Charles Manson was a well know American criminal that was born on November 12, 1934. He was the leader of the Manson “family” and orchestrated the murders for the sake of Helter Skelter, an apocalyptic war he believed would arise from tension over racial relations between blacks and whites.
The name for that war comes from The Beatles album, since he believed that there were secret messages hidden in the album. Despite having been 29 years old and imprisoned when The Beatles first came to America in 1964, Manson was obsessed with the group. At McNeil, he had told fellow inmates, including Alvin Karpis, that he could surpass the group in fame; to the Family, he spoke of the group as “the soul” and “part of ‘the hole in the infinite.’” Manson had a vision, that The Family would create an album whose songs, as subtle as those of The Beatles, would trigger the predicted chaos.
But Manson’s encounter with Pop culture had an interesting beginning encounter with The Beach Boys. Manson before becoming that crazy person had a dream to become a famous song-writer. Manson used Dennis to try to persuade the rest of the group to record some of his material and eventually the band did record a Manson composition called “Cease To Exist”. The title was changed to “Never Learn Not To Love” and was released as the “B” side of the single “Bluebirds Over The Mountain”, which climbed to number 61 in early 1969, giving Manson a hit record on Billboard’s Hot 100. It took a while for Dennis to catch on that Manson was a “hanger on” and by the time Dennis ended the friendship, Manson had soaked him for over $100,000. On August 9, 1969, a group of Manson’s followers brutally murdered Sharon Tate and other residents of a home formerly occupied by Beach Boys’ producer, Terry Melcher, who had moved out just a short time before. They also killed Leno and Rosemary LaBianca at their nearby residence. Manson and his associates were arrested on November 19th and when questioned by the press about his friendship with Manson, Dennis Wilson would only say, “I don’t talk about Manson, I think he’s a sick f**k.”
Here is the song in question
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Here is an interview he conducted in 2006
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