The Musical Lives of Charles Manson: The Beatles, the Beach Boys, and the Invention of the Sixties or, No Sense Makes Sense

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Nicholas Tochka analyzes the role of rock music in the life of Charles Manson, the Family, and the August 1969 Tate-LaBianca killings, which also gives larger insight into Sixties counterculture.

Failed singer-songwriter. Devious cult leader, a rock Pied Piper. The product of a sick society. Just another dime-a-dozen singing hippy mystic. Did the guitar-playing guru personify the violence that the rock counterculture had inflicted on American society Or did his music diagnose the dehumanizing effects of that societys broken institutions

For nearly five years, commentators debated the meaning of Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca killings. The key thread linking these narratives was rock music: from the acid-drenched singalongs at Spahn Ranch, to a bizarre theology centered on Beatles songs, to Mansons own album, LIE: The Love and Terror Cult (1970). They are afraid of it, because it tells the truth, Manson told an interviewer about his music. What truths did the Manson Familys music tell And how did stories about their music help Americans understand the true meaning of the Sixties

Author Bio

Nicholas Tochka is Head of Musicology and Ethnomusicology at Melbourne Conservatorium of Music at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is the author of Audible States: Socialist Politics and Popular Music in Albania (2016), and the forthcoming book in the 33 1/3 Europe series, Ardit Gjebreas Projekt Jon (Bloomsbury).