Charles Manson Discography - Lie: The Love and Terror Cult

Lie: The Love and Terror Cult

In 1968, Phil Kaufman, who had met Manson in prison, moved in briefly with Manson and his "Family". Kaufman continually urged Manson to record some of his songs.

While Manson was being held on the Tate-LaBianca charges, he told Kaufman "please put out my music." According to Kaufman, Manson phoned him five days a week, even though he was allowed only three phone calls per day. Manson was "very anxious for his music to be heard."

After established record companies declined to become involved, Kaufman raised $3000 and pressed 2000 copies of an album entitled Lie: The Love & Terror Cult. Consisting of recordings made from 1967 to 1969, the album contained thirteen songs. These included "Cease to Exist", a song the Beach Boys had recorded in modified form as "Never Learn Not to Love". Each of the original 2000 copies came with a poster that was put out by "A Joint Venture" and that bore signatures of many prisoners and inmates, all supporting Manson and the Family.

The album was released March 6, 1970. It was distributed on the West Coast, by the same people who did the first underground album, Great White Wonder, a collection of pirated Bob Dylan tapes. Over the next couple of months, only about three hundred copies were sold. Having supposedly failed to recover his investment, Kaufman signed an agreement with New-York-based ESP-Disk to distribute the album nationally.