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Home , Brian Wilson, Dennis Wilson

April 21, 1975, The Retriever, Page 9

Beach Boys, Brandoand BloOd. on the. Tracks

This column is to tie up a few loose ends, , Beach Boy, having much Meanwhile,' Manson had · moved his Garcia and the Legion of Mary (formerly and to impart some other interesting reason to accept music from a seedy little family into Dennis Wilson's house. Wilson Garcia-Saunders), Santana, useless information about the ever­ maniac who got his rocks off indulging in might have been a bit put off except for and sidemen, the Band, and a friend of dwindling world of today. psychological sadism. Mr. Wilson would two essential facts. One was that his new theirs whose name you are probably well , First off, in my lengthy piece on Charles probably have found far more meditational philosophy made him willing aware of by now. They played to an Manson and what Kurt Vonnegut correctly pleasant, if less interesting, company. ' to roll with life's punches. The other was audience of 60,000, more than' the 4gers described as his "Artificial extended ("I wish they all could beat California that Manson's family was largely female, eyer pulled in the joint. . , family" (See his marvelous collection of girls," and , 1965.) under his control, and available/any time Marlon Tango ... er, Brando, made a essays entitled Wampeters, Foma, and But let lJ1e regain myrapidly vanishing he needed .less spiritual communion. surprise appearance, and rapped about Granfalloons), I neglected to mention the coherency. In 1968, Dennis Wilson joined None of the other Beach Boys could "turning five-oh." As illustration, he fact that Charlie did indeed have a , Mia Farrow, Erich Segal, 'and stomach , women or no. opened his sportcoat to reveal his Sunday recording career, if a very brief one. The a number of other celebrities in at­ But Dennis Wilson seemed to genuinely Paunch. He also donated $5000 to the story begins with a Beach Boys record tempting to find the meaning of life at the like the guy. Manson rapped and played proceeds of the concert, which went to the entitled 20-20, released in 1968, and cop­ feet of an Indian master of Transcendental his whining adolescent ballads, which the San Francisco public school system to bail eludes with a solo album called Lie! on a Meditation. He was, and is today, known other Beach Boys wanted nothing to do out its extracUrricular sports program. small underground label, released in 1969. as the . Now, most with. Finally, however, Brian Wilson A recent hoilseguest of Brando's made a 20-20, which has recently been of those celebrities are searching agreed to record one of the tunes if the surprise appearance. That houseguest was rereleased by Warner Brothers as a double elsewhere for the meaning of life, and have lyrics were somewhat altered. Which was no less than that aforementioned friend of with Wild Honey, was ' been replaced by such notables as Joe understanda ble. the Band, . He jammed with final outing on Capitol, the rights to which Willie Namath. This is a reasonably 'good The song was a death chant entitled Young and the Band, and joined them in were subsequently purchased by Warner's example of the Law' of Karma. So it goes. "Cease to Exist. "It was changed first to singing "The Weight," "I Want You" (His "Cease to Resist", and finally, "Never "I Want You," not the Beatles), "Will the when the group changed labels. It is what When Wilson returned from India, he is known in industry parlance as a garbage Learn Not to Love." Outside of the crude ' Circle Be Unbroken," and a somewhat started 'bumping into Manson at parties basic structure, there is little left of ;revised "Knocking On Heaven's Door," album, though the epithet in this case is the latter crashed on the Sunset Strip. totally undeserved. What happened was Manson, as we now know, was nothing Manson in the final product. Thank . with new lyrics about life in Dylan's new that the Beach Boys owed one last lp to By early 1969, Wilson came to the sad neighborhood, Malibu, and with "the' more than a consummate bullshit artist. and sobering conclusion that he'd been ;Dragon" replacing "Heaven". - Capitol, so they threw together a mess of By applying the correct dosages of the unreleased studio material and singles had. Manson's Family had somehow ! A splendid time was had by all. appropriate mumbo jumbo, Manson managed to spend all his money and wreck that unfortunately never made the grade. convinced Wilson that they were on "the And while we're on the subject of Mr. all-his cars. Since Dennis Wilson was too 'Dylan, we'll end with an apology to five One such single was a psychedelic same wave length," to use the parlance nice a guy to deal with accordingly--and ' then popular among young celebrities in I Minnesota musicians . who were inad­ version of an old country standard entitled since he couldn't make the rent anyway-­ ;vertently omitted from my review of Blood "Bluebirds over the Mountains." It is an California. Dennis Wilson was such a he simply moved out and let the landlord celebrity. Sharon Tate and ion the Tracks. It seems that the rumor that unusual, very well done recording, as are finish the job. ;half of the album was done by these most of the songs on 20-20. And that in­ were such celebrities. To bring all of this to a merciful con­ 'musicians, as opposed to the ones listed on eludes "Bluebirds" flip side, "Never Through Wilson, Manson met Terry the album, turned out to be true. Learn Not to Love." The author is listed as clusion, 1 have not heard Manson's' solo Melcher. is Doris Day's album, Lie. Its meagre proceeds were Dissatisfied with some of the work with Dennis Wilson. He's the drummer, and the son, and he produced her television series. Eric Weisberg and Deliverance, Dylan brother 'of guitarist- Carl and enough to buy his defense attorney a meal He was the prior occupant of the house in 'went to Minneapolis, consulted with . his the resident genius Brian Wilson. or two. I have seen the lyrics. They are which the Tate murders occurred. At one even more meagre. brother David Zimmerman (In c)lse you Actually, however, if you simply consult point in late 1968, Manson almost had didn't know, Bob Dylan's name at birth Ed Sanders' The Family on the subject, Melcher convinced that filming and And so it. goes. was Robert Alan Zimmerman), and was you will find that Dennis Wilson, recording his family was worth his while. As to what went down at Kezar Stadium introduced by his brother to the five locals, erroneously called by brother Brian's Then Manson went ape after hearing a new in Golden Gate Park, San - Francisco, whose work is mostly on side one. name, simply did a bit of a rewrite job on a Beatles song called "." California, U,S.A. on l\iarch 23, 1975 ... Blood on the Tracks is currently having piece given him by Mr. Charles Milles Melcher backed off very, very quickly. The performers at Bill (Not Billy) its back cover altered to list the Minnesota Manson. And his house was chosen by Manson as a Graham's Snack Sunday benefit were as crew, so the names will be available Obviously, this doesn't seem fomake too target, in spite of the fact that he'd moved foliows: Tower of Power, the Doobie shortly. much sense. It seems hard to conceive of out. Manson was aware of that fact. . Brothers, the Jefferson Starship, Jerry BARRY U'OFFMAN

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