Sam Kinison on Charles Manson
It seems almost obligatory, after finishing Helter Skelter, to have a temporary obsession with the Charles Manson “family”, driven by morbid fascination. I think I’ve pretty much sated mine with three evenings on YouTube watching documentaries and interviews. 1
Before two weeks ago I knew practically nothing of the Manson murders, and what little I’d heard was mostly wrong. My impression of Charles Manson had been colored by a fairly obscure bit on Mansoniana: Sam Kinison’s 1986 routine on his first album, Louder than Hell. 2 Someone had posted a sound-only recording on YouTube (the sketch doesn’t appear in the corresponding video), but it was removed for a Terms of Use violation within an hour or two after I found it. Sigh. I found two or three other copies, but none of them included the second half, about the Sharon Tate murders.
I thought it should be accessible in some form on the Net because, despite its many historical inaccuracies 3, it ranks among Kinison’s most tasteless, and therefore best, work. A thorough sweep of YouTube and the Web in general, though it revealed two different interviews that year appearing on national TV, failed to unearth the precise statements by Manson that Kinison quotes-so I suspect Kinison was taking some liberty with Manson's interview.
The full routine is behind the cut. If you’ve heard Sam Kinison, you know about his trademark screaming punchlines. I’ve put those in ALL CAPS.
Did you see Manson’s interview, did you see that-was that too funny? This guy is fuckin’ gone, folks. [Laughs] It’s like 1986, now. He’s been in the hole for seventeen fuckin’ years. You know, he was already sick goin’ in, you know. [Laughs] Yeah, he really-he’s on a comeback. Yeah. Let’s leave him alone, and let him talk to fuckin’ God. Oh, man, they pulled him out and they go, “Charlie, why’d you do it?”, and he goes, “I heard the album! I heard that goddamn White Album. ‘Why don’t we do it in the road?’ What do you think he was sayin’, man? ‘No one will be watchin’ us.’” And you’re sittin’ there, goin’-[chuckle]-IT’S A FUCKIN’ ALBUM! YOU WERE ON ACID, MANSON! IT’S A FUCKIN’ ALBUM! [Laughs] You’d have gotten the same message out of the Monkees, you fuckin’ dickhead! “Don’t you hear what he’s sayin’, man? ‘Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees! Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees! People say we monkey around!’ How clear does he have to say it, man? ‘Last train to Clarksville,’ whitey!” IT’S THE MONKEES! THEY WEREN’T EVEN A REAL GROUP, YOU FUCK! It’s so funny-this guy’s out there, he thinks it was all about him, he goes, “Didn’t you watch Charlie’s Angels? That was about me. You never saw Charlie, did ya?” It’s a fuckin’ TV show-oh, put him back down in the fuckin’ hole…. [Laughs]
That Sharon Tate thing-I live out-I’ve lived out in LA for, like the last four or five years, but it, uh…. The one guy I felt sorry for was this thirty-year-old Polish artist-his name was Wojciech Frykowski. He shows up-[chuckle]-it’s Laurel Canyon, it’s like his first Hollywood party. He’s all excited, you know. He goes in, they’re getting high, they’re laying around, a little drunk. All of a sudden-BOOM! The fuckin’ doors break in, and the Manson family comes in. Police report says they stabbed this guy fifty-one times, bludgeoned him in the head with a heavy object thirteen times, and they shot him twice. So I figure this guy’s by the door on their way out, going, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO LEAVE YET, DO YA? YOU DIDN’T PUT A CHAINSAW UP MY ASS YET!” [mocking, singsong] “MY HEAD’S STILL ON MY TORSO!” “I’M GLAD YOU FUCKERS CAN HANDLE YOUR HIGH!” Jokes for the demented.
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1I have, however, requested from the library the made-for-TV movie of the same name. From a clip I watched on YouTube, it looks pretty good. The courtroom scene is very faithful to the testimony as described in the book.
2Surprisingly, Kinison’s debut album isn’t available on CD, although the tracks are available for download. Kinison, famous for his screaming delivery and no-holds-barred tastelessness, jumped the shark almost immediately after the release of Louder than Hell. By the time of his tragic death in 1992, c/o a teenage drunk driver, he had pretty much exhausted his creative repertoire. Worse yet, his success allowed him to spend much of his creative effort on living his dream of being a rock musician, at which he, alas, sucked.
3I’m not going to list them all, but I did want to mention the most important one: Manson (who didn’t even accompany Family members to the Tate residence) explicitly told his followers not to get high on the nights of the murders, so they’d be fully alert and capable.
Before two weeks ago I knew practically nothing of the Manson murders, and what little I’d heard was mostly wrong. My impression of Charles Manson had been colored by a fairly obscure bit on Mansoniana: Sam Kinison’s 1986 routine on his first album, Louder than Hell. 2 Someone had posted a sound-only recording on YouTube (the sketch doesn’t appear in the corresponding video), but it was removed for a Terms of Use violation within an hour or two after I found it. Sigh. I found two or three other copies, but none of them included the second half, about the Sharon Tate murders.
I thought it should be accessible in some form on the Net because, despite its many historical inaccuracies 3, it ranks among Kinison’s most tasteless, and therefore best, work. A thorough sweep of YouTube and the Web in general, though it revealed two different interviews that year appearing on national TV, failed to unearth the precise statements by Manson that Kinison quotes-so I suspect Kinison was taking some liberty with Manson's interview.
The full routine is behind the cut. If you’ve heard Sam Kinison, you know about his trademark screaming punchlines. I’ve put those in ALL CAPS.
Did you see Manson’s interview, did you see that-was that too funny? This guy is fuckin’ gone, folks. [Laughs] It’s like 1986, now. He’s been in the hole for seventeen fuckin’ years. You know, he was already sick goin’ in, you know. [Laughs] Yeah, he really-he’s on a comeback. Yeah. Let’s leave him alone, and let him talk to fuckin’ God. Oh, man, they pulled him out and they go, “Charlie, why’d you do it?”, and he goes, “I heard the album! I heard that goddamn White Album. ‘Why don’t we do it in the road?’ What do you think he was sayin’, man? ‘No one will be watchin’ us.’” And you’re sittin’ there, goin’-[chuckle]-IT’S A FUCKIN’ ALBUM! YOU WERE ON ACID, MANSON! IT’S A FUCKIN’ ALBUM! [Laughs] You’d have gotten the same message out of the Monkees, you fuckin’ dickhead! “Don’t you hear what he’s sayin’, man? ‘Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees! Hey, hey, we’re the Monkees! People say we monkey around!’ How clear does he have to say it, man? ‘Last train to Clarksville,’ whitey!” IT’S THE MONKEES! THEY WEREN’T EVEN A REAL GROUP, YOU FUCK! It’s so funny-this guy’s out there, he thinks it was all about him, he goes, “Didn’t you watch Charlie’s Angels? That was about me. You never saw Charlie, did ya?” It’s a fuckin’ TV show-oh, put him back down in the fuckin’ hole…. [Laughs]
That Sharon Tate thing-I live out-I’ve lived out in LA for, like the last four or five years, but it, uh…. The one guy I felt sorry for was this thirty-year-old Polish artist-his name was Wojciech Frykowski. He shows up-[chuckle]-it’s Laurel Canyon, it’s like his first Hollywood party. He’s all excited, you know. He goes in, they’re getting high, they’re laying around, a little drunk. All of a sudden-BOOM! The fuckin’ doors break in, and the Manson family comes in. Police report says they stabbed this guy fifty-one times, bludgeoned him in the head with a heavy object thirteen times, and they shot him twice. So I figure this guy’s by the door on their way out, going, “YOU DON’T HAVE TO LEAVE YET, DO YA? YOU DIDN’T PUT A CHAINSAW UP MY ASS YET!” [mocking, singsong] “MY HEAD’S STILL ON MY TORSO!” “I’M GLAD YOU FUCKERS CAN HANDLE YOUR HIGH!” Jokes for the demented.
_____________________
1I have, however, requested from the library the made-for-TV movie of the same name. From a clip I watched on YouTube, it looks pretty good. The courtroom scene is very faithful to the testimony as described in the book.
2Surprisingly, Kinison’s debut album isn’t available on CD, although the tracks are available for download. Kinison, famous for his screaming delivery and no-holds-barred tastelessness, jumped the shark almost immediately after the release of Louder than Hell. By the time of his tragic death in 1992, c/o a teenage drunk driver, he had pretty much exhausted his creative repertoire. Worse yet, his success allowed him to spend much of his creative effort on living his dream of being a rock musician, at which he, alas, sucked.
3I’m not going to list them all, but I did want to mention the most important one: Manson (who didn’t even accompany Family members to the Tate residence) explicitly told his followers not to get high on the nights of the murders, so they’d be fully alert and capable.