Customer Reviews

Family Jams

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

From start to end this album is great. Every tune has a great toe-tapping sing-along melody, great voices and even better lyrics.
At times Clem sounds a lot like Manson with his singing and singing in the background are Gypsy, Blue, Ouisch, Cappy and Brenda.

If you love Manson's music, this is essential. If you like 1960's anti-war, anti-establishment folk music, this even more essential.

I am so glad this has made it to the mainstream, where it deserves to be. It's such a beautiful album and I'm glad more people are made aware of it and have a chance to listen.

A very creative mix of hot, sunny, tribal desert and cold, misty, black woods witchy! A very eerie album.
It has a bit of a Black Sabbath feel & might well appeal to people with heavy/alternative musical tastes however i should add that there is nothing heavy about 'the family jams', no distorted guitars or heavy drums but rather cowboy-like folk songs(get on home) or psychedelic nursery rhymes(give your love to be free) or both(scratching peace symbols in your tombstone). Some feel more like tribal chants(no-wrong come-along) & gypsy's violin brings a slight hera-krishna style sometimes & a sad touch other times.

Mostly a happy, peace of mind, upbeat feel but with a twist of psychotic darkness all at the same time, the cover art completly captures the spiritual mood & magic of the music & the little skull in the cave(or whatever it is) seems to personify what i mean about a touch of psychotic danger.

The acoustic guitar in songs like 'ra-hyde away' can be very entrancing & the backing vocals is absolutly beautiful,
the girls vividly portray the wind howling through the trees & its as if their spirits are released from their bodies & become the wind, dancing with the stars to a full lunar & the witchy spirit of the ghostly sounds they emmit could only come from the hearts of free minded angels who truly appreciate nature & understand the air, water & earth is just as alive as plants & animals!

I would class this album as 'psychedelic' or 'stoner music' if i had to categorize it but it realy is original. The backing vocals are sometimes just as forefront as the male lead vocals & they switch about, this is what really makes it unique, the lyrics are very poetic, "Quicker, than quick-silver on the hand, its fast disappearing as the water on the sand", kinda like Marlyn Manson's style of poetry, & apparently all music & lyrics were written by Charles Manson(what a mind).

If you'v never taken taken any drugs before, you'r probably less likely to fully appreciate the spirit of the trance, like beatles fans who liked the 'boy meets girl' teeny-boper early stuff but "lost them" when they came out with the magical mystery tour, the inner light, lucy in the sky & within you without you. Generally its people who'v at least smoked marijuana that 'get it', however you might still appreciate 'the family jams' if you like yoga, meditation or dabble in astral projection! If on the other hand you like Eastenders, Sugerbabes, Obama, Coronation St, Mcdonalds, Lady Gaga & Deal or no deal & you think rock music is the devils work & Bill Hicks is evil & Alice in wonderland is crap then this album will likely hurt your ears & drive you nuts!

This album is art immitating the lives of the musicians & an understanding of how these people lived would probably help make sense of it, then again the music would likely give you an appreciation of how they lived even if you didn't already know.
I dont know where i get this opinion from but i don't think this album was intended to be sold or be anything big, i get the feeling it was more of a 'family thing', like how most families have photo albums or make family videos of hollidays & birthdays etc, & it seems to me like their way of recording their life to some extent, getting everyone together at the saloon & casualy capturing life on the ranch & out in death valley, being at one with nature & not conforming to the status quo, ignoring reality & living in the moment. When listening to it i really feel like i connect with their hearts & souls, like the spirit of their love is captured & reflected back for me to absorb, almost like im part of it. This might just be my interpretation, i dont know.
I dont think the family was quite as adept as Ray Mears at living off the land or as skilled in bushcraft as the native tribes but im sure it would have been their 'cup of tea' (since they sometimes ate from bins). Charlie grew up in prison, his father was the jailhouse, he was not a survival expert but certainly had the mind for it, if someone showed him how or the knowledge was made available, i think that would have made the link to completly free, indiginous living, cut off from the system & no recognition of money, not unlike the native Americans whom they remind me of. Their philosophy, spirituality & the values they hold are certainly more admirable than the egoistic, materialistic garbage many of us still have sewn deep into our psyche & instill in our children.

Unfortunately the band was never profesionaly recorded & although the music is great, the quality of the recording is quite poor, about the same as 'Lie: The Truth & Terror Cult'(mabey slightly better), the first few songs on disc 2 is even worse but then gets better(just slightly poorer than disc 1).
It truly is sad that they were suppressed & ignored by the industry & denied access to proper recording facilities
despite their unique talent, so i guess this album is just a taste of what Mansons music could have been had it even a fraction of the support some crappy pepsi sponsered bands get, its such a shame because the family members who made the albums voices have probably matured past their best & even if the songs were covered by like-minded, highly talented people(which would be amazing) it still could never be the same, so i guess this album is the very last remants of the original Family Jams, but hey, at least something was saved.

Steve Grogan delivers sure justice in standing in for charlie who was on trial at the time, (a mock trial thats outcome was controlled) & although charlie is not present, his mind & philosophy seems to be reflected by Grogan & on listening to Mansons music it becomes clear why the estableshment need him behind bars, now that the whole world knows who he is & young people are flocking to the ranch to join the family, he could have very well contributed to bringing down the criminal syndacite of estableshment power & helped save humanity from itself! The bare faced cheek of these genicidal manical pigs pretending to be passionate & using the tate-la bianche incident as a pretext for keeping this political prisoner jailed while they run drugs, debt scams & war-for-profit rackets killing & torturing millions directly & otherwise is one thing, & im not saying what manson did was justified or not (or even that he did it) but for satan himself to judge & condemn a man who hasn't commited a fraction of a microdot of their crimes & the general public actually buying it is a crime unto itself!.

Those of you who haven't had a chance to hear Charlie's friends sing his music, you are missing out. This is even better than "Lie". Clem (Steve Grogan) sings lead male vocals, back up vocals are sung by: Red (Lynette Fromme), Blue (Sandy Good), Ouisch (Ruth Ann Moorehouse), Capistrano (aka Cappy- Cathy Gilles), Brenda (aka Gold, Nancy Pitman), Gypsy (Catherine Share), plus other members. Gypsy even plays violin. All songs are written by Charlie, but due to extenuating circumstances, he was not present when this was recorded. Alot of talent is on this CD. You won't be sorry for buying it!