“Charlie Manson is dead: goodbye and good riddance from The Victims.”
That pretty much sums up the attitude of ‘Charlie’, a thrilling 72-second punk blast written forty years ago by drummer James Baker (of Beasts of Bourbon and The Scientists) and Dave Faulkner of Hoodoo Gurus, after seeing Helter Skelter, a (not-very-good) film made about the Manson Family killings.
“People were endlessly fascinated by the lurid details of the murders”, a press release explains, “and the bizarre world of Manson and his followers, his co-called ‘Family’. The Victims took a different view – they thought Charles Manson was a total loser.”
Forty years later, with Manson freshly dead, the band have seen fit to release the tune, which they finally recorded earlier this year. Excitingly, this is one of six Victims songs that stem from 1977/78 that the pair, with Ray Ahn from The Hard-Ons on bass, recorded in these 2017 sessions.
More music is coming soon. Until then, enjoy ‘Charlie’.
