The notorious legacy of Charles Manson is given another twist with Manson: Music from an Unsound Mind, an exploration into the music of a madman and the close ties he had with influential figures in the music industry.
They say music is the key to the soul. The 1960s music scene explored this concept with gumption, delving into all matter of drug induced spiritual mumbo jumbo with the likes of The Beetles and The Doors getting their "shaman on", in hopes of finding deeper meaning during their drug fuelled music escapades. Only natural then in this era of false prophets came a madman peddling lies: Charles Manson.
Many people know Manson as the bogeyman of a nation. Although a man of small size, his shadow loomed large, especially over a generation in which the hippie movement of "love and peace" brought with it a deluge of madness and murder. Not many architects of evil, however, created their own soundtrack. Manson: Music from an Unsound Mind takes a deep dive into Manson's tenure as a singer songwriter, and how it was the key to infiltrate a world of the rich and famous.
Director Tom O'Dell presents Manson as a man who had a simple dream: to be a rock star. It's a shocking fact, because it fells so, well, human. Much like mould, the germ of Manson quickly spread under the right conditions in the Haight-Ashbury scene, where the recently released Manson reinvented himself as a cult leader and gained several followers, mostly women.
It is here where Manson the musician also appears, with the wannabe Bob Dylan composing eccentric folk songs that surprise with their accessibility. Choppy guitar (no doubt a worn out acoustic) is layered with surprisingly tuneful vocals. While hardly memorable, a song like “Look at Your Game, Girl” holds some musical value, and was no doubt used as a recruiting song on those disillusioned enough to follow his path.
Then again disillusioned is the word for the Sixties, especially those in the music industry who took to “The Wizard” (as Manson was affectionately nicknamed). Neil Young, Mama Cass, record producer Terry Melcher, and especially Beach Boys drummer Denis Wilson, who in his attempt to differentiate himself took to Manson like a moth to a flame. The Beach Boys would even go so far to rewrote and perform one of Manson’s songs.
O’Dell has a number of interview heads tell Manson’s story with intimate detail. Former cell mates, members of the Manson Family, record engineers... they all provide a picture of a parasite who burrowed into a community much too warped in their own drug induced haze to see the wolf amongst the sheep. When the eventual does happen and blood is spilled, the impact is earth shattering. Manson, the man that the peace and love psychedelic movement embraced as their wizard, their prophet, and their shaman, ended up being the man who killed their revolution.
