Manson Murders – A Karmic Throw of the Dice – 1969, Tarantino, The Beach Boys, Terry Melcher, Candice Bergen, Joanna Pettet, Paul Revere & the Raiders, and Synchronicity

10050 Cielo Drive, Benedict Canyon, L.A., CA – circa late 1960s

A Karmic Throw Of The Dice – 1969
Tarantino, The Beach Boys, Terry Melcher, Joanna Pettet, Charles Manson,
and Paul Revere and the Raiders

Of all of the relevent songs in Quentin Tarantino’s film, “Once Upon A Time In Hollywood”, the most meaningful was his placement of Paul Revere and the Raiders’ “Hungry”, “Good Thing”, and “Mr Sun, Mr Moon” – a Raiders’ album cover is even seen late in the film.

Columbia Record’s producer Terry Melcher, the son of famous singer/actress Doris Day (Que Sera, Sera), produced many top bands like The Beach Boys, The Byrds, and The Mamas and the Papas with highly successful results, and especially with The Raiders during their prime.

Dennis Wilson of The Beach Boys, was a friend of Melcher, and through two female Manson Family members he picked up hitch-hiking Wilson met Charles Manson and was impressed with his music.

Wilson introduced Manson to Melcher, and The Beach Boys recorded a couple Manson songs produced by Melcher.  On the verge of signing Manson and filming a documentary about the “Family”, both Wilson and Melcher came to their senses after witnessing an intense encounter Manson had with another at the Spahn Ranch, home base for the Family.  Melcher and Wilson immediately distanced themselves from Manson.  Melcher declined to sign him – Manson got angry and began stalking his house. Remember that fact, that it was the “house”, not Melcher.

Melcher and his girlfriend, the epitome of the ’60s/’70’s blonde tanned pretty actress, Candice Bergen, and Raider lead vocalist Mark Lindsey had just moved out of the 10050 Cielo Drive Beverly Hills house they shared, and where all of the Raiders would often gather to discuss new songs with Melcher.

Soon after, the house was leased to Roman Polanski and his actress wife Sharon Tate.

Some surmised that Manson did not know this fact and that Sharon Tate, her unborn child, and four other adults were slain at the residence on Aug. 9, 1969 by members of the Manson cult as people who were “guilty by association”. Cult members later admitted that Manson had ordered the murders of everyone in the house in order to “instill fear into Terry Melcher.”

Melcher died of malignant melanoma in 2004 convinced he had been Charles Manson’s intended murder victim.

Murdered for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? This theory has been disputed, but not disproved – as anyone who has even casually investigated this case knows that there were nefarious machinations going on far beyond what the media reported, let alone what the public knew.

And while many “friends and associates” of Polanski have claimed that they were supposedly to have been there on that dreadful night, but did not make it for one reason or another – Melcher, Bergen, and Lindsey, as well as possibly other members of the Raiders, all seriously evaded death by a karmic throw of the dice. Actress Joanna Pettet had lunch with Sharon Tate, on that fateful day and left just before the massacre – very lucky girl.

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. . . and then there’s the curiouser and curiouser rabbit hole . . . JUMP IN!

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INSTANT SYNCHCHRONICITY

So, 00 wanted to add a quick take on the very limited pressing of the Manson “LIE” album, which led to the thought of writing a post on hoax and/or just unique controversial vinyl albums.

The first to come to mind was the supposed 1969 supergroup of Dylan, Jagger, and Lennon, as
The Masked Marauders.
Then the synchro-trip began; when after all of these years of having this album, 00 only found out the day before this post that the cover was of a black and white still from the 1969 Roman Polanski directed film, The Fearless Vampire Killers” – the mysterious woman on the cover –  Sharon Tate!

1960’s and 1970’s Culture Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Setting History Straight: Manson and Altamont Were Not the End of the ’60’s Love Generation / Counter-Culture!

“Manson: the Spiritual Voice of Reason at Altamont” copyright 2016 00individual  TLL

Experience Rock and Counter-Culture History!
SETTING HISTORY STRAIGHT:
Manson and Altamont WERE NOT the End of the ’60’s Love Generation!

The Easy Excuse
The highly erroneous “fact” that is generally felt is that Manson and Altamont were the historic causes of the end of the ‘60s, the end of Peace, Love and the Counter-Culture’s reign, the end of a dream.  While this may be symbolically true, it is just a lazy connect the dots for superficial news and inaccurate and slanted ulterior-motive mainstream-lined reporting of history.

Charles Manson “the Love and Terror Cult Leader” (sheesh) was, from his troubled youth, a prison-indoctrinated socio- pathic criminal, and the Hells Angels were a Biker gang – neither represented, nor had anything to do with the Counter-Culture’s Vibe.  Yet it is so easy to write-off the end of an era based on two sensationalized incidents than to delve into the real reasons for the end of the ’60s.   Those two incidents were easy wish-fulfillment for the masses by the media’s exploitation of the “we knew it all along, Rock ‘n’ Roll concerts were evil, and underneath, all Hippies were drug-crazed blood-thirsty sex-fiend savages”.

Freedom, Peace, Love, Equality, Individuality, Power to the People, Sex, Drugs, and Rock ‘n’ Roll was what the Counter-Culture was about – not a violent drunken biker gang, nor a twisted mind.  The truth was far from those sensationalized incidents, yet they were used as weapons by the media and controlling powers against the Counter-Culture.

Every peace-loving, Marijuana-smoking, acid-tripping, anti-war, independent-thinking Hippie and Counter-Culture individual felt the end coming, and unfortunately it began long before Manson and Altamont ever happened.

The Painful Truth
Back in the ’60s hitch-hiking was not only an acceptable form of transportation, but mostly a pleasurable way to meet, talk, and get high with Brothers and Sisters.  Likewise, the Counter-Culture opened their homes to others as a place to crash for the night.  This was a reciprocal unspoken Brotherly gesture of friendliness and trust.  Usually, the next day your new friend would roll a joint, share a smoke, and bid you adieu and continue on – in some cases that new friend may have been you.

However, on the day that a Brother opened his home to another Brother to crash for the night only to find out the next morning that he’d been ripped off began the domino effect of distrust – THAT was the moment and cause of the Fall and eventual End of the ’60s.

Sad, but in retrospect it was inevitable that some soulless bad apples would eventually break the universal bond of trust and take advantage and ruin a beautiful thing.  Manson, the “poster boy” for Hippies was 180 degrees from the truth, yet it seemed like America was relieved to have this single “bad apple” represent a whole culture – and there was absolutely nothing that could be done about it – a negative and ugly tide had turned.

The combined escalated negativity toward the Counter-Culture and the Counter-Culture’s growing distrust of their own unfortunately created a new justified paranoia that extended from the establishment to the guy on your couch.  And along with the Vietnam War and assassinations, it was signaling the overall beginning of the end of free-form fun as was known, and gave way to a far more serious atmosphere.

But 00individual didn’t let two incidents, a war, further persecution by society, injustice, propaganda, justified paranoia, and being prime meat for the Draft keep from stopping him, oh no, there was still a ton o’ fun to be had, and the Pinnacle of Rock to experience!

And yes, it was all about fun, it was unavoidable, this was the ’60s.  Heads knew how to rise above the fray, as from here on into the ’70s it would be a hard-core, fun, psychedelic, drug-fueled, white-knuckle ride.  Groovy!

. . . and then there’s the open-minded Rabbit Hole . . . JUMP IN!

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Actually the ’60s and ’70s Counter-Culture ended on February 20, 2005,
that’s the day that Hunter S. Thompson,
the last of the Wild Bunch, ended it.

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