Charles Manson "Lie: The Love and Terror Cult"

"Lie: The Love and Terror Cult is the debut album by Charles Manson, originally released by ESP-Disk. Recorded on September 11, 1967 and August 9, 1968 (overdubs), its distribution began during the Manson murder trial by Phil Kaufman who initially pressed a run of 2000 copies, that of which only 300 sold. He later approached ESP-Disk about putting out the album in hopes for a wider circulation, which they agreed to. The cover is a copy of the December 19, 1969 Time Life front cover, on which Manson had appeared, only with "LIFE" substituted with "LIE." Taken from Wiki.

Ever wondered what would be Charles Manson music? Well, I thought about it before I heard his stuff. It's folk. Simple, traditional folk. Nice lyrics, too. I wouldn't label it as psychedelic music... many people have said it's kind of psychedelic: it's just an acoustic guitar and Manson singing, most of the time, why does that seem psychedelic to so many individuals? More easily, Charles Manson' music fits into outsider music.

The track list is the following:

1. "Look at Your Game, Girl" – 2:03
2. "Ego" – 2:27
3. "Mechanical Man" – 3:18
4. "People Say I'm No Good" – 3:20
5. "Home Is Where You're Happy" – 1:29
6. "Arkansas" – 3:03
7. "I'll Never Say Never to Always" – 0:41
8. "Garbage Dump" – 2:34
9. "Don't Do Anything Illegal" – 2:52
10. "Sick City" – 1:36
11. "Cease to Exist" – 2:12
12. "Big Iron Door" – 1:10
13. "I Once Knew a Man" – 2:33
14. "Eyes of a Dreamer" – 2:35

My favourite tracks are: "Ego", "Eyes of a Dreamer" and "Cease to Exist". This album has some cohesion and as I have said before, pretty simple. The album's lenght is 31 minutes and 53 seconds.

You can get it here.

Below is a video of the song "Ego":

Daniel Johnston "Fun"

Daniel isn't only recognized by his music. He's one of those artists who are constantly categorized as genius or insane. He got to make this album, I think, on Atlantis Records because at that time (1994) Kurt Cobain was wearing all the time a t-shirt about one of his albums- see the image here. And I don't want to offend anyone, but Daniel Johnston isn't clearly very stable, psychologically - he has a bipolar disorder /manic depression.
Labeled as folk rock and simultaneously "outsider music", his sonic adventures are catchy and feature remarkable lyrics. Lyrics that not only speak of his experiences, but also show us another side of a person who's got a disease: this kind of thing just adds more emphasis to the artist's work (just see Ian Curtis' epilepsy, Roky Erickson's schyzophrenia, Cobain's drug adiction, Jim Morrisson's acid trips, etc.).
Now this album isn't an occasional one that I feature here: it was given to me by my cousin yesterday, when I went to Coimbra to see Telepathe [again]. I've been hearing it and so I thought that I hadn't made a good post lately and I see there are many visitors around here.
This isn't imparcial, but who cares after all? Pitchfork has the same attitude towards its reviews and criticism. My favourite songs are: Life in Vain (2- this song is exceptional, I love the guitars and violins that appear here, so nostalgic), Happy Time (5), Foxy Girl (8), and Rock 'n' Roll / EGA (18). Actually, I haven't heard this album so many times that I can point out the songs I like more. Oh, and it's the first Daniel Johnson's album I hear too... Sorry if I make some mistakes during this review.

You should also check the documentary that was made about this fascinating man: "The Devil and Daniel Johnston".

Try listening to the album by clicking here.

Here's Daniel holding a Beatles record.