Posted on 02/12/2022 12:17:24 PM PST by Beowulf9
Neil Young and Charles Manson have a bizarrely intertwined history. The two men once shared a jam session at a time when Manson was an up and coming talent, one that had started to make waves in California and caught Young’s attention. Their paths then diverted, as Young became one of the most revered artists on the planet and Manson became the world’s most notorious cult leader. Manson would then later become the muse for Young’s track, ‘Revolution Blues’.
(Excerpt) Read more at faroutmagazine.co.uk ...
That whole era of music is cursed.
Thanks for the correction. Must have been quite a scene.
All these innocent little California beatniks, hanging out in Laurel Canyon. Must have been fun for a while. Then the real crazies started to show up.
Manson was followed by Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, William Bonin, Patrick Kearney, Randy Graft, Richard Ramirez, and many others.
From what I remember of Young’s telling of the story, Warner Brothers asked him to take a listen to Manson, he did and thought that with some mentoring he might turn out something... he thought his compositions lacked ‘hooks’ and he needed to work on that.
I’ve had more or less the same thought, but you put it much better than I could.
Young girls love the “bad boy.” That, and drugs I think it must be said.
There was one beach boys song, I believe, that Dennis copied.. I can’t remember the name, will have to duck duck go it. I saw something that implied that Dennis killed himself, at least in part because of his association with Manson.
My wife used to work with Ernie Knapp when they were architects together at Phillips Metsch Sweeney Moore in Santa Barbara.
“I WAS IN A BAND WITH CHARLES MANSON.”–ERNIE KNAPP
An Interview by Sonny Vincent
Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you an interview I did recently in 2014 with a special man named Ernie Knapp, a man who played in Charlie Manson’s band way before Charlie and his ‘family’ went on to be involved with the creepy crawly Tate/La Bianca murders. Ernie went on to be the bass player for The Beach Boys and, even later after that, was in my band for a while....
https://sonnyvincent77.wordpress.com/i-was-in-in-a-band-with-charles-manson-ernie-knapp-2/
Manson cannot be understood well until you have an appreciation of the opportunities that the use of heavy hallucinogens present for persuading people through symbolism, the innate amity Manson had to do just that and the immunity Mason enjoyed through MK-Ultra
Drugs—if you handed them out like candy you could get lots of hot women.
Drugs.
LSD will do that to you.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Manson used to hang with the Beach Boys and they stole and modified one of his songs.
Boy, is this an interesting interviiew. Thank you for sharing it. Sounds like Manson was never going in a wholesome direction. Kinda good Knapp was not around him long and he seems to have better radar than Dennis Wilson.
Is this published material? I’d like to share it but I don’t want to screw up your rights somehow.
I’m from that exact era. I was in Topanga canyon about 73 for a daytrip and I swear the whole little area we were in was filled with that Manson gang. They kind of walked all around us, eyeing us, my boyfriend was driving a vw van and I think that was their focus. Made us feel very uncomfortable so we got out of there.
I pulled that straight off the web from the link, so yeah, it’s published material.
Ernie is a very nice man. I was very impressed with his music collection. He had an entire wall of 4track recordings he had made of songs he has written. I don’t know how many of them got published.
Even today, it is quite amazing the level of celebrity that one can hang around with when one is a drug and prostitute provider.
It was Dennis Wilson: middle brother, drummer, not youngest (who was Carl, lead guitarist). Charles Manson was a fan of The Beatles and The Beach Boys, and one who took “Helter Skelter” too seriously.
Manson and his so-called Family usurped control of Dennis’s home; Dennis, who was the most wild one in the group (and the surfer who inspired the song craze), fled his own home when he saw how demented and disturbing Manson was. Terry Melcher was indeed a partial witness to what went on.
Reputedly, one of the songs on 20/20 [1969] was originally penned by Manson for The Beach Boys to record: “Cease to Exist”: supposedly a response to what he witnessed of group tension between the others and Brian. Dennis took it, rewrote it, and renamed it, “Never Learn Not to Love”; it was recorded without Manson’s involvement, and he apparently relinquished credit in exchange for cash.
Manson was not without any talent; he was one with very limited talent. He was also a parasite. On the other hand, 20/20 was the beginning of Dennis Wilson’s time to showcase his own talent, which continued on Sunflower and his solo album, Pacific Ocean Blue.
P.S.
I once worked with a woman whose family was targeted by the Family. She was 17 at the time. The FBI was camped outside her home, and she was afraid, thinking they were there because she had smoked cannabis; when they finally came to the door, she found out the truth.
While American soldiers were shedding blood and their lives in Vietnam, Young was singing about Tin soldiers and Nixons army.
The guy is a skunk and always has been.
Terry Melcher was one lucky son of a gun. He had lived in that house with his girlfriend, Candace Bergen and Mark Lindsay (Paul Revere & the Raiders).
I worked for Mark a few times and he said that Charlie showed up to a few parties there.
Then, Candace broke it off with Terry, so they moved out. Charlie was not informed of this when he sent his gang there.
Stephen Stills actually composed a song in honor of Fidel Castro, Cuba al Fin.
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