Thursday 6 September 2012

MYTHBUSTING: California Prison Blues

One of the greatest myths of Rock and Roll is that Mass Murderer Chales Manson was a great songwriter on a par with Bob Dylan, and that the establishment have kept him down for all these years because they are jealous of his talent. The truth is completely different.

I obtained a bootleg copy of his album LIE about thirty years ago and it was a massive disappointment. There was no sign of Manson's legendary singing or songwriting talents, just some not very impressive guitar-based meanderings with not a memorable tune in sight. Now, there is a new album (albeit, one recorded about a quarter of a century ago). I have no intention of buying it, and only the first track has been streamed online. And guess what? It is terrible.



Some of the songs written
about Manson, such as Neil Young's Revolution Blues and Loudon Wainwright III's California Prison Blues are fantastic. However, The Beach Boys slightly bowdlerised version of Cease to Exist renamed Never learn not to Love is - to be quite honest - not very good, especially by late 60s Beach Boys standards. However, Neil Young has never quite recanted on his belief that Manson was a great songwriter...


Maybe it is just me being dense/bourgoise/or having no taste, but as far as Manson's creative genius is concerned. I just don't get it, and find it mildly distasteful that his name still sells newsparers 43 years after the Tate/La Bianca killings.

Here endeth Jon's thursday morning rant.

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