Sept. 24, 2025
The Origin of Weird: Dennis Wilson and Charlie Manson
The shocking intersection of California surf culture and one of America's most notorious killers comes to light in our exploration of Dennis Wilson's dangerous dance with Charles Manson. What began as a chance encounter with two young hitchhikers in 1968 evolved into a bizarre living arrangement that would haunt the Beach Boys drummer until his tragic death. When free-spirited Dennis welcomed Manson and his "family" into his Pacific Palisades mansion, he couldn't have imagined the consequenc...
The shocking intersection of California surf culture and one of America's most notorious killers comes to light in our exploration of Dennis Wilson's dangerous dance with Charles Manson. What began as a chance encounter with two young hitchhikers in 1968 evolved into a bizarre living arrangement that would haunt the Beach Boys drummer until his tragic death.
When free-spirited Dennis welcomed Manson and his "family" into his Pacific Palisades mansion, he couldn't have imagined the consequences. The Beach Boys drummer found himself hosting a non-stop party of spiritual discussions, LSD-fueled orgies, and late-night jam sessions – all while Manson methodically positioned himself to break into the music industry. Meanwhile, Manson's followers were bleeding Wilson dry, wrecking his cars, running up astronomical bills, and gradually taking control of his home.
Dennis genuinely believed in Manson's musical potential, arranging professional recording sessions and even convincing the Beach Boys to record Manson's song "Cease to Exist" (released as "Never Learn Not to Love"). But when Wilson took sole songwriting credit and altered the lyrics, he ignited Manson's rage. Their relationship deteriorated to the point where Wilson abandoned his own home to escape, and Manson responded by sending a bullet with a chilling threat.
The most devastating aspect of this story is how close Wilson came to the violence that would eventually shock the nation. Patricia Krenwinkel, one of the hitchhikers he initially picked up, later participated in the brutal Tate-LaBianca murders. Wilson never publicly discussed his association with Manson, reportedly carrying the guilt until his drowning death in 1983 at just 39 years old.
Join us for this captivating exploration of how one of America's beloved musical icons narrowly escaped becoming another victim of Manson's madness, leaving us with his father's haunting advice: "Be careful who you choose as your friends."
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00:00 - Meet the History Buffoons
01:08 - Dennis Wilson's Fateful Hitchhikers
05:07 - Manson Moves In
09:22 - The Beach Boys Connection
16:15 - Music Dreams Turn Sour
24:28 - Breaking Ties and Deadly Threats
29:08 - Murders and Aftermath
32:36 - Dennis Wilson's Tragic End
WEBVTT
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oh, hey there oh, hey, there, that was so just delicate the way you said it I am delicate let's not get carried away with nonsense speaking.
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I'm a delicate flower.
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Oh, that seems weird and inappropriate.
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Why.
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Hey, we're the History Buffoons, and this is the Origin of Weird.
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I'm Kate.
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I'm Bradley, the Delicate One.
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There's Delicate Flower Kate for your listening enjoyment.
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Yes, Origin of Weird, where we try to find the origin of of weird.
00:00:51.823 --> 00:01:03.345
Feels a bit redundant at the moment so anywho I've got a story for you okay I wonder if you might actually know it.
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You had said there's a possibility that I could.
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Potentially, potentially Okay.
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So it all starts on one night in spring of 1968.
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1968 in April, you said oh, you just said spring.
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I'm sorry, I don't know why my head went to April.
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Do you know who Dennis Wilson is?
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It sounds familiar.
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He is the member of a band.
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Yeah, the Beach Boys, that's right Good job.
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Yes, dennis Wilson is the drummer of the Beach.
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Boys.
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Correct, because most people know Brian Wilson better, because that's his brother who was like the mastermind of writing for the.
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Beach Boys.
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So, Brian, excuse me, Dennis, Dennis Wilson, the drummer was driving through LA when he picked up two young hitchhikers on Sunset Boulevard.
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Okay, popular road.
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So the drummer he's 23 at the time.
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He is already known as being a wild, free spirited member of the Beach Boys, and he actually did give a lot of rights to strangers.
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So is it.
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Do you want me to guess, or do you just want to keep going?
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Yes, I'd like you to guess is this where he like meets charlie manson?
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Yes, yeah, did you know that there's a song out there by charlie manson yes, okay he was like infatuated with it and they were just I'm sorry you don't yeah.
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do you want to do the story?
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No, okay.
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I don't have.
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I don't have all the specific details that you may have.
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I thought maybe you might know just because you're a music guy.
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But yeah, so he brought two women, identified as Ella Jo Bailey and Patricia Krenwinkel back to his Pacific Palisades home for just kind of like a friendly hangout, and at Dennis's house that day the vibe was pretty innocent.
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He had milk and cookies for the girls.
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They chatted about spirituality, All right.
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Dennis was into transcendental meditation and the teachings of um ma Maharishi Mahesh Yogi at the time.
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What was the first part?
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I'm not going to try again.
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Could you it's?
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It's not like Maharaja type.
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Maharaj Raj Raj she.
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Maharaji something like that yeah, Um.
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So the young women were like oh, we have a guru too.
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His name is Charlie.
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Yeah, yeah.
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So the young women were like, oh, we have a guru too, His name is Charlie.
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Yeah.
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Charlie is not a guru.
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Of course they're talking about Charles Manson.
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Yes.
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Who is 33.
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At the time.
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He was an ex-convict and he was aspiring musician and labeled himself as a hippie guru.
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Yep, so manson had spent half his life in jail and learned manipulation and charisma along the way.
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Well, if you know anything about the background of him too, he had some help how did he get help?
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Continue and we'll get into it.
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Maybe, depending on how long this is, that might be another discussion some other time so in 1968 he gathered kind of a makeshift family, mostly drifters, mostly women, and they saw him as kind of a mystic yep.
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So that night dennis left for a recording session and the two girls returned to wherever they were staying.
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Yeah.
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And in the early morning hours.
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A couple of days later, dennis Wilson came home around 3 am after a studio session.
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Okay, there were lights on in his house Interesting and there was a dilapidated school bus parked in his driveway.
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He's like that, ain't mine I don't know whose that is he had a ferrari that he would like drove up.
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He stepped out of his ferrari and dennis was approached by a slender, long-haired man with a scraggly beard.
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Yeah, yep, and Dennis asked the stranger are you gonna hurt me?
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And the man broke into like this big, warm smile.
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He dropped to his knees and he kissed Dennis's feet.
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That's weird.
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He says do I look like I'm gonna hurt you brother?
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Brother.
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But he was being ushered back into his own house and dennis found um kind of a hippie fever dream.
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There was a beatles record on while a dozen young women, some topless, started mingling and giggling in the living room.
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Okay.
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And his two hitchhikers were there.
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Yep, okay, now they introduced Dennis to the man who had kissed his feet.
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Charlie, their saintly guru.
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Jesus Christ.
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Within minutes of meeting Manson.
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It was like Manson owned the place right um.
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Dennis, although startled by his actions, didn't object to charlie kind of making his way through the house sure um in 1960s.
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There was it was a time of like spontaneous friendships and expert exploration, that things like that Peace and love.
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Yeah, exactly, and Charles Manson exuded this charisma that Dennis found compelling, intoxicating.
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Yeah, so once Charles Manson entered into Dennis Wilson's world, he and his family basically showed no signs of leaving dennis.
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Let them move right in and make themselves at home oh and throughout the summer of 1968, manson and a dozen of his devotees essentially camped out in wilson's mansion that's crazy they parked their dilapidated bus outside and draped scarves and tapestries over lamps and filled the rooms with incense, smoke and guitar music.
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Oh Lord, At first Dennis Wilson really didn't mind.
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He actually really enjoyed it.
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I'm sure he was the thrill seeker of the band, so he was always up for a good time and Newhouse guests provided plenty of that.
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Right.
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So his his home was filled of energy and laughter and willing young women.
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So Charles Manson arrived with this entourage of women who adored him and wanted to please Dennis as well.
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Sure wanted to please dennis as well sure mike love, who is um dennis's cousin and fellow bandmate, later said dennis was enthralled by him, not least because charlie manson came with this group of girls devoted to him right so mansion manson, essentially like, pimped out his girls to integrate himself with Dennis Yep and, as Beach Boy Mike Love said, he said Dennis became the perfect mark, a famous, well-connected entertainer who had something Manson wanted.
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Right.
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A music industry access, yep and in turn, mans has something dennis wanted a stable of young women who cater to his every desire, right?
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So this mansion transformed into like a non-stop party sure there were nude lovins in the swimming pool, late night jam sessions and an ever-flowing supply of drugs and alcohol.
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Dennis affectionately called Manson the wizard.
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Oh geez.
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Believing that Charlie had deep spiritual insights.
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Okay.
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So for a while the agreement felt mutually beneficial.
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Yeah, of course Dennis had no shortage of companionship.
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At one point he was living with 17 women.
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Jesus Christ.
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Mm-hmm and Manson in turn enjoyed the perks of the rock star life Right.
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Rock star life right.
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So, by day, the cult leader would um, profanicate about god and the devil and strum his guitar and write music, while his followers, like, raided dennis's closets and kitchen and basically made the whole mansion oh yeah at night they trippedpped on LSD and they danced in the moonlight.
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Group sex was a regular occurrence.
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Lsd fueled orgies became routine.
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In an outbreak of gonorrhea went through the house.
00:10:15.918 --> 00:10:17.918
I'm surprised that's all that went through the house.
00:10:18.179 --> 00:10:21.811
Yeah, of course Dennis footed the bill for all of the penicillin shots.
00:10:21.811 --> 00:10:28.924
Jesus Christ for all of the penicillin shots, jesus christ.
00:10:28.924 --> 00:10:33.038
So the other beach boy bandmates kind of looked on and in disbelief at this bizarre situation like what the fuck's going on over here?
00:10:33.038 --> 00:10:39.821
Yeah, mike love remember visiting dennis during that summer and finding this scene just incredibly weird.
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He said one evening dennis invited mike and fellow uh fellow Beach Boy, bruce Johnston over to meet Manson and the family Right and the guests arrived to find an unsettling dinner party already happening.
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Okay.
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Love said, bruce and I were the only people at dinner who had clothing on, I figured that was where that was going.
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Yeah, yeah, I figured that was where that was going, yeah.
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Yeah, so after a meal with these nude women, like serving the food, manson dimmed the lights, switched on a strobe lamp and invited everyone to take LSD.
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Yeah so Mike Love declined the acid.
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Sure, he excused himself to the bathroom.
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Okay, decline the acid.
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Sure he excused himself to the bathroom.
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Okay, charles manson suddenly opened the bathroom door.
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Who, while mike was?
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showering.
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Oh, he went in to go take a shower apparently weird yep, and charles manson walked into the bathroom while he's being showered and basically stares at.
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Mike love Okay, that's kind of creepy.
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And he says you can't leave the group.
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Okay, why?
00:11:53.469 --> 00:11:54.712
why did he think he was going to leave?
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probably because he was feeling uneasy already sure so love basically described like how intense manson's gaze was and just how terrifying he seemed right.
00:12:10.270 --> 00:12:15.226
So manson was essentially warning him that once you're in charlie's world you don't just walk away.
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Of course mike love got out of there as fast as possible.
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I'm not surprised.
00:12:20.429 --> 00:12:28.649
I mean especially if this creepy fuck is coming in and walking in on me in my impromptu shower.
00:12:28.830 --> 00:12:33.345
Yeah, in my bandmates house which okay, that would make sense.
00:12:33.465 --> 00:12:34.486
But there's all these people here.
00:12:34.486 --> 00:12:40.054
Why would you choose to take a shower at your bandmate's cousin's house?
00:12:40.336 --> 00:12:42.919
I mean out of everything in this story that seems the most odd.
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Oh, 100%.
00:12:45.548 --> 00:12:49.115
I mean you know how many people have naked, topless or whatever dinner parties?
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I mean, come on, they're old hat.
00:12:52.065 --> 00:12:55.174
So Dennis remained under Charlie's spell.
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He genuinely believed that Manson had talent and wisdom worth sharing.
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So he brought Manson to the elite Hollywood parties at his home, letting Charlie and the girls perform for his famous friends.
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Okay, music industry figures like producer Terry Melcher, who is son of Doris day yeah and songwriter greg jacobson I don't know if I know who that is um, they were introduced to manson during these gatherings and to them dennis raved about charlie songwriting and cosmic philosophy, calling him magical jesus christ.
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For dennis, who had always embraced the california counterculture, um, meeting manson felt like tapping into, like a progressive side of the 60s scene.
00:13:46.798 --> 00:13:47.947
Sure makes sense.
00:13:47.947 --> 00:13:49.250
So the beach boys.
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The beach boys had just launched their own record label, brother records.
00:13:53.368 --> 00:13:58.938
Okay, and dennis even floated the idea of having manson be one of their new artists.
00:13:58.938 --> 00:14:18.648
Oh boy, uh, dennis did gush that manson um, sings, plays, writes poetry and may would be a great artist for brothers records I don't know about that I don't know about that Manson Manson's hold over his followers.
00:14:19.567 --> 00:14:21.688
They pretty much obeyed his every word.
00:14:21.948 --> 00:14:22.188
Right.
00:14:23.190 --> 00:14:24.831
And his temper sometimes flashed.
00:14:25.711 --> 00:14:26.030
Of course.
00:14:26.650 --> 00:14:29.211
Through his little peace and love facade, of course.
00:14:29.211 --> 00:14:39.756
So some of Dennis's entertainment industry friends found Charlie more creepy than charismatic, yeah, and just thought he was a little seedy.
00:14:39.777 --> 00:14:40.677
Mm-hmm.
00:14:41.197 --> 00:14:42.158
Mm-hmm, because he was.
00:14:42.158 --> 00:14:42.619
Yeah.
00:14:42.619 --> 00:14:47.900
Over time, even Dennis began to feel a strange power shift in his home.
00:14:48.260 --> 00:14:48.701
Okay.
00:14:49.162 --> 00:14:53.725
One day he realized that the family had essentially taken over the mansion Right.
00:14:53.725 --> 00:15:03.634
They slept in his master bed while he ended up crashing on the couch what on his own property kick him the fuck out, man, it's your place.
00:15:03.894 --> 00:15:07.614
Yeah, dennis, I don't care what kind of weird magical power charlie had over you.
00:15:07.634 --> 00:15:11.386
That's your bad dude yeah, dennis felt he no longer was in control.
00:15:11.386 --> 00:15:18.323
Clearly, all the while, charles manson never lost sight of his big ambition, which was a career in music.
00:15:18.323 --> 00:15:32.460
Okay, and living with Dennis Wilson was like the perfect springboard, with the Beach Boys as his new quote unquote friends, manson imagined that it was only a matter of time before he got a record deal and fame as a singer, songwriter.
00:15:32.460 --> 00:15:35.772
Right, and Dennis encouraged his dream.
00:15:36.433 --> 00:15:36.775
Of course.
00:15:36.775 --> 00:15:37.327
Why wouldn't he?
00:15:37.528 --> 00:15:37.770
yeah.
00:15:37.770 --> 00:15:47.465
So he found something in manson's music, raw songs inspired by charlie's obsession and the tension, um, he observed around him.
00:15:47.465 --> 00:15:53.370
He wrote the song cease to exist okay okay.
00:15:53.370 --> 00:16:01.917
By mid 1968, Dennis arranged a chance for Manson to record some demo tracks.
00:16:01.917 --> 00:16:08.642
He invited Charlie to use Brian Wilson's state of the art home studio in Bel Air.
00:16:08.802 --> 00:16:09.143
Sure.
00:16:09.664 --> 00:16:27.673
Which is his Dennis's brother, yep, and even brought in professional engineers and producers to witness Manson's potential potential okay so this was the moment that charlie was waiting for yeah, this is his time to shine, basically of course it did not go well no, because he's not that good or is he a good guy?
00:16:28.014 --> 00:16:29.157
well, it has not.
00:16:29.157 --> 00:16:32.128
You know how many shitty people make good music?
00:16:32.128 --> 00:16:33.009
Yeah, a lot.
00:16:33.671 --> 00:16:55.552
So so things started off on the wrong foot when manson showed up at brian wilson's house with a few of his female friends in tow of course while manson tuned his guitar, the women of his family helped themselves to brian's swimming pool, stripping naked and splashing around in full view of brian's wife, marilyn, who was not amused.
00:16:55.773 --> 00:16:56.615
I'm sure she wasn't.
00:16:57.376 --> 00:17:00.849
Once in the studio Manson proved to be fairly uncooperative.
00:17:01.311 --> 00:17:01.793
Oh Jesus.
00:17:02.265 --> 00:17:06.828
He had no experience in proper studio recording and responded poorly to any guidance.
00:17:07.171 --> 00:17:07.491
Of course.
00:17:07.491 --> 00:17:09.712
Why would he have any experience with that?
00:17:09.712 --> 00:17:16.548
This is literally the first time he's doing it and he wants to run the show, even though he doesn't know what the fuck he's doing in this world.
00:17:18.170 --> 00:17:28.970
So the Beach Boys' chief audio engineer, stephen Desper, recalled that Charlie was not going to be reproduced, reproduced or just produced.
00:17:28.970 --> 00:17:33.913
Oh, produce, oh, my word Produce.
00:17:33.913 --> 00:17:36.762
He was not going to be produced, so he refused to take produced.
00:17:36.782 --> 00:17:40.105
There you go so he refused to take direction or do multiple takes.
00:17:40.105 --> 00:17:46.258
He had no idea what recording sessions were about, how to make records and he was not a professional artist.
00:17:46.258 --> 00:17:53.313
And producers tried to tweak Manson's songs and of course Charlie was not going to have that.
00:17:53.313 --> 00:17:58.657
He became frustrated and paranoid that his artistry was being messed with.
00:17:58.964 --> 00:18:00.230
No, it was being fixed.
00:18:01.145 --> 00:18:05.516
At one point he reportedly pulled out a long switchblade.
00:18:05.816 --> 00:18:06.718
Oh, Jesus Christ.
00:18:07.644 --> 00:18:10.554
Obviously that made everybody extremely uneasy.
00:18:10.755 --> 00:18:11.036
Yep.
00:18:12.465 --> 00:18:20.338
And the engineer Desper whispered to his colleague saying this guy is psychotic.
00:18:20.779 --> 00:18:20.940
Yep.
00:18:20.940 --> 00:18:26.757
If only everyone would have listened to him Seriously.
00:18:27.125 --> 00:18:31.817
So after multiple hours, Manson's big break collapsed.
00:18:31.817 --> 00:18:35.074
He got into a heated argument with the studio team.
00:18:35.074 --> 00:18:35.484
Oh, geez.
00:18:35.484 --> 00:18:42.058
He got into a heated argument with the studio team and ultimately stormed out of Brian Wilson's home in a fit of anger, leaving his recordings unfinished.
00:18:44.047 --> 00:18:49.659
Was Dennis there as well for this session, or was he just there with Brian and the other people?
00:18:50.205 --> 00:18:52.872
I actually didn't read if he was there or not.
00:18:52.892 --> 00:19:13.292
I was curious because he clearly is the one that vouched for him right up and down, because he was kind of like you know, in a trance transfix, whatever you want to say with charlie, that's what happens when someone keeps feeding you lsd yeah hence the reason of my comment before, because he didn't just magically just go buy lsd.
00:19:13.353 --> 00:19:22.239
He was, he was supplied it yeah mainly yeah, I don't know if you've heard any of the weird fucking theories about the cia and charlie manson and all that shit.
00:19:22.239 --> 00:19:36.835
So there's some weird theories that are ultimately pretty true maybe a story for a future episode maybe but even if dennis wilson wasn't a part of it, he did know that what happened.
00:19:37.625 --> 00:19:41.796
And he was disappointed, but he didn't want to give up on this potential protege.
00:19:41.796 --> 00:19:45.865
Okay, so Dennis took a different approach to get Manson's music out.
00:19:45.865 --> 00:19:53.618
He decided the Beach Boys themselves would rework one of Manson's songs without explicitly crediting Charlie.
00:19:54.444 --> 00:19:57.335
That seems like a bad idea for someone so unstable.
00:19:58.586 --> 00:20:03.037
The song was Manson's folk ballad cease to exist.
00:20:03.037 --> 00:20:13.298
Dennis Wilson loved the song's melody and the Beach Boys ended up recording the track in September of 1968.
00:20:13.298 --> 00:20:15.853
But with significant changes.
00:20:15.853 --> 00:20:29.655
Right, dennis altered some of Manson's lyrics and polished the arrangement Sure, the band released it under a new title Never Learn Not to Love Yep.
00:20:29.655 --> 00:20:33.752
It was a single in December of 1968.
00:20:33.752 --> 00:20:45.171
Crucially, dennis Wilson took on, took sole credit on the songwriting, and Charles Manson's name appeared nowhere on the record.
00:20:45.250 --> 00:20:46.054
Yeah, exactly.
00:20:46.885 --> 00:21:09.950
So at first Manson was flattered that his creation was being performed by the beach boys, sure, but then he realized how much change changes happened with the song he got kind of pissed and he got mad yeah he didn't mind gifting a song to dennis, but he wanted his name on that song because he wanted the credit for it he wanted.
00:21:09.970 --> 00:21:15.973
That's all he wanted he didn't want to actually produce good music, he wanted to be famous.
00:21:15.973 --> 00:21:17.076
Famous, yeah Is what it was.
00:21:17.664 --> 00:21:24.916
So that was deep betrayal in Charlie's eyes and his friendly guru facade was fading at this point.
00:21:24.916 --> 00:21:26.790
Sure, and Manson was seething.
00:21:26.790 --> 00:21:32.056
So by the end of 1968, dennis Wilson was start.
00:21:32.056 --> 00:21:40.347
Excuse me, the Dennis Wilson Manson connection was starting to spin out of control.
00:21:40.347 --> 00:21:41.088
It's crumbling.
00:21:41.088 --> 00:21:46.439
Yeah, so, um, so, financially Dennis was being bled dry.
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