Now a Song by Charles Manson Is Trending on TikTok
Over the last couple of years, TikTok has become one of the most powerful tools for promoting music. In 2022, especially, we saw a handful of older tracks go viral, but now... a song by Charles Manson is trending on the platform.
No, thankfully it's not a phenomena like Nickelback's "She Keeps Me Up" was a few weeks ago, where people are make dances to the songs, — that would be downright disturbing. The track is called "Home Is Where You're Happy," and TikTok creators are using it for videos of their homes and other fall-related clips. It's an acoustic song with a crisp, vintage sound, so we get the relevance, we just wonder if people realized at first that it was actually by Manson.
“I liked how it sounded a little bit older and I liked the lyrics,” a TikTokker told Rolling Stone. “It sounded like he was talking about home, and going into fall, we’re at home more.”
On another one of the videos, a TikTok user commented asking why the creator chose to use that song. "Honestly I saved the sound from someone else’s vid and didn’t realize until after I used it... we can’t deny it’s a bop tho," the creator replied in a since-deleted comment. Rolling Stone attempted to interview the creator of the video, but they didn't reply.
Check out the song and some of the TikToks below.
In case you didn't know, Manson wanted to be a musician prior to his involvement with The Manson Family and the murders they carried out. During one of his earlier stints in prison, he'd learned to play the steel guitar. After he was sentenced for the infamous LaBianca and Tate murders, his recordings were released on a 1970 album titled Lie: The Love and Terror Cult, which included "Home Is Where You're Happy."
The Beach Boys' song "Never Learn Not to Love," which was put out as a B-side on their 1968 single "Bluebirds over the Mountain," was actually written by Manson. Originally titled "Cease to Exist," the cult-leader wrote it specifically for the rockers, but drummer Dennis Wilson modified the lyrics so it was credited to him instead.
The original version, "Cease to Exist," is also featured on Lie: The Love and Terror Cult, as is "Look At Your Game, Girl," another acoustic number that was covered by Guns N' Roses for their 1993 album The Spaghetti Incident?.