Nicholas Tochka analyzes the role of rock music in the life of Charles Manson, the Family, and the August 1969 Tate-LaBianca killings, which also gives larger insight into Sixties counterculture.

Failed singer-songwriter. Devious cult leader, a rock Pied Piper. The product of a sick society. Just another dime-a-dozen singing hippy mystic. Did the guitar-playing guru personify the violence that the rock counterculture had inflicted on American society? Or did his music diagnose the dehumanizing effects of that societyâs broken institutions?

For over five decades, commentators have debated the meaning of Charles Manson and the Tate-LaBianca killings. A key thread linking their narratives has been rock music: from the acid-drenched singalongs at the Spahn Movie Ranch, to a bizarre theology centered on Beatles songs, to his communeâs alleged links with Hollywoodâs elite, to Mansonâs own album, LIE: The Love and Terror Cult (1970). In this first comprehensive examination of the Manson Familyâs music, Nicholas Tochka writes with, against, and alongside the many authorsâ"true-crime hacks, gonzo journalists, conspiracy theorists, and rock critics alikeâ"who have told and retold the story of âthe Manson murders.â Playing the truth games that these postwar Americans helped invent, The Musical Lives of Charles Manson presents a boldly revisionist take on the story of the communeâ"and rock musicâs role in fracturing the possibility of writing trustworthy histories after the Sixties.