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The Long, Hard Road out of Hell, by Marilyn Manson, with Neil Strauss |
 his rock and
roll biography is widely-held to be one of the best ever written.
Readers and reviewers rave about how honest, confessional, and candid it is, and I
certainly can't dispute that. Marilyn Manson seems to have absolutely
no modesty, and he freely talks about his horrible childhood, sexual
experiences (hetero and otherwise), drug use, sexual fantasies,
private fears, ambitions, self-loathing, cruelty to others and
himself, painful personal issues, bad relationships, attempted
murders, and much, much more.
To the scores: I enjoyed Manson's autobiography and found it interesting and frequently astonishing, as Marilyn served up one painfully detailed anecdote after another. He covers his bizarre childhood, his astonishingly-foul grandfather, his early fumbling sex life, his miserable school years, his days as a failing writer and poet, his slow gravitation towards rock star, his early self-mutilating stage antics, his ongoing real life antics, the insanity of his protesting detractors, his weird celebrity interactions, and much more, quite a bit of it going far beyond anything you would believe if you read it in a novel. Yes, the old "truth is stranger than fiction" clichι. It's accurate here though. Very accurate. My only complaint about the book, and the reason I didn't give it a higher score, is that while I enjoyed the insane drug abuse stories, and groupie abuse stories, and all the rest, I wanted much more about the creative aspects of Marilyn's life and music. He mentions writing song lyrics a few times, but always in relation to some unbelievable weirdness interrupting his writing, or how he woke from a drug-fueled nightmare with a great idea for a song, or some horrendous real life experience that he turned into lyrical inspiration. He talks about wanting to write music that's intelligent and challenging and provocative, but never includes more than a few lyrics, and never critiques his own work after the fact, or talks much about the ideas behind his songs. He does throw in snippets of lyrics from time to time, but very seldom, and there's virtually nothing about the sound of his music and band. He mentions the first keyboardist in his band playing nothing and just standing on stage during early gigs, since he couldn't afford a keyboard to learn to play. He talks about his various guitarists and bass players overdosing and doing groupies and other bizarre stuff, and mentions how the first bass player sucked and how they kicked him out of the band and stole another guy from another band, but there's never any talk about jam sessions, music-writing, concert rehearsal, musical collaborations, etc. I assume this is a conscious decision; that Manson and his editors thought people would prefer to read about all the wild behind the scenes bullshit. And that stuff is entertaining, but it gets old. By the last third of the novel I'd start another chapter and think, "Oh great, another near overdose and violently out of control bar crawl with a crazy ex-girlfriend." There is quite a bit of discussion of the non-creative process. The last few chapters are about the writing of his first big hit, Antichrist Superstar, but 98% of it is about how the band was falling apart, how Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails (their producer at the time) was losing patience with their drug use and procrastination in his home studio in New Orleans, and how Trent eventually kicked them out to work on the Lost Highway soundtrack, when seven months had gone by and they'd finished like three songs. Throughout, I wanted more of his creative process, info about how Marilyn works with the band to make the sounds, how he comes up with song ideas, how he tweaks and fine tunes his lyrics, etc. Basically, if you want to read about Marilyn the person, especially in his childhood and pre-fame/early-fame years, and you love wild drug stories, sex tales, tales about people who are completely out of control in their lives, crazy Christian protestors, and so on, you'll love it. If you want more about the music of Marilyn Manson and his band, you'll pretty much come up empty. I wanted both, and was impressed by the quality of what was there, but I wanted more of the music overall. I would definitely enjoy a second autobiography if he writes one, since this one just runs up through 1998 and the early stages of the Antichrist Superstar tour, and Marilyn has grown more famous since then, dated several celebrities, released several more great albums, become a popular artist, and much more. All of which I'd get more joy from reading about than I would yet more tales of wild antics on tour, drug overdoses, crazy chicks from his pre-fame days, and so on. Comments Added from the original post.
Trent Reznor and Marilyn were friends back in those early days, and it was largely through Trent and his initial NIN success that Marilyn got his record deal. Trent wasn't quite as crazy as Marilyn and his band in those days, but he wasn't far behind, and they were often stoned and drunk and out in search of debauchery in a group. Trent and Marilyn have feuded numerous times though, as egos and drunken activities stirred up friction, but they seem to usually smooth it over. Marilyn's main objection to Trent in recent years is financial; since NIN went years between CDs and Marilyn had several big sellers that added much to Trent's bank account, since he owns some significant portion of their record company. During the long recording of Antichrist Superstar, Trent was helpful with the mixing and such, but he wasn't exactly cracking the whip to get Marilyn to work, and they were all doing drugs together and wasting time together constantly. Trent doesn't seem able to confront people or lay down the law; he just lets whatever happen and then does his own thing secretly. As a result, Marilyn was pretty pissed when he showed up to the studio one day and other people were inside it working with Trent on the Lost Highway soundtrack, and Trent had never given him any notice or warning about this. (Then again, perhaps Trent had, and Marilyn just blanked on it with his constant drug use.) I also enjoy NIN at the gym, and have a playlist of their harder songs for that purpose. I have one of MM also though, and honestly, those are better for it, with a more relentless rhythm and beat than the more orchestral and meandering NIN music.
I figured Trent was largely responsible for AS, but from the story Marilyn tells, Trent had virtually nothing to do with it, aside from technical assistance in the studio and post-production. The actual recording of the album is largely skimmed over in the book, since it comes right near the end, and Marilyn basically says, "I finally realized I wouldn't get it done while stoned, so I stopped taking drugs for a few months and did it all very quickly, motivated by Trent turning his back on us and kicking us out of his main studio." As for MM, I think the last two albums are the best. I loved AS at the time, when I was younger and angrier, but it's relentlessly one-note sound sort of tires me at this point, though I still love a few individual songs. Mechanical Animals came next, and it wasn't great, but I love almost all of Holywood and The Golden Age of Grotesque. MM at this point is basically heavy metal/industrial with a pop edge, and they craft some extremely catchy and enjoyable songs, while still keeping them heavy enough for my tastes.
Original review posted February 20, 2006. |
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