On this day in 1970, a Cincinnati native (whose "celebrity" we do not celebrate locally, Nick Lachey-style) released one of the few albums we will gladly tell you to seek out and download illegally, should you need to hear it. Lie: The Love and Terror Cult, the "debut album" from singer/songwriter/cult leader/convicted murderer Charles Manson, was recorded on Sept. 11, 1967, and released just months before the murder trial of Manson and his "family." A year after the album was released, four Manson Family members (including Manson) were sentenced to death (in 1972, the sentences were reduced to life in prison after California abolished the death penalty in that state).
The album's original pressing reportedly only sold 300 copies, but subsequent reissues (proceeds from which were given to the families of Manson's victims) kept the notorious cult leader's weirdly experimental, psychedelic Folk Rock songs alive for future generations of musicians to cover. Guns N' Roses were the biggest band to ever cover one of Manson's songs. The convicted killer was an aspiring Rock Star who had schmoozed his way into the SoCal music scene of the late ’60s, most notoriously befriending Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson (The Boys' reworked one of Manson's compositions on the 1969 album 20/20).
Other artists covering Manson over the years include Marilyn Manson (no relation) and wacky actor Crispin Glover.
Here's the song GNR recorded for its 1993 covers album The Spaghetti Incident?, "Look at Your Game, Girl."
Click on for Born This Day featuring Pink Floyd's David Gilmour and more …
—-Born This Day: Musical movers and shakers sharing a March 6 birthday include legendary Jazz guitarist Wes Montgomery (1923); the late founder of pioneering Hip Hop label Sugar Hill, Sylvia Robinson (1936); singer with The Supremes, Mary Wilson (1944); drummer for preppy Indie Pop sensations Vampire Weekend, Chris Tomson (1984); and Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour (1947).
While Gilmour, Rick Wright and Nick Mason kept Pink Floyd alive for years as a major touring entity, singer/bassist Roger Waters has been the one taking advantage of the band's legacy on the road in recent years. On the heels of the just released "Immersion Box Set" reissue of The Wall, Waters is touring a huge concert production of the band's famed concept album. Presumably while Gilmour sits back and counts all the cash he and his other bandmates made on the road in previous decades.
Last May, Gilmour joined Waters on his tour stop in London to perform The Wall's "Comfortably Numb." Of course, even if Waters and Gilmour patched things up and decided to hit the road together again, Pink Floyd can't full reunite — keyboardist Wright passed away in 2008 (though the band did carry on with quite a bit of success after losing its original frontman, Syd Barrett). This brief cameo is chill-worthy if you're a Floyd fanatic.
