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  • Topic: Henry Rollins produced a Charles Manson LP...

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    • May 16, 2014 11:12 AM CDT
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      I found this interesting piece of musical knowledge from Dangerous Minds:

      Henry Rollins produced an unheard album by Charles Manson in the 1980s...

      Henry Rollins has had one fascinating life. He was in one of the most important punk bands of all time, he played Vanilla Ice in a music video, he has been the voiceover actor for Infiniti, he had a talk show on IFC, he had a small part in Jack Frost.....In the 1980s Rollins also produced a full album by Charles Manson for SST, which would have made the noted psychopath and cult leader, who wanted to bring about a race war, labelmates with Bad Brains. The release of the album, entitled Completion, was cancelled due to safety concerns. Only five copies of the album were ever pressed; two belong to Rollins and the other three apparently are Manson’s.

      In December 2010, Rollins participated in an event at the Echoplex in Los Angeles to benefit the Santa Monica radio station KCRW in which he played a variety of ultra-rare tracks, including a live rendition of “Pay to Cum” from the second show Bad Brains ever played, the first-ever Fugazi demo (“Waiting Room”), several Black Flag rarities, and one of the songs from the Manson album Rollins produced for SST. When he played the track—the title of which has, to my knowledge, not been made public—Rollins joked, “I can hear you all listening to your hair grow.”

      In 2008 Rollins told the NME of the correspondence with Manson that led to the recordings:


      “He wrote me a letter out of the blue once and he said, ‘I saw you on MTV and I thought you were pretty cool’.

      “So we corresponded a few times in 1984; I’d just tell him about what we were doing with our new record and he’d send back semi-lucid responses.

      “He made references to The Beach Boys stealing his ideas, which sounded like sour grapes, and told me to tell everybody else to take care of wildlife. That must have been the old hippy in him talking.”

      Rollins outlined that he was very young when he started corresponding with Manson—who was sentenced to life in 1971 for the infamous Manson Family Murders which took place two years earlier.

      “At the time I was very young and having him write me letters made me feel very intense and heavy,” he said. “I’d always know I’d have a letter in my PO Box from him because the woman behind the counter at the post office would give you this awful look.

      “His letters would always have swastikas on them so they were easy to spot.”

      According to a 2010 article in The Guardian, “A lawyer representing Manson wrote to SST, asking them to help complete and release a collection of Manson’s songs. Then as now, Manson was serving a life sentence for his role in the Tate/LaBianca murders. ... Rollins agreed to produce the songs but a string of death threats forced SST to call off the project.”

      In the mind of almost everyone, Manson is first and foremost a homicidal lunatic. It’s quite clear that in his own mind, Manson is first and foremost a musician. During his detainment before his 1971 trial, Manson was “very anxious for his music to be heard” and enlisted his friend Phil Kaufman to get his music released. Indeed, an album called Lie: The Love & Terror Cult was released on March 6, 1970. As recently as 2010-11 Manson has released two albums of folk music on Magic Bullet Records called Air and Trees.

       

    • May 19, 2014 1:07 AM CDT
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      NEVER heard about that... Surely , HENRY COULD HAVE SURMISED IT WOULD HAVE GONE THE WAY IT DID.  It's the kind of project that would have been supressed , with threats , or worse.

      Henry saw his own best friend , murdered. I'm not casting aspersions at him , but , I believe that would have made him able to feel some of what The Manson Family's victims' families still feel , today.

      Even Roman Polanski evokes some sympathy , regardless of what he did , later. Plus , unlike Manson , he's a great Artist . Nevergot it with "LIE'' , SORRY , I KNOW SOME PEOPLE THINK IT'S GREAT.

      If I got past the fact that it was Manson , I'd still say it was OK , BUT NOTHING of substantial in my humble opinion. Hitler was a lousy painter, and some people believe his lack of success as an Artist led to the rise of The Third Reich. Come on. Really? Winston Churchill was a WORSE painter , and , he was on OUR side. Getting dissed by the Beach Boys , after spending a Million Dollars of Dennis  Wilson's money, is hardly grounds for instigating murder (It's widely believed Manson only killed one or two people with his own hand. The same is believed to be true about Hitler.).

      But , Henry had his reasons for trying to make this project a reality , It's not my place to criticize.

      It's a strange realm , Rock'n'Roll and mass murder. Bobby Beausoliel , himself , did brief sojourns as a pickup Bassist with Love , The (other) Grass Roots , and The Weeds (Lollipop Shoppe) , which he claimed made Manson jealous. The Kinks briefly met and visited John Wayne Gacy in his home , several years before his crimes are believed to have begun. Gacy was promoting their concert in Chicago. Lux Interior was furious when some correspondence with Gacy , written in confidence , ended up being transcribed in a book. "If you can't trust a Serial Killer" , said Lux , "Who CAN you trust? ".

    • May 19, 2014 11:52 AM CDT
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      I agree with you on the "Lie" album, John, as I've always thought it was weak, and more of musical curioso than anything else. I know it's been relegated as a "classic" in the genre of "outsider folk", but I fail to see its "brilliance". I do honestly believe that a Rollins-produced Manson album would have been devoured by a rabid Black Flag fan base regardless of the content and musical style. Having it on SST alone would have guaranteed it a success (not in sales for Manson, as he can't collect any royalties from his music), as its strength of them being one of the vanguards of indie music back in the '80s.

       

    • May 19, 2014 9:06 PM CDT
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      Yeah , I'm with ya , Joey. That's because Black Flag were PUNK ROCK , man , not New Wave ! IT'S A TOTALLY DIFFERENT HEAD !

    • May 29, 2014 8:23 AM CDT
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      I know GG Allin was a friend of Gacy's, but Henry Rollins producing Charlie Manson? It's the stuff of urban myth, it just makes a good story that, if true, shows that reality reality has eclipsed satire.
      ____________________________________
      Chris Henniker, Freelance writer at your service. Just send me a private message and we'll work on something.
    • May 29, 2014 3:27 PM CDT
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      ...IT DOES'NT SURPRISE ME THAT HENRY would TRY to produce a record on Manson , unless it was after  he witnessed his best friend's murder , and would have surely said "I don't want to get involved with  a serial killer.". If it is'nt true , it is'nt true , as vastly overrated as Henry is , in my humble opinion , I give him props for geting behind actual musical geniuses , like Roky and the monks , that never masterminded human slaughter . IF IT'S TRUE OR NOT , I'll sleep like a baby.

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