bobby beausoleil

Bobby Beausoleil can be heard on Frank Zappa's Mothers Of Invention "Freak Out" album.

    from Hoodini
    2006 12 23

I watched a Manson Family movie last night and afterward searched the 'net to obtain additional information about the various people and places associated with the crimes committed as well as any other aspects of the 'Family'.

I happened to find the brief biographical data immediately below which mentions Bobby Beausoleil appearing on 'Freak Out'. I then searched Google Groups for mention of him in this newsgroup and was quite surprised to find absolutely no mention of him in the archived history of aff-z. There are a few 'hits' for the Cajun group, Beausoleil, but nothing of him regardless of any possible variants of his given name.

A search of the aff-z archives at Google Groups shows that there are [43 results for "charles manson"]. I assume there are additional 'hits' for variants of Manson's common given name.

As seen within the excerpt cited from Beausoleil's guestbook at the bottom in this message, he informs of his musicianship in relation to FZ's.

Unless someone is able to explain why there are no mentions of Bobby Beausoleil within the archived aff-z messages at Google Groups, it seems I may have discovered an overlooked aspect of the life and times of FZ which no one previously had a need or desire to mention in this newsgroup. This seems somewhat ironic considering the passing of 35+ years since the Manson murders, their effect on the world at large, the number of years this newsgroup has been in existence, and, the in-depth analysis of all things Zappa and related which has taken place here during that time.

From -
http://www.cielodrive.com/master.html?http://www.cielodrive.com/family/beausoleil/index.html

ROBERT KENNETH BEAUSOLEIL
AKA: Cupid, Jasper, Cherub, Robert Lee Hardy, Jason Lee Daniels
DOB: 11.6.47
Prisoner ID: B28302 or 11100535
Prison: Oregan State Peniteniary

http://www.cielodrive.com/family/beausoleil/1.jpg

The first of five children (2 sisters & 2 brothers), Bobby Beausoleil was born in Santa Barbara, California in 1947. Bobby displayed an interest in music at a very young age, and eventually taught himself how to play the guitar. When Beausoleil was 16, he had an affair with a cousin's wife; angered by the affair, his cousin left. Young Bobby was forced to play the role of husband, working for a trailer company to support his cousin's wife and child. After the death of a grandmother Bobby moved to Los Angeles. There, he briefly played in a band with Arthur Lee, called Grass Roots. Grass Roots would later achieve fame under the name Love. Lee apparently named the group Love as a reference to Beausoleil's nickname "Cupid". Bobby also became friends with Frank Zappa, and can be heard as a backup singer on Zappa's first record, Freak Out. However, the city of Angels proved to be too superficial for Bobby, so he traveled north and fell in love
with the Bay Area.

In San Francisco, Beausoleil began playing with a band called The Outfit, but eventually dropped out and started his own band called Orkustra. The group played gigs in the Bay area from 1966 to '67, and as the group was in the process of breaking up, Bobby met filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Anger and Beausoleil worked together on the film Lucifer Rising, in which, Bobby played the part of Lucifer, and helped compose the score. At that time Beausoleil was playing in a band
called Magick Powerhouse of Oz, and living at Anger's "Russian Embassy" house. In the fall of '67, Beausoleil and Anger had a falling out, so Bobby decided to move back to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Beausoleil once again found acting work and was featured in soft porn titled Ramrodder. The movie was filmed near Spahn's Movie Ranch and also starred family member Catherine Share. Bobby was living in the basement of Gary Hinman's Topanga Canyon home when he first ran into Manson and the Family at a house called the "Spiral Staircase". Bobby's musical talent impressed Charlie and the girls, and Bobby started hanging around with them. In the summer of 1969, Beausoleil sold $1000 worth of LSD to a group of bikers that were hanging around Spahn's Ranch. Gary Hinman had made the LSD, but according to the bikers it wasn't good and they wanted their money back. So Beausoleil, with Family members Mary Brunner and Susan Atkins, went to Hinman to get a refund. Hinman on the other hand felt that the LSD was good and refused to give up any money. After a phone call to Spahn's Ranch, Charles Manson and Bruce Davis came to the house. Immediately after entering, Manson sliced off Hinman's left ear with a sword. Charlie and Bruce left immediately. After two more days, Hinman was still refusing to give Beausoleil any money. Bobby stabbed Gary twice in the chest as Susan Atkins and Mary Brunner smothered Hinman's face with a pillow.

Beausoleil was arrested for the murder of Gary Hinman on Thursday, August 7, 1969. He had two trials, and was eventually convicted and sentenced to death. His death sentence was commuted to Life when California briefly outlawed the death penalty in 1972. In 1982, he married his current wife Barbara. Today he is serving his sentence in Oregon State Penitentiary and still continues to make music.

BOBBY'S WEBSITE:
WWW.BEAUSOLEIL.NET

From the guestbook section of Beausoleil's official website at:

http://www.beausoleil.net/dialogue.html

How are you doing?  I was listening to one of your free demo tunes, "Big House Blues", I thought it was pretty good, some good guitar licks. It reminded me a little of Stevie Ray Vaughn , one of my all time favorite guitarists, I used to practice all the time, to try and capture his sound, but I never could, you do a better job than me, putting that blues sound out than me, I just wanted to tell you, I think your a pretty good guitar player, good luck.

The rock group Journey was great, but they did not become great until Jonathan Cain formerly a member of "The Babys" became there keyboardist, I dont' know if you have heard any of his stuff. He is a great song writer, I think he is the best next to wakeman from "Yes". What do you think?

ok, i have a couple of questions for you. Is it true you knew frank zappa? And if you did, did you also know Steve Vai, the best guitarist in my opinion, in the world and ever.  The reason I ask is I know frank taught Steve the basics, but I know Joe Satriani taught Steve the rest of his knowledge, but I was wondering if frank zappa also taught you, it says you found a guitar in the attic of your house and taught yourself is that true?

And when you get out of prison, what will be the first fun thing you do besides family and friends, disneyland or superbowll,lol?

Tom

Hi Tom,

Your questions have come faster than I could keep up with, so I'll try to catch up by answering them all in one shot. Thanks for your patience.

It is an honor to be in the same sentence with Stevie, if not necessarily in the same league as a guitarist. I never tire of listening to him play in his recordings. Nice to think of Stevie and Frank jamming together in Heaven. Actually, Stevie's style is much different from mine. The thing that we have most in common is playing from the heart. A lot of guitarists think it's all about learning the licks of great guitar players. For most of the great guitar players, however, it's more about playing with feeling, spontaneity and imagination. Like B.B. King, I have just a few signature licks that I keep putting together in different ways, along with some free improvisation.

I have not heard a great deal of Journey's music - mainly just their hits. I agree with you about Cain - a great pop rock keyboardist and song writer - but it was the symbiotic interaction between his keyboarding and Niel's guitar playing that most contributed to Journey's great sound.

I knew Frank on a casual basis. When I was 16-17 I used to follow him around, haunting his early recording sessions with the Mothers and, when he would let me, hanging out at his apartment listening to the wild-ass tapes he made. I was in awe of his musical talent, ability to lead unruly musicians, and his musical vision as a composer. He also made me laugh a lot. As you note, I found a guitar and taught myself to play. When I first knew Frank, he was just beginning to pick up the
guitar. At that point, I was a better guitar player, but his musical knowledge was miles beyond what I knew. He wouldn't let me join the band - he said, because I didn't know how to read music.

After family, friends, and Disneyland, one of the first things I'm going to do is get a dog and take a nice long walk. Then maybe I'll start a new band.

Bobby

    From Charles Ulirch

See also page 95 of Zappa: A Biography by Barry Miles.