The Smiley Smile Message Board

Last week a new book by Texas journalist Jeff Guinn was published, somewhat redundantly titled "Manson: The Life And Times Of Charles Manson." A long section of it is, naturally, devoted to Dennis's interactions with Manson and his "Family." Guinn's primary source was Gregg Jakobson, whom he evidently interviewed at considerable length.

 But looking over the text via Google Books's search feature, I don't see any particularly new info about Dennis and Manson, apart from a few slightly surprising tidbits that I don't recall coming across in the other books and articles I've seen. (For example, Guinn mentions that Manson once spent an afternoon improvising song lyrics while Neil Young strummed some chords to go with 'em....somehow I have the feeling that Neil didn't get around to mentioning that in that book he just published, though I have to admit I haven't checked.  Guinn also states that the Manson tape which, IIRC, ended up being the ESP album was passed to John Phillips, who did not regard it as suitable Dunhill material.)

Guinn, to judge from the reviews I've seen of his book, did manage to glean some new information about Manson's childhood and adolescence - interviewing a number of relatives who knew him then and had not been talked to before.  But apart from what Gregg told him, when it comes to Dennis he seems to have relied primarily on books and articles - and, given the fact that he misspells Mr. Desper's last name, he perhaps could have read them a bit more carefully.

While Neil doesn't specifically mention that I remember strumming guitar while Manson sang, he does mention in his book knowing Manson, and says that Manson was much more widely connected to the late 60's LA music scene than has ever been acknowledged.

neil's book didn't say much about anything ..worse rock bio I ever read and I love Neil!

MANSON. in with the first FUM HIM!!!!

The book on Neil published some time ago does have a few paragraphs about Manson. Specifically (not having the book in front of me) I recall he said Manson took a liking to him, or maybe spared him in some way, because Neil had bought him a moped or something and Manson appreciated that. And Neil does say that he thought Manson was talented in the way he could improvise lyrics and make up songs on the spot, I guess in comparison to a writer like Neil who had to work in order to get something suitable to come out in the music. Manson apparently could just do a stream-of-consciousness thing and make up songs.

So the scene where they're improvising isn't surprising based on what Neil said the the previous book.

Honestly, I don't think *anyone* will ever tell the whole Manson story because he was too well-connected in some circles and if the whole story came out, some pretty powerful and revered reputations could be tarnished. Just my opinion.

It's also my opinion that the Manson story most people know and repeat is the one Bugliosi had to spin in order to get convictions. There were many layers, many names, many incidents which were not brought out in court or in Bugliosi's book, and his reasoning could have been that bringing up all of that was extraneous to what he needed to win the serious convictions, while all of the crap that went on with Manson and various music and entertainment stars would harm those people's lives more than help the DA win a solid conviction.

But man, oh man, if some of the stuff that is rumored was ever to come out as fact, it would be like Hollywood Babylon times 1000.