The LA Times is reporting that a LA store co-owner, who produces records in his spare time, has received death threats for releasing Charles Manson’s music. This may sound like an old story, but Manuel Vasquez is defending a little bit more than freedom of expression.
With the help of Kickstarter, Vasquez raised several thousand dollars to be able to print the album cover (a geometric design done by Manson and a sketch of Manson by a fellow inmate) and press 500 copies. Recorded in the 80s, in a room above the prison chapel at California Medical Facility in Vacaville, the music was obtained by Vasquez last year, and with Manson’s encouragement, he created an album. So far, about 200 copies (at $18 each) have been sold at his 'The Beauty Is Pain Boutique', and he pretends Manson doesn’t get anything from the sales.
However, not everyone is a supporter, as Vasquez explained:
‘I've gotten some hate mail from it. There are people not appreciating the release of music by him. People say they don't understand why I'd want to associate myself with this or why I would be interested in releasing it.’
People, including his parents, who ‘don't want to have anything to do with him’ as he said: ‘They asked why I was doing it and did I know what I was getting into — did I fully understand the extent of what it means?’
But one of the problems of this story is that Vasquez, who has befriended Manson in prison, doesn’t believe Manson is guilty, and thinks his followers acted on their own. Yeah, right!
This last act shows that Manson hasn’t lost any of his evil charisma, as the 26-year-old seems to be under his spell when he declares:
‘I usually tell people that the perspective they have of Manson is what he was convicted for in 1969, not for what he became in prison. He is somebody who is obsessed with ecology and saving the earth, the environment and animals. Life is his obsession, not death’,… err, so were Hitler and the Nazis, you know!
I wonder who could possibly buy this?
Curious perverse nostalgic old guys with swastika tattoos ? Vasquez describes the music as ‘really low-fi, mono’, but he recognizes that ‘Manson's nasal, bluesy folk music-like sound won't appeal to everyone’, adding:
‘I don't think there was ever a chance for mass popularity of his music. Most people won't like it. It probably requires an acquired taste.’
I don’t care if someone release the entire Manson catalogue or set up an exhibit for Hitler’s lost paintings, I will always be against any censorship in art and expression, but this guy is so mislead, it’s pathetic! Have you ever heard some of Manson’s insane rants on TV about,…. I still don’t know what they were about, the guy is a mental case, a complete psychopath capable of the most non-sense verbal diarrhea, wrapped by pseudo-intellectual delusional vocabulary, but apparently it is still working its charms, and I seriously worry about Vasquez’s future.