“If he ever gets out, I am going in!”

---- My Mom talking about Charles Manson


It takes a special kind of person to be classified as a serial killer and to have never actually killed anyone. Charles Manson is that kind of special. Perhaps if he had not spent so many years in prison, or formed a cult, or ordered all of those killings, or been completely insane, he could have been a big music star! Just imagine- you could all be shelling out $89.95 for his fifth farewell tour at Red Rocks.

Obviously Manson was onto something when he recorded the tracks that comprise Lie: The Love And Terror Cult. Everyone from Guns & Roses to the Lemonheads have either remade his songs or borrowed lines from his lyrics, with hundreds of other artists referencing him in their own songs. There is a theory that it was because of his rejection by the music industry that he sent the Family out to the Tate house to do his bidding, and when you listen to this CD you can’t help but wonder what would have happened had Manson taken a different path.

“I'm not your executioner. I'm not your devil and I'm not your God. I'm Charles Manson.”

There is a lot of novelty in owning this CD. Me and half of the people on Amazon will all tell you similar stories of playing the album for confused audiences and trying to make them guess who the singer is. It is easy to dismiss this CD for its poor production values, and some songs are so mental you can’t help but laugh, but since the man is locked away and we are all safe, I am all right admitting that Lie is not the worst thing to happen to music.

This CD was released in 1993 by Aware Records, but recorded earlier, and the mark of love child folk music is clearly in the center of its forehead. The fourteen tracks deal mainly with Manson’s disdain for authority, the need for mental freedom, and how he perceived The Man to be controlling him. Can Manson sing? Kind of. If you have ever heard him speak in interviews you have a good idea of his signing style. He rambles in song and speaks in rhyme while strumming an acoustic guitar. His voice is sometimes nasal, sometimes spitting, but always very clear and in tune. Lie is only a train wreck because we have already seen the wreckage- at the time I think he thought he was really making groundbreaking music. The verses are simple and honest, and he managed to soak them in equal doses of hippie love and society loathing.

Once in a while some other members of the Family chime in, and you remember that Manson was controlling these people to the point that they committed murder on his behalf. Particularly on the brief sing along I'll Never Say Never to Always, where their voices sound echoed and like something unholy from Alice In Wonderland. You also get to hear them in what must have been an altered state of consciousness in the jittery mumblings at the beginning of Arkansas:

Really really like we struggle I mean we struggle with ourselves you know…. Yeah….. Big ol' struggle….. You just struggle an' struggle until you struggle.

Yeah. Exactly.

Big Iron Door and Garbage Dump give us a unique perspective from a psychological standpoint. They are identically insane and telling at the same time. When Manson chants, “Clang bang clang bang clang….The judge said to me now boy….You've had it,” one can’t help but reflect on Manson’s life in the prison system, and wonder if it wouldn’t have been better for everyone had they just not let him out the first few times like he asked. When you are done analyzing the songs, I also recommend sneaking these onto a CD or an iPod to annoy coworkers with.

“Look down at me and you see a fool;
look up at me and you see a god;
look straight at me and you see yourself”

----Charles Manson


There are a few single-worthy tunes on Lie. I have actually had Cease to Exit (or Exist, as the lyrics read) stuck in my head multiple times. The lyric, “Submission is a gift….Go on give it to your brother….Love and understandin'…..Is for one another” is just catchy as hell. The guitar is rhythmic, and Manson’s strange half sing/half speak way of doing things makes sense.

Look At Your Game Girl is in the same thread as Cease. The opening track has Manson talking about a girl! And love! “Just to say you love's not enough….. In you can't be true…. You can tell those lies baby….. But you're only foolin' you.” If the entire album had been similar to these two songs, I think Manson may have landed the deal he wanted.

"I wonder how, a brown cow."

---- From Mechanical Man

The rest of the tracks either start out promising and fall apart, such as the first few seconds of Ego, or they just start out crazy and stay there, like Manson’s impersonation of a robot in Mechanical Man. I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the recording studio when he decided lay down that track.

I enjoy this album because not too many serial killers have a CD, and I can’t think of any others that have a CD that so thoroughly explains why they are they way they are. A lot of people are going to buy Lie, listen to it once, shock a few friends, and regulate it to the dust catching area of their collection. If you are hoping to discover Manson as a true music genius, I think you will be disappointed, but give the entire album a listen, and don’t be afraid to throw Cease to Exit or Look at Your Game Girl in with your regular music mix. I know there are remakes of both songs, but the originals will grow on you..... if you can get past the fact that the artist is Charles Manson.






∞ Serial Killer Week. ∞ The Serial Killer Calendar. ∞ The Serial Killer Encyclopedia. ∞ The Mind Of a Serial Killer. ∞ The music of a serial killer. ∞
The Serial Killer Miniseries. ∞


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: With Family