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"All The Way Alive"UPDATE: I've been informed that the owner of People's Temple Records has passed away. His website is no longer online but the remaining stock is available at FamilyJams. Recently, People's Temple Records sent us a copy of their new Charles Manson CD entitled "All The Way Alive." I'm sure many Mansonologists recognize that phrase and it's initials (ATWA) which Manson, more commonly, uses to refer to Air, Trees, Water and Animals (his environmental cause). Manson had a demo recording session on September 11, 1967. For what it's worth, the World Trade Center attacks came exactly 34 years later, to the very day. Some of these sessions came out a little while back on a CD called "Charles Manson Unplugged." You can read about that disc by clicking here. At that time, two more volumes were planned but never seemed to make it out. Until now. This disc contains the remainder of the session. This disc includes the following 13 tracks: Devil Man Manson's style has remained consistent over the years and this is is very similar to his various prison recordings. The previous disc's title ("Unplugged") is pretty descriptive of the session. Manson sings while playing acoustic guitar and then follows it with a sentence or two of philosophy. Frequently, he adds on a little nervous laugh that shows us this is the Charlie that was hoping for a record contract. The sound quality could stand to be better. There's a bit of high-pitch digital noise at places, but these are over-shadowed by the historic nature of the recordings. Manson had been out of prison just six months at the time of these sessions. Eleven months later, he would record the "Lie" album which didn't get released. Another year down the road, the Cielo murders occurred. Could one see this as the first recorded steps of a hopeful songwriter who would later order murders out of musical frustration? Or is it an early viewing of a fresh ex-con who would successfully go on to build a large cult-like group of followers? There will always be people arguing both sides of that argument. Either way, if you follow the Manson case, this is definitely worthwhile since it gives you a little feel for what it was like to sit around with Charlie while he played and preached. The CD is limited to 1,000 copies so, if you want it, hurry over to Family Jams. |
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