I was working on this on Halloween, but got sidetracked by going to Six Flags and giving myself little safe scares in my stomach from roller coasters. anyway it was shaping up pretty nicely so I guess ill finish it today (12/1/11)
Since it’s (it was) Halloween I'm going to tell you about my experience with Marilyn Manson in 1997. There are a number of good reasons that I got really into Marilyn Manson in 5th and 6th grade, even though I later discovered how much he straight lifted from Alice cooper and David bowie. I mean, seriously: Mechanical Animals is a poor man’s Ziggy stardust. I was already into Trent Razor via my cousin getting “the downward spiral” tape, and having his parents take it from him for the parental advisory type content, it was ok though the mark had been made, I liked industrial music.
It’s no coincidence that Manson’s 1996 concept album “Antichrist Superstar” was produced by Trent Reznor, and it sounds like it. Marilyn Manson’s music isn't metal in the traditional Black Sabbath or Iron Maiden sense, its definitely industrial music, and there is no Marilyn Manson without nine inch nails.
There are a few things about Marilyn Manson that really appealed to me around age 12 or 13: I was already angsty and pissed off (as is natural for any preteen raised on grunge music), he scared the shit out of the adults (not my parents, they knew better), I had a crush on my sisters babysitter Anna who was a 9th grade goth chick, and I really embraced the whole goth kid social outcast persona. I had started painting my nails in 5th grade to emulate what I saw Billy Corgan doing, and I got the shit kicked out of me for it, but it was worth the shock and awe campaign I was waging on my classmates in my little Massachusetts town.
I am listening to “Antichrist Superstar” today, and it’s a pretty decent record, although derivative of a lot of the stuff that shocked white Christian parents in the 70’s and 80’s (Kiss, Alice Cooper, Slayer). I read the book that Manson had written (see: ghostwritten) with Neil Strauss about the process of recording it and touring, and it was as depraved as one could expect. The whole thing fascinated me well before I understood any of it. The whole thing has the brilliance of Reznor’s production all over it, and my understanding is that the actual musicians were interchangeable session players, switched out between tours and albums.
There were all of these pre internet urban legends surrounding the guy, about having his ribs removed to fellate himself, killing puppies and eating babies…and really, we had no idea what was true, which added to the whole mystique of the whole thing. Does Manson eat aborted fetuses' with his oatmeal in the morning? who knows?
There is one day that changed everything for me as an adolescent and the American landscape at large : April 20th, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold committed the most horrific act of school violence that the world had ever seen. The press were pointing fingers at Marilyn Manson, and DOOM… I fucking loved Marilyn Manson and DOOM. The adults were disturbed by the whole Satanist goth rock thing before columbine, but after it people were terrified of their own children. I knew what it was like to be victimized by adolescent bullying, and in a way I understood those two boys and the way they felt. I would never do anything like what happened in Colorado on that day, but I would press the threat button for attention. Hey, man, I’ve been pretty fucked up for as long as I can remember. A weird thing happened when my worst bully and i were suspended from 7th on the same day for fighting each other: we bonded over Magic The Gathering, and Resident Evil 2, and became inseparable best friends for the next decade. Dave Lawrence, man, love that fuckin guy.
With all of the hype and shock, I can say that “The Beautiful People” is an absolute banger for the ages (you can even ask my mother, she loves it) , and I remember seeing Manson preform it with his butt hanging out in some kind of BSDM corset thing at the 1997 Video Music Awards, and just being floored. You have to understand the moment in pop music history, it was the peak of the Lou Pearlman, Florida, total request live, backstreet pop machine. After all of that saccharin boy band, “hit me baby one more time” material, here comes Marilyn Manson, talking about all the beautiful people from some kind of Hitleresque neofascistic podium… the guy was seizing the moment with some serious shock Rockstar shit. If I'm going to go back to that musical period of my development, I'm more likely to listen to Trent (the records are better, more nuanced), but the antichrist of 1997 has a special place in my streaming habits.
After 7th grade, and “Mechanical Animals”, I fell of the Manson train to listen to bands like Minor Threat, Dead Kennedys and the whole golden age (1999) of melodic emo punk (ish) music (Saves The Day, New Found glory). Today, though i am really digging the record that pushed me through middle school, black nail polish and all.
It all kind of seems like some quaint parody of itself now, but, that shit was pushing all kinds of buttons in the late 90’s, and I was all for it.
