Charles Manson: Music Mayhem Murder [Paperback]

Tommy Udo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2002

Detailed account of Manson's life, including his attempt to break into the LA scene of the mid '60s, to his bizarre relationship with the Beach Boys, his obsession with The Beatles, his demo releases from prison which achieved quadruple platinum sales, the resultant lawsuit to ban his royalties, his influence on Guns n' Roses, and his links with ne-Nazi rock underground.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: Sanctuary Publishing (August 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1860743889
• ISBN-13: 978-1860743887
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,602,373 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Don't waste your money, October 1, 2002

By 

"wishes34" (Cleveland, OH USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles Manson: Music Mayhem Murder (Paperback)

There are many more worthy books on the Manson case out there then this one. I patiently waited for publication, and was hugely disapointed in the whole book. It is an excellent music history but as far as anything on Manson goes it is just the same old same old...full of factual errors that even someone new to the case would spot...

Save your money and either borrow a friends copy (if they're unlucky enough to have purchased it) or borrow it from the library where I am sure no one will steal it as they have all the good books on Manson...

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Udo flees before dark..., November 21, 2007

By 

Chris Wilson "Chris Kent" (Dallas, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Charles Manson: Music Mayhem Murder (Paperback)

Everything about Charles Manson's 1969 crimes has been obsessively applied to paper, but the books keep rolling out with machine-like precision. Now we have the 2002 tome "Charles Manson: Music, Mayhem, Murder" penned by England's Tommy Udo. I purchased it at the discount bookstore, sold by the back cover mentioning the author heading west "on a hunt for answers." I thought to myself, "Hey, that's kind of cool," assuming it would be interesting to see the tale told from a modern-day perspective. Unfortunately, all he's willing to investigate is a Sunset Boulevard head shop (that is, no doubt, selling this book at this moment).

Udo is a fine writer, and he knows his music, but he offers absolutely nothing new to the case. His main theme appears to be an attempt to document Manson's supposed growing influence in today's vast rock music scene, flamed by the likes of Guns N' Roses, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. He makes some mildly interesting points, and I enjoyed the terrific quotes by Marilyn Manson following the Columbine tragedy. The very cult Udo smugly warns is rising around the Manson mythos is, however, fueled by shady books such as this. He tries to connect a few distant dots with interesting bits of trivia involving the Metal, Goth and Industrial scenes, but there's not enough documentation or knowledgeable interviews to support his leaky proclamation.

A number of factual errors are so inexcusable as to be surreal, and substantially weaken the book as a whole. Roman Polanski's first film as a director after the crimes was not "Chinatown" (page 40). In fact, the first film, Polanski's uncomfortably violent version of "Macbeth" (made two years after the murders), has been noted by critics as having eerie similarities to the crime itself, with Polanski admitting as much. Robert F. Kennedy was not assassinated in Seattle (page 117), but at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and "The Parallax View" were not inspired by the Manson crimes (page 178) - a stretch, to say the least, and an independent opinion on the author's part. Ironically, one could make an argument that the wave of "slasher" films rising to prominence in the 1970s were indeed inspired by these crimes, but the author never scratches that surface. On and on, the outrageous mistakes continue.

Udo has some interesting opinions on Manson's recorded music, and this is where his expertise shows. There's just not enough substance to quantify for anything more than a mildly interesting magazine article.

These days, the only way to write a book about this gory mess is to pen it in diary tone, personally documenting ones own observations and how they apply to U.S. society today. To Udo's credit, he attempts this vein, but the author does not possess enough emotional or intellectual maturity to support his book. The only time "Charles Manson: Music, Mayhem, Murder" comes alive is when he interviews a Los Angeles refugee of the 1960s (page 186). The man pulls out some snapshots from the period supposedly showing him, Dennis Wilson (of The Beach Boys) and Charles Manson at Wilson's Sunset Boulevard home. I've read enough books on this crime to know full well that very few photographs exist of Manson prior to his arrest in October of 1969 (and from 1967 to his arrest, practically none). In fact, there are no known photographs of Manson at Wilson's home with the exception of a blurry picture that could very well not be him. If Udo had printed this man's fascinating picture in his book, he would have had something new to offer (certainly it could have been marketed in such a way to boost the sales). The LA refugee offers to sell the pictures to him for $200. Udo, possessing the foresight of a rank amateur, refuses to buy. Thus, I must continue to trudge through his tedious exercise.

As the author documents, there's not much left in Los Angeles from the days of 1969. The house on Cielo Drive has been torn down and replaced by what appears to be a castle. Spahn Ranch is gone, though the hills remain. The Barker Ranch in Death Valley stands solemnly, but Udo's trip there takes up about a half page of shallow navel-gazing. If one chooses to wallow in the grubby spirit of this case, that locale is about the best place to do it. Udo flees before dark.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A musical history of Manson, November 4, 2003

By 

"girldrummer7" (Bellevue, NE United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Charles Manson: Music Mayhem Murder (Paperback)

To some people, they might not like this book, but doing my term paper on Manson, it was very helpful because I was showing the relationship between Manson and music. If you are reading this book just for factual information, there is better information available; but if you are reading this book for what the attended purpose is for: to understand how Tommy Udo relates music to Manson's famous history.

One of the reasons why this book is so good is because Udo did not just write about Manson, he actually asked people their point of view of Manson. Some girl said that she thought Manson was cool and Udo asked her some questions back and you could totally see that she knew almost next to nothing about Manson. Udo takes many points of view in to consideration when he wrote this book. Overall it is a good book and I think you should buy the book ONLY if you are interested in reading about the relationship of Manson and music.