Charles Manson's life as a failed musician, Beach Boys hanger-on and mediocre songwriter

LOS ANGELES - Starting in the 1970s, not long after Charles Manson directed his followers to murder seven people over two bloody nights in Los Angeles, the convicted killer's music and notoriety fueled a small underground industry.

The allure was centered on Manson's only album, recorded in Los Angeles in 1967 and '68 and issued a year after the 1969 murders. Manson, it turns out, was a failed folk rock artist who desperately sought the attention of a Los Angeles music scene then thriving in the studios, labels and clubs along Sunset Boulevard.

He didn't get it, and that rejection by insiders including the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson and record producer (and Doris Day's son) Terry Melcher helped ignite Manson's rage.

Called "Lie: The Love and Terror Cult," Manson's album was issued on an imprint