Marilyn Manson
Here's how the lineage goes. In the '50s there was Screamin' Jay Hawkins. The '60s had The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Problem was, these guys, as outrageous as they were, were one-hit wonders. Going over the top wasn't going to provide a long career. One group came upon the idea of blending outrageous Rock performances with the intensity of the Yardbirds' Blues-Rock. And just for good measure, and a lot of media attention, theses guys decided to call themselves Alice Cooper. They had their run in the '70s, until alcoholism and creative drain killed the deal. In the '80s, Twisted Sister picked up the Cooper mantel. Dee Synder and crew featured "high skool" oriented songs but failed to capture much of an audience. For a long time Shock Rock laid dormant. Too bad.
As Alice Cooper was racing up the charts so was David Bowie. Bowie and Cooper were at separate ends of the same spectrum. If Cooper's make-up was a mess, Bowie's was perfect. Cooper was the marriage of cheap horror movies and riff-Rock. Bowie was more of an artist and storyteller, creating the androgynous persona Ziggy Stardust.
Meanwhile, there was a kid, born in Canton, OH, who was attending a Christian school. For a school play he was cast as Jesus. Jesus! But the lure of Rock was too much. Moving with his family to South Florida when he was 18, Brian Warner started combining elements of both Cooper and Bowie while adding a third potent element. Daytime talk shows. Hang it all out. Every lurid detail exposed. No mercy. No justice. Just a load of notoriety. Good or bad doesn't apply. Just fame. The allotted 15 minutes.
 Marilyn Manson |
Warner's first clever stroke was picking a stage name. He took the first name of a '50s sex-goddess, icon, movie star and combined it with a '60s psycho-killer to come up with Marilyn Manson.
Marilyn Manson and the Spooky Kids soon paired down the name. Also along the way, band members took the first name of a model/actress and the last name of a serial killer: Madonna Wayne Gacy (keyboards), Ginger Fish (drums). Twiggy Ramirez (bass) and Zim Zum (guitar).
Following "Portrait of An American Family" in '94, Marilyn Manson returned two years later with the riff driven, nihilistic blaster "Antichrist Superstar." Nothing could top that, but "Mechanical Animals," in '98, clearly showed Marilyn Manson was still a contender. The group delivered "Long Hard Road Out," with the Sneaker Pimps, for the "Spawn" soundtrack. '99 found Marilyn Manson sharing a troubled tour with Hole. Manson fans eventually won with Hole bailing. In '02 "Holy Wood" hit the stores. The following year, with new bassist Tim Skold in tow, Manson released "The Golden Age of Grotesque."
'04's compilation "Lest We Forget" included previously released material plus heavy-handed covers of Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus," a hit in some quarters, Soft Cell's "Tainted Love" and the Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This). For awhile that looked like the end.
Overcoming a list of personal trials and tribulations, including divorce (from performance artist- that's a nice way to put it - Dita Von Teese), Manson returned in '07 with "Eat Me, Drink Me," the group/singer's sixth studio album. It was recorded at a rented home-recording studio in Hollywood by Manson and Skold. (The songs) are clearly written to seduce somebody," said Manson. "I don't want people to think that the record is some kind of exploitation of my personal life. At the same time, it also represents exactly who I am and what I feel. . . I really wanted to be a singer on this album."
"Eat Me, Drink Me" opens with the epic (six minutes), "If I Was Your Vampire," but first single, "Heart-Shaped Glasses (When The Heart Guides The Hand)" grabbed all the attention. Or at least the song's video did with Manson and girlfriend Evan Rachel Wood kissing maliciously while having sex. Now there's a visual! Oh and let's not forget the fake blood that rained down.
Manson garnered some '08 press with the announcement that ex-Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borland had joined his group. "(Borland) used to be in a really terrible band that he left because he felt that it was a destructive force in art," said Manson, getting catty at a press conference. Borland played his first Manson gig in Seoul, Korea.
Of course, nothing is ever settled in Manson's world. Just prior to the release of '09's "The High End Of Low," Manson announced Borland had left the group to rejoin Limp Bizkit.
"If the reason is money then I'd rather roll up a $5 note and shove it up my urethra," said Manson. "That move forever eradicated my feelings on his choices in life as an artist."
Borland's response was a little more measured. "I love Manson .. . . but it's the Marilyn Manson show over there," said the guitarist. "Limp Bizkit is more of a band."
Manson, no doubt, would dispute that assessment especially since Ramirez had returned to the fold (for the first time in nearly a decade). In addition, there was Fish and keyboardist Chris Vrenna.
Produced by Manson, Vrenna, and Ramirez, "The High End of Low" was recorded at Manson's Hollywood Hills studio (probably no better place to feed off the surroundings). "The record sounds very final, but it's almost optimistic -- though that feels like a strange word to use," said Manson. "Arma . . . geddon," was the lead single.
Even with a new album out the disarray that marked Manson's life did not go unnoticed. But instead of catching heat from the far right he got it from none other than Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor. "Seeing him now, drugs and alcohol now rule his life and he's become a dopey clown," said Reznor of his former protege. "He used to be the smartest guy in the room. And as a fan of his talents, I hope he gets his s**t together." And as if that message wasn't clear enough Reznor called Manson "a malicious guy [who] will step on anybody's face to succeed."
Right on cue, Manson told the world in '09 that he had contracted the H1N1 virus, better known as Swine Flu, just as the virus was catching on in the U.S. "I know everyone will suggest that f***ing a pig is how this disease was obtained," wrote Manson in a post on his MySpace Celebrity blog. "However, the doctor said, my past choices in women have in 'no way' contributed. . . Unfortunately, I am going to survive."
If nothing else, Marilyn Manson made the right wingers pay attention. Wanna show Rock is leading America's youth to ruin? Just point in Manson's direction. But what's lost is the simple fact that Marilyn Manson Rocks, and Rocks hard - lyrics spewing death, destruction and anarchy, lashed to a dense industrial sound. "Antichrist Superstar" ("The Beautiful People") is the best, followed by "Portrait of an American Family" then "Mechanical Animals." Great music to put on when the vicar comes over for tea. Aside from the "Spawn" soundtrack, Marilyn Manson is also on "Howard Stern's Private Parts: The Album." "Smells Like Children" is the weakest of Manson's albums but even it's a scorch-the-earth effort.
While "Holy Wood" has some powerful shots like "Disposable Teens," it didn't take a genius to realize Manson's tank was running low. Time for a change or at the very least a mid-course alteration. And where better to look for the future than in the past. According to Manson, "The Golden Age of Grotesque" was influenced by the decadent cabaret style of Germany's brief Weimer Republic. Germany, having suffered defeat in WWI and enduring a seemingly endless economic depression, many gave up any pretense by 1930 and lived recklessly self-indulgent lives. The moment and its pleasure were all that mattered. Of course, a few years later the Nazis rolled into power and blew the whole thing away. And like disco music of the late '70s, the whole business fell out of favor so swiftly that neither the creators nor the general public would admit they had anything to do with it. Over the years though, cabaret and disco have seeped through the cracks.
Actually, there really is very little direct Weimer/cabaret influence on "The Golden Age of Grotesque." One suspects Manson was simply watching Bob Fosse's Cabaret while writing the lyrics. Small point since this is a darkly rich album broadens Manson's audience without compromise.
Here the Manson career arc mirrors Alice Cooper. Once shocking, both are familiar showbiz mainstays, who are bigger than the groups that spawned them. After creating anthems for a generation they both turned inward. Cooper presented the self-centered mock-horror of "Welcome To My Nightmare" and "Alice Cooper Goes To Hell." Manson is a little more on track with "The Golden Age of Grotesque." The album opens with a collage of industrial noise aptly entitled "Intro" that rolls into the Acid Jazz/bonus beats of "This Is The New Sh*t." Is it now? The Rockers, "mObscene" and "Ka-Boom, Ka-Boom" stand out with their campy cheerleading backing vocals. It's an amusing combination. "Doll-Dagga Buzz Buzz Ziggety-Zagg" is far and away the most ear catching track. It gallops along with a smart arrangement and nonsense lyrics. Actually, it's a lot of fun as Manson takes his Goth Rock into the swing era.
"The young get less bolder
The legends get older
But I stay the same."
Those lines from "Mutilation Is The Most Sincere Form Of Flattery" can also serve as a review of "Eat Me, Drink Me."
Some musicians rouse themselves after they suffer a personal trauma to create a work of stunning depth and genuine meaning. More often though, performers wallow in the mire of self-pity producing an album so maudlin not even the most ardent fan can get through it. "Eat Me, Drink Me" is not the former, and mercifully, not the latter. Though the interminable verses of "If I Was Your Vampire" and the plodding "Putting Holes In Happiness" head in that direction.
Lyrically Manson is often on a more personal level. There are lines of vulnerability ("love you so much you must kill me now" from "Vampire") but they are countered by Manson's predictable swagger. Returning to "Mutilation" Manson wraps up an f-word barrage with the lines, "Do you really think that I wouldn't say this? You know that I play this better than you." Yes, "Eat Me, Drink Me, is really just "business as usual." Manson is still the dark provocateur blending Glam Rock and Metal into an over-the-top potion. "The Red Carpet Grave" provides lusty horror-Rock theater. But there are a couple missteps before "Eat Me, Drink Me," connects again with "Heart Shaped Glasses (When The Heart Guides The Hand)," the bass driven "Evidence" and the Metal mashing "Are You The Rabbit?" Then there's the typical Manson song, "You Me And The Devil Makes 3" - a charming little Goth Rocker. The title track closes on a deliberately edgy note.
"The High End Of Low" badly wants to be edgy but like the 11th sequel in the Friday The 13th franchise, this is a pale imitation of past glories. Still, Manson (and band) deliver trademark performances on "Pretty As A ($)," "Leave A Scar" ("what doesn't kill you is gonna leave a scar"), and "We're From America." "I Have To Look Up Just To See Hell" could have fallen right out of the Cooper's "Welcome To My Nightmare" songbook. But "Arma . . . geddon" isn't the f***ing mind-blower it was intended to be, though the image of "satanic girls gone wild" sticks.
To conclude the Cooper analogy: Well into his career Alice dismissed his original band, released a series of acrid ballads ("Only Women Bleed," "I Never Cry" and "You & Me") and showed up regularly on the charity/celebrity golf circuit - becoming the Jack Nicholson (circa R.P. McMurphy and The Joker) of Rock.
For a career upswing, Manson may not have to resort to self-referential or double-entendre ballads (which is good since he's merely OK at them) but he might want to invest in a reliable 9-iron.