THE LONG HARD ROAD OUT OF HELL

First off, lets put the music aside for a while and concentrate on the book and on the character that Marilyn Manson, born and raised Brian Warner, has made himself. I used to rather like Marilyn Manson even before I became a fan of his last album HOLY WOOD – which totally rocks, but we wanted to put the music aside, didn’t we – because of the way he tried to piss of society in any way he was able to. Ever since I saw two teenage girls in Vienna, dressed in Manson-shirts showing the devil-sign and screaming “Marilyn Manson” to a nun on the main shoppingstreet in our town, I liked the man. Now this book, aptly titled “The long hard road out of hell”, sheds more than a little light on the person and the persona.

The first chapters about his family, his childhood, his teenage years are light reading about heavy perversions, puberty escapades caused by alcohol abuse and the usually unsatisfied lust for sex, about rebelling against authority by trading comics and metal-tapes (yup, DIO, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath and the likes) in a Christian highschool. Already the first pages are a shocker, spilling all the dirty secrets his grandfather hid in his cellar (quite literally). I mean, an autobiography that mentions Beastiality on page 3? What is there to come on the other pages?

The rest of the book provides a detailed report about Mansons move to Fort Lauderdale, his metamorphosis into a gothic cross-dresser, and eventually into the rock-star we’ve all come to know. Even though these parts are expectably centred on music, recordings, tours and self-centred congratulations, there are a few important differences to other autobiographies. At first, the accounts are very introspective and emotions play through the whole daze of drugs, delusions and visions. Manson turned from a insecure teenager to a egoistic rocker to a tabubreaking monster and finally into a stronger person with deeper insights into society. I won’t comment on his impact, if any, on society, but his message is better than nationalist rock or christian country.

Secondly, he describes acts and incidents other rockstars would try to hide, in all their stupid and sick humour or even cruelness. Of course, if someone sings about the deepest, darkest sides of the self and society in the US, he will attract the most deeply disturbed juveniles around, who are just willing to go even further, than Manson would want to go himself. (Aside: If you want to know where the lyrics of Nine Inch Nails “I want to fuck you like an animal” come from – this is quite close). But, as unbelievable, as these confessions by Manson sound, they are a lady’s teaparty compared to what Christian organisations made up as accusations against him. These are even funnier parts to read and they give lots of stuff to chat about..

At third, Manson has a message, which could be reduced to “don’t believe authorities” or “kill your parents”, but there is one. And at last, if there is one rock-star, who has achieved to subvert the mainstream-music-business from the inside, it has to be Marilyn Manson. He made it on all the covers of the magazines and is still singing about fucking pigs (the animals, I guess), about how violence is accepted but sex isn’t or how all the normal people – normal in whatever sense – are the sheep, the nothing, the objects to some higher power called greed and tyranny, disguising behind god and liberty. Again, I won’t judge if this has any importance at all, but I am sure it reaches more people than all the records on ebullition together. Well, the two teenage-girls in Vienna, I mentioned above, were greeted by the nun with a welcoming smile, since she had no idea what they were about, and probably thought she had found some nice contact to the young generation. Also, waiting rooms for attending parents at concerts aren’t really threatening society, are they? Lots of stuff for discussion here.

Well, anyway. Maybe Manson is just some sort of Ziggy-Stardust-for-the-Nineties-come-alive-as-a-life-art-project. Typically US-hyperbolism and gigantomania. Or a big joke. Even though the book is about Manson’s life and thoughts, this review is not. It’s about this book. So, on a meta-level you can learn a lot about pop-culture, about society, about the rock-business, about mainstream-touring. On this level, the book is a reader about nowadays state of the music-related-scene. On another level you can learn about really dirty and sick sex-practises, the dark sides of life, the crazy antics of drugriddled rockstars and so on. On this level you have the true-crime-account of a demented rock star. You might even read the book as complete fiction, which it might be – and not even in any philosophical sense – then you will still have some funny reading material in cool layouts.

Me, personally, I liked the book a lot. It has twisted stories, twisted humour and twisted logic. After I got the book as a birthday present, I read it through in a few workdays. (One other present was Jean Paul Satres “Das Sein und das Nichts” and nobody will read through that in a few days.) I can only recommend it. I mean it. You will find a lot of answers to many questions: Has Manson really had some ribs removed, to be able to suck his own penis? Did they really kill chickens on stage? How do David Lynch, Trent Reznor, Courtney Love, Billy Corgan, Axl Rose, and many others fit into the picture? What can you use Iron Maidens “Number of the beast” for? And some others. Your birthday will come as well.