Originally included on Helen of Troy, but dropped because of it’s controversial lyrics, this is Cale at his more passionate and abrasive.
a favourite song . . . . . we have had this before but this is the original album version slightly slower and never made it to the first disc . . . . . . . deemed to controversial
This album came out without Cale's consent, who considered that the tapes were not finished. After shipping the first presings Island Records replaced the track Leaving It Up to You with Coral Moon, because it mentioned Sharon Tate, wife of film director Roman Polanksi, who was killed in 1969 by the Charles Manson gang. Things turned sour, and Cale and Island did go their separate ways. The cd version contains both tracks.
John says "It could have been a great album. I came back from finishing Patti Smith and had three days to finish "Helen Of Troy" before I went on Italian tour. I was spending eighteen hours a day in the studio. When I got back, I found the record company had gone ahead and released what amounted to demo tapes. The trouble was that Island had their own ideas of what that album should sound like. They wanted to include songs I don't particularily like, but it was also an impertinent assumption on my part that I was capable managing myself. My determination to have "Helen Of The Troy" the way I did was not really fair to Island or my management, especially at a time when Island was loosing it's percentage of the market, which was making everybody very paranoid."
SHARON TATE photographed by TERRY O'NEILL in London, 1968.
There is a quite recent trend among blogs and webpages and sites to share pictures of Sharon Tate in recent years and I approve having done loads myself [ click on the links in the bottom to view my other posts] but I find it fascinating that others and presumably much younger folk are posting her image all over the blogosphere and that is as it should be IMHO and I have no real handle on why that would be.
She is of course highly deserving of our not forgetting her. She is a tragic figure married as she was to Roman Polanski and whilst heavily pregnant with their first child, she returned from Europe to prepare her 'nest' at their rented house in Cielo Drive, Los Angeles seemingly randomly selected by the Manson Family (so called) a disparate bunch of acid freak dysfunctional misbegotten unfortunates who slaughtered all the residents therein (possibly looking for Terry Melcher and then girlfriend Candice Bergen who used to live there and who had knocked Charlie back on a record deal when finally realising he was batshit crazy!) and made particular display of Tate tying her with ropes around her neck and stabbing her multiple times. Clearly pregnant she pleaded with the psychopaths for mercy not the least for her unborn child. It fell on deaf ears and they stuck a fork in her 8 month pregnant belly. Their unborn son the rarely mentioned other victim here
There are photos by Terry O'Neil like the one above that are amongst the most heart breaking I've ever seen showing her purchases of baby clothes and presumably this was the destination for this teddy also see previous posts for details and examples. I cannot she the terrifying sadness they present nor the untold depths of dep[ravity the murederers sank to in killing an unborn child alongside the almost matter of act casualness of the other slaughters. There were it would seem many more that we do not know of . . . . . . . . . .
The year before this horrific she went on record with almost prescient pathos as saying:
“I’m very sensitive to ugly situations. I’m quick to read people, and I pick up if someone’s reacting to me as just a sexy blonde. At times like that, I freeze. I can be very alone at a party, on the set, or in general, if I’m not in harmony with things around me.”
— Sharon Tate, quoted in Screen Stories magazine, 1967.
The Manson Family misguidedly (sic) believed they were striking a blow against the "establishment" little understanding that they were attacking counter culture heroes that they really should have been supporting
When the women followers of Manson were sentenced to the death penalty they laughed and left the court room smiling . . . . . . . . .
Musical connection? I have posted before but John Cale's brilliant song 'Leaving It Up To You' has the most haunting reference to Sharon Tate that sends shivers up my spine every time I hear it still on every playing. It more than many other object d'arts about News Media and how we get our information and watch live as people fly into The Twin Towers or Trumpian Fake News and conspiracy theory madness made me realise the hippie dream was over and we needed to batten down the hatches, watch out for monsters (that are in fact real!) and the belief that drugs did not contain the 'answer' but could distort and destroy all that was good about the counter culture.
