Irrational Obsessions

[Really Big Shoe]

 

 

The Dennis Wilson and Charles Manson stuff is very real.

 

Super interesting, too. Being a horny musician, Wilson picked up a couple of female hitchhikers and took them home, not knowing they were part of the Manson family. Manson himself showed up later, and basically took over Dennis Wilson's mansion for a year, filling it with girls and drugs. Wilson fell under Manson's spell, considering him a guru, and let the family have free reign over his money, which they spent on cars and treatment for their rampant STDs, almost bankrupting him. Wilson also bought into Manson's music, and via Terry Melcher -- record producer and son of Doris Day -- got him a demo recording session, but Manson was uncharacteristically nervous in front of the mic and fucked it up, never hearing back.

 

Eventually, the Manson Family had trashed Wilson's home so much that he just upped and left it to them, while Manson seethed at Wilson and Melcher about his 'sabotaged' record deal, when the Beach Boys used a reworking of one of his songs, uncredited. The first of the double-murders of Sharon Tate and her friends happened at the former home of Terry Melcher, where he'd been taken by Wilson previously, leaving Wilson traumatised until his death that he was partially to blame.

 

Yep. Watched a documentary a few years back called "Cease to Exist" which is about the Wilson/Manson connection. You can check it out in full here:

It's also in parts on Youtube. Both Dennis and Brian fell under the spell of others. In Brian's case it was Eugene Landy. In Landy's defense he got Brian fit as he weighed upwards of 300lbs at one point but he had a deleterious affect on Brian's mental health, story goes he plied him with anti-seizure and other medication that affected him more, like leaving him with speech issues and such. The whole story of the Beach Boys is fascinating because you had Dennis the rebel who went up against their father Murry, Brian the musical genius who internalized his emotions and had a melt down, Carl I think was fairly stable but I think Brian said in his first book he mentions Carl resorted to eating a lot of junk food at one point to counter-attack his treatment by Murry Wilson. I guess Murry's the equivalent of Joseph Jackson, a totalitarian, dictator type. He also released a record of his own called "The Many Moods of Murry Wilson".  He also used to terrorize and scare Brian with his glass eye but whether that story is true or not I'm not sure. As Landy was one of the co-writers, or ghostwriter of the book which is full of anti-Mike Love sentiment. Some of it warranted but one story goes that Stan Love (NBA star Kevin Love's father) and another guy basically strong armed Brian into getting treatment. Mike's got a book coming out soon and so has Brian, so it'll be interesting if Brian retells the stories or whether it has a more happier tone. But going back to Dennis, he rebelled against his father and was a Loose Cannon type. I think if he had cleaned up his lifestyle and found the right manager he could have been a breakout star. I think the songs on Pacific Ocean Blue were only scratching the surface and despite his womanizer type reputation I think Dennis was a prolific writer of long songs. He co-wrote "Forever" with Gregg Jakobson (also credited on POB IIRC) which is one of the better love songs by the Beach Boys. Brian's view on the song

 

"Forever' has to be the most harmonically beautiful thing I've ever heard. It's a rock and roll prayer."

[garynysmon]

Election coverage. I've watch people discussing the counting of votes for any old shit. Not sure I'd class it as irrational, but it's not something I could easily explain. It began well before I had a clue about politics too, the 92 General Election. Perhaps it had something to do with staying up late and my parents letting me, or perhaps it was the simple pleasure of watching numbers come in, people attaching meaning to them and producing charts about them on the hoof. Shout out to my boy Anthony King, who never seems to do them anymore, probably because he's fucking ancient now. I'm not a fan of those cunty Jeremy Vine CGI pieces though. They're obviously designed to be so shit that they're entertaining, but give me a simple pie chart and a uncomfortable spokesman trying to explain why his party have shat on the toilet floor over that any day. Luckily they seem to have phased those out. 

 

I used to record election night or referendum coverage on LP videos as a kid and almost got aroused when I found out BBC Parliament had started showing historic election night broadcasts in full.

[patiirc]

One of my most irrational obsessions is with secret and quirky weapons and equipment of World War 2.

 

I love stuff like PLUTO, Mulberry Harbour's and Double Duplex Tanks.

 

 

I still despite many attempts to understand it dont get how Germany managed to become so militarily powerful when the basic drawing board to production plan was as follows.

 

Company pitches working and tested prototype to the branch of the armed forces they wanted their device to go to.

 

Top brass, basically, pimp their ride adding a load of features including decals and fluffy dice, then force said company to produce new 'shiny' device which is now completely unfit for purpose.

 

That's all after putting their hands in a lucky dip bag and seeing which device will get made. It's beyond mental how they ever got anything done.

[Teedy Kay]

Mine's the American Wild West. I'm not much of a reader nowadays so when me and the Mrs finally bought a house and the obligatory emptying of parents loft space happened she was stunned at the amount of books I had on the subject. Doc Holliday being my favourite person of that era.

 

Talking to an older lad at work whilst watching High Plains Drifter one evening, he told me he would love to learn more about the real Wild West rather than just films and he was over the moon the following night when I gave him everything I had.

[Keith Houchen]

But did he like the books?

[Sergio Mendacious]

But did he like the books?

[WyattSheepMask]

Phantom of the Opera for me.

 

I fucking love it, from the original novel to the musical and even the downright silly Joel Schumacher movie which had Gerard Butler playing the Phantom and making a case for being over-dubbed.

There's just something the story and the musical would convert well to bring in a metal style which is something I've always wanted to do, but I also love to know the history of the production and people who have been cast in it over the years.

It also has sentimental value as Id never had the chance to see it, and then my wife suprised me with tickets for it on my 30th birthday.

[RIDDUM_N_STYLE]

Phantom of the Opera for me.

 

I fucking love it, from the original novel to the musical and even the downright silly Joel Schumacher movie which had Gerard Butler playing the Phantom and making a case for being over-dubbed.

There's just something the story and the musical would convert well to bring in a metal style which is something I've always wanted to do, but I also love to know the history of the production and people who have been cast in it over the years.

It also has sentimental value as Id never had the chance to see it, and then my wife suprised me with tickets for it on my 30th birthday.

Have you seen any of the horror versions, particularly the 1925 Lon Chaney and 1989 Robert Englund ones?

[Sergio Mendacious]

Also, are you aware of the Lloyd-Webber version?

[Guest]

I became interested in seeing The Phantom of the Opera when I heard a particularly good version of the title song a few years ago. Then I read up on the actual plot, and my enthusiasm evaporated pretty quickly.

[WyattSheepMask]

 

Phantom of the Opera for me.

 

I fucking love it, from the original novel to the musical and even the downright silly Joel Schumacher movie which had Gerard Butler playing the Phantom and making a case for being over-dubbed.

There's just something the story and the musical would convert well to bring in a metal style which is something I've always wanted to do, but I also love to know the history of the production and people who have been cast in it over the years.

It also has sentimental value as Id never had the chance to see it, and then my wife suprised me with tickets for it on my 30th birthday.

Have you seen any of the horror versions, particularly the 1925 Lon Chaney and 1989 Robert Englund ones?

Yep, got both versions, and like them both for completely different reasons

[EdgarTheSlouch]

Phantom of the Opera for me.

 

I fucking love it, from the original novel to the musical and even the downright silly Joel Schumacher movie which had Gerard Butler playing the Phantom and making a case for being over-dubbed.

There's just something the story and the musical would convert well to bring in a metal style which is something I've always wanted to do, but I also love to know the history of the production and people who have been cast in it over the years.

It also has sentimental value as Id never had the chance to see it, and then my wife suprised me with tickets for it on my 30th birthday.

Actually, me too. Been into since I was 9 or 10 and seen every film adapation of it - even the Charles Dance version. And my ex fiancee did the same and surprised me with tickets about 7 or 8 years ago.

[Polish Dad]

It's the American Revolution for me. Spent a while in Boston in my formative years, and I became obsessed with the whole thing.

Naturally, I've been jizzing myself silly over Hamilton since it came out.

[HarmonicGenerator]

It's the American Revolution for me. Spent a while in Boston in my formative years, and I became obsessed with the whole thing.

 

Naturally, I've been jizzing myself silly over Hamilton since it came out.

 

It's been a couple of months since I downloaded it and I'm still jizzing myself silly over Hamilton on a daily basis. It's already led to me reading up more on the Marquis de Lafayette and Hercules Mulligan, for starters, and it's taken Bobby Roode's GLORIOUS entrance music to finally kick Hamilton music out of my head, where it's resided pretty much permanently since May.

 

EDIT: Well, that lasted until lunchtime. 'Wait For It' was just on the radio and Bobby Roode's been knocked out of my head by Aaron Burr.