Manson actually did record some songs at Brian Wilson's home studio. Dennis Wilson was impressed by his music.

Wow, that's kind of scary. Imagine if he had made it as a musician. Kind of like Hitler and art.

Then there's the weird link with Charles Manson and Marilyn Manson, on Marilyn Manson's debut album ("Portrait Of An American Family" which, for Beatle buffs has 4 mini statues of the fab 4 on the cover itself!) they actually recorded some songs in Beverly Hills in a house Manson had been related to at that nasty time, and a song on the album actually was borrowed from a Charles Manson song called "Mechanical Man", Marilyn Manson actually took a whole verse of lyrics from the aforementioned song.

So there's some more to the mix lol

Plus Marilyn Manson uses Charlies last name too for the "shock" value.

And he used Marilyn Monroe's first name. Wonder why he did that, lol...

he said it was the contrast of beauty and vulgar of American icons.

Or something like that, I dont have my book handy.

Huh, interesting. Y'know, I'm not a fan of his music, but I was watching him on Bowling For Columbine and he seems like a pretty smart guy.

Actually he is a very smart guy. The best answer to "What would you say to them if they were alive?" and he said "I wouldn't say a thing, I would listen which is what nobody else did." or something like that... what a reply!

He is actually a VERY smart guy, don't let the image fool you, he is very clever. I would even recommend the book "Long Hard Road Out Of Hell" written by Marilyn Manson and Neil Strauss. It's a biography of him up to 1998 I think and very very insightful. Not full of weird stuff like most would associate, very educated words and well written. There are some parts that might seem a little squeemish to some people but not much.

Recommend that to read, would help to understand the man behind the mask so to speak. What made him who he is today.

Hope nobody minds me bumping this three year old thread but this is a subject in which I have some interest. If it's place is on another topic then please feel free to move it.

I didn't know too much about the Manson case until about five years ago. Of course I'd heard of Charles Manson and the crimes he and his followers had committed but the details were somewhat vague. When my present partner came into my life I was surprised, but undeterred, to know that she was very interested in serial killers. Now I know what you're all thinking - I probably wake up in the night to find her standing over me with a carving knife, mumbling 'You dirty birdie' but you couldn't be more wrong. She's actually the sweetest and most harmless person I know.

But I digress - I have a habit of doing that!

She hopes to one day become a criminoligist and she has an extensive library on serial killers all over the world. She recommended Vincent Bugliosi's Helter Skelter to me, which I read and couldn't put down. He outlines in vivid detail how Manson interpreted the lyrics of the White Album for his own ends, and manipulated, by pure charm and charisma, a group of impressionable kids into committing murder. Helter Skelter, to Charlie, was judgement day. The blacks would kill the whites and take over the world while Charlie and his followers were hiding in a 'bottomless pit' in the desert, but because the black man was used to following orders from 'Whitey', Charlie would emerge as supreme ruler of the world.

All absolute bollocks as we know, and pretty effing disgusting at least from a race view. Charlie knew it too, but underneath the charm and charisma he projected, nobody could see what a sick bastard he was.

I personally think he used the Beatles as an excuse to shift the blame from himself. It's easy to generate ambiguous theories and interpretations from songs (reference the Paul Is Dead theory) and that's what I think Manson did in this case. The Blackbird reference (RISE written in Leno LaBianca's blood) is tenuous at best, I would hardly call Sharon Tate and the people killed on Cielo Drive pigs because it's obvious that George was referring to the Establishment in the song 'Piggies' (well, it is to me anyway!) and nowhere in Helter Skelter are instructions given for a race war.

Charlie Manson is one clever cookie - clever enough to make people see and hear things that aren't there. The fact that he used the Beatles to incite and commit murder is disgusting.