultural disorientation. Charles Manson rode that wave of cultural disorientation all the way into the socio-economic deep freeze of the Reagan Era.
The song is a nice little ditty, with strange word play that reminds you how loosely hinged Charles Manson was. The real gem here, though, is the nine minute jam "Take Me To The Summer Road," which starts out as a strummy, sunny jazz-pop piece….and then devolves slowly into a drooling psychotic raga (shit gets really fucked up around the 6:00 mark). The product of a uniquely disturbed mind.
Stream "Take Me To The Summer Road"
Stream "Marilyn Monroe Was My Childhood Shame"
