Portrait of an American Family

Portrait of an American Family
Studio album by Marilyn Manson
Released July 19, 1994
Recorded August–December 1993
The Record Plant, The Village Recorder
(Los Angeles, California)
10050 Cielo Drive, Benedict Canyon, Los Angeles (Le Pig)
(Beverly Hills, California)
Criteria Studios
(Miami, Florida)
Genre
Length 61:05
Label Nothing/Interscope
Producer Trent Reznor
Marilyn Manson chronology
Portrait of an American Family
(1994)		 Smells Like Children
(1995)
Singles from Portrait of an American Family
  1. "Get Your Gunn"
    Released: June 9, 1994
  2. "Lunchbox"
    Released: February 6, 1995

Portrait of an American Family is the debut full-length studio album by American rock band Marilyn Manson. It was released on July 19, 1994 in the US through Nothing and Interscope Records. It was produced by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The album was initially known as The Manson Family Album – a direct reference to serial killer Charles Manson's own band – but was retitled prior to release.

It is the only Marilyn Manson studio album to feature bassist Gidget Gein. Gein was fired from the band after its production following a very public and destructive heroin addiction and Twiggy Ramirez, the band's roadie and friend of Gein and Manson, was put as a temporary replacement while Gein got clean and sober. He eventually took over Gein's place and briefly adopted his image. Contrary to popular belief, Ramirez did not play bass on the album. Though Sara Lee Lucas was the featured drummer on the album, Nine Inch Nails live keyboardist Charlie Clouser used a drum machine to replace the work Lucas did. Daisy Berkowitz helped compose music for all of the songs except "Prelude (The Family Trip)" and "Sweet Tooth."

The album was certified Gold on May 29, 2003 by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the United States.[3] It spawned three singles ("Get Your Gunn", "Lunchbox" and "Dope Hat").

Background

"When we were finally finished, Roli had done the opposite of what I'd expected. I thought he was going to bring out some sort of darker element. But he was trying to polish all the rough edges and make us more of a rock band, a pop band, which at the time I wasn't interested in at all. I thought the record we did with him came out bland and lifeless. Trent thought the same thing so he volunteered to help us repair what had been damaged."[4]

—Marilyn Manson discussing the aftermath of the album's initial recording sessions.

Recording sessions for its national debut, Portrait of an American Family, began in July 1993. Working with producer Roli Mosimann at Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida,[4] the band recorded a selection of new songs along with reworked material from their Spooky Kids repertoire and, by the end of Autumn 1993, had completed the first version of their debut, a full album's worth of material collectively known as The Manson Family Album.[5] At the time, "Snake Eyes and Sissies" was on track to be the band's first single, with a single edit having already been made. However the band was simply not satisfied with the output of these recording sessions and shelved the album for a short time.[6]

Within a few months, the band convinced rising star Trent Reznor to produce the album instead.[7] The abrasive sonic "rawness" that Mosimann's production had brought to such groups as Swans had failed to materialize on The Manson Family Album; Reznor and all the band's members thought it "sucked", and was poorly representative of Marilyn Manson's dynamic live performances.[4][8] In October 1993, Reznor agreed to fully commit to the project, taking them and their tapes to various studios in Los Angeles. With the help of Reznor and numerous live members of his band, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson re-recorded and reworked their old material until they were satisfied and released it under the name Portrait of an American Family.[9] "Snake Eyes and Sissies" would never see a single release and in the album's credits Mosimann is credited as an engineer with no mention of his production work.

Years later, former guitarist Daisy Berkowitz was asked about these original recordings in an interview and gave the interviewer a cassette tape featuring the unused recordings. The interviewer then released them to the Internet where they are now widely available, usually labeled as Portrait of an American Family (Pre-Reznor Mix) or Portrait of an American Family Demos.

Themes

The band's frontman has discussed his thoughts in retrospect on Portrait of an American Family with Empyrean Magazine, circa May/June 1995:

Well, the whole point of [Portrait of an American Family] was that I wanted to say a lot of the things I've said in interviews [...] But I wanted to address the hypocrisy of talk show America, how morals are worn as a badge to make you look good and how it's so much easier to talk about your beliefs than to live up to them. I was very much wrapped up in the concept that as kids growing up, a lot of the things that we're presented with have deeper meanings than our parents would like us to see, like Willy Wonka and the Brothers Grimm. So what I was trying to point out was that when our parents hide the truth from us, it's more damaging than if they were to expose us to things like Marilyn Manson in the first place."[10]

Music

Songs

"Cake and Sodomy" is the second track on the album. In 1990, Manson met a woman at a McDonald's restaurant in Fort Lauderdale who invited him to spend a weekend with her in New York City. Upon discovering that the girl was using her sister's ID because she was too young to work, Manson abandoned her, shortly after which he ran into two clubbers from South Florida. Manson spent the remainder of his stay in New York at the clubbers' hotel room, where he stumbled on Public-access television cable television channels, which were "a completely new phenomenon" to him. Manson "spent hours flipping through the station, watching Pat Robertson preach about society's evils and then ask people to call him with their credit card number," while "on the other channel, a guy was greasing up his cock with Vaseline and asking people to call and give him their credit card number." This inspired Manson to grab the hotel notepad and begin penning the song's lyrics. Manson explains in his autobiography The Long Hard Road Out of Hell that "I had written other songs I thought were good, but "Cake and Sodomy" was more than just a good song. As an anthem for the hypocritical America slobbering on the tit of Christianity, it was a blueprint for our future message."[11]

"Lunchbox" is the second single and the third track of the album. It was inspired by a piece of legislation dating back to 1972, which makes it illegal to have metal lunchboxes in schools. The song tells the story of a school age child who is bullied and uses his own lunchbox as a weapon in retaliation, waiting for the day he can "grow up to be a big rock and roll star" who is never intimidated by others. The earliest recording of this song dates back to the band's After School Special cassette tape, released in December 1991. The album version of "Lunchbox" samples The Crazy World of Arthur Brown song "Fire".

"Dope Hat" is the third and final single and the sixth track of the album. The earliest recording of this song dates back to the band's The Family Jams cassette, released in 1992. Whilst the band's keyboardist Madonna Wayne Gacy was given a music credit for the song on Portrait of an American Family, curiously his name is absent from the credits of The Family Jams and Refrigerator, two cassettes a demo of "Dope Hat" had appeared on beforehand. The single's release was accompanied by a music video which featured Manson in the role of Willy Wonka in a shock-horror version of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.

"Get Your Gunn" is the first single and the seventh track of the album. The song was inspired by the abortion provider David Gunn who was killed in Florida by a self-proclaimed pro-life activist. The frontman later described his murder as "the ultimate hypocrisy I witnessed growing up: that these people killed someone in the name of being 'pro-life'".[12]

"Wrapped in Plastic" is the eighth track on the album. The earliest recording of this song dates back to the band's Refrigerator cassette tape, released in 1993. It recycles lyrics from an earlier Spooky Kids song, "I.V.-T.V.". The frontman has stated that "Wrapped in Plastic" is about his past at his grandfather's basement. The version on The Family Jams cassette gives the listener better detail of this fact.

"Sweet Tooth" is the tenth song on the album, and the only song that former bassist Gidget Gein wrote both guitar and bass parts for. However, of all the album tracks, "Sweet Tooth" was the only one not regularly played live.

"Snake Eyes and Sissies" is the eleventh track on the album. Though "Snake Eyes and Sissies" was once considered important enough to be a potential single, it was never given a proper release and has not been played by the band since the Smells Like Children Tour in 1995/1996.

"My Monkey" is the twelfth track on the album. Several verses were taken from "Mechanical Man" written and performed by Charles Manson in 1968; the lyrics of "My Monkey" are credited simply to "Manson". The earliest recording of this song dates back to the band's The Beaver Meat Cleaver Beat cassette tape, released in 1990.

"Misery Machine" is the thirteenth and final track on the album, and is a direct reference to the Mystery Machine from the animated television series Scooby-Doo. Imagery from the cartoon was prevalent in the early years of the band, having been used in various flyers among other similar cartoon characters.

Samples

"One strange thing that happened was we were mixing the song "Wrapped in Plastic". [...] We were using a computer because we had a lot of samples and sequencing. While we were working on that song the Charles Manson samples from "My Monkey" started appearing in the mix. All of a sudden we'd hear in the song, 'Why does a child reach up and kill his mom and dad?' And we couldn't figure what was going on. The chorus of "Wrapped in Plastic" is, 'Come into our home/Won't you stay?' And we're in the Sharon Tate house, just me and Sean Beavan [the record's assistant producer]. We totally got scared and we're like, 'We are done for the night.' We came back the next day and it was fine. The Charles Manson samples weren't even on the tape anymore. There's no real logical or technological explanation for why they appeared. It was a truly supernatural moment that freaked me out.[9]

—Marilyn Manson discussing paranormal behavior during the album's production.

Portrait of an American Family contains an especially wide array of cultural references:

Promotion

To promote the album, Interscope held two separate release parties for music journalists and fan club members – the first of these was held less than a month before its commercial release in Fort Lauderdale, Florida on June 29, 1994, whilst the second took place a day before the record's scheduled date in Plantation, Florida on July 18, 1994.

In March 1995, the band began its first national headlining tour, a two-month outing with Monster Voodoo Machine as support; this would be drummer Sara Lee Lucas' last tour with the band. Tension between Lucas and Manson grew as the tour wore on and, on the next-to-last night of the tour, Manson secretly decided to end the show with a flourish: during a performance of the then-current single, "Lunchbox", he doused Lucas' drum kit in lighter fluid and set it ablaze – with Lucas still attempting to play on behind it. (Manson apparently forgot that the band had one more date to play.) Lucas quit the band after the final gig the next night.[13] Less than two weeks later his replacement, Kenneth Wilson, better known by his stage name Ginger Fish, joined the group. Marilyn Manson was touring again, this time on a bill with Danzig and Korn.

Release

Singles

Portrait of an American Family was anchored by two singles, "Get Your Gunn" and "Lunchbox", along with "Dope Hat" which was issued to radio and music video channels without a commercial single release. A total of three singles were spawned from the album.

The music video for "Get Your Gunn", directed by Rod Chong, features the band performing in a damp "attic-like" scene, intertwined by footage of two feisty teenage girls. It did not receive much airplay.

The music video for "Lunchbox" directed by Richard Kern, features a boy being bullied by two older students. The boy goes home, fed up with the way he is treated, and shaves his head into a mohawk hairstyle and prepares for any future retaliation against the bullies with his metal lunchbox. The boy later goes to the rollerskating rink where the band is performing. The boy gives Manson his lunchbox, which Manson lights on fire and parades around. The video ends with the boy staring into the burning lunchbox. It is one of the few music videos with Manson performing without wearing makeup, alongside "Get Your Gunn" and "Tourniquet".

The music video for "Dope Hat", directed by Tom Stern, features the band riding a boat through a psychedelic tunnel directly inspired by the 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, which happens to be one of Manson's favorite films. In the video, the band members perform with many children and people resembling the Oompa-Loompas from the film aboard the boat.

Cover and packaging

"I wanted to use a photo in [the album]'s booklet of me naked on a couch when I was a kid. When you hold up something to people, usually what they see in it is what's inside them in the first place. And that's what happened because the lawyers at Interscope said, 'First off, that picture's going to be considered child pornography, and not only will no stores carry the album but we're subject to legal retribution from it.' They said if a judge were to look at it, the law states that if a photograph of a minor elicits sexual excitement then it's considered child pornography. I said, 'That's exactly my point. This is a photograph that was taken by my mother, and it's extremely innocent and very normal. But if you see it as pornography, why am I the guilty person? You're the person who's got a hard-on. Why aren't you punished? That's still a point I'd like to make. People's morality is so ridiculous: If they get excited by it, then it's wrong."[14]

—Marilyn Manson discussing Interscope's objection to his initial vision of the album's cover art.

The album's original cover art featured no text, simply a painting of a clown by John Wayne Gacy. The interior photography included Polaroid pictures (faked by Manson and friends) apparently of a mutilated female body, and a photo of what Manson described as "one of those dolls from the '60s and you pull a string on the back of it and the eyes get really big and they change colors."[14]

In the early stages of the album's conception, Manson intended to use a picture of himself as a child sitting nude on a couch in the album's interior artwork. Though no genitalia is shown in the picture, and it was taken by his own parents with no vulgar intent, the label rejected the idea on the grounds that it could constitute as child pornography, so Manson instead created the clay sculpture present on the final cover artwork of the album. On the table on this sculpture, there are little models of The Beatles next to the lamp. The boy in the photograph on the back cover is Ramirez's half-brother Wes Brown. He's holding an ear-piercing needle rather than a syringe. Portrait of an American Family is notable for being the band's only studio album not to feature an image of Manson on the cover. However, Manson did eventually use a nude photo of himself as an adult for the inside flap photo for the CD single for "Lunchbox" but did not expose his genitals.

By the time the album became Portrait of an American Family, the ideas of using Gacy's clown artwork and the nude photograph was dropped completely.

Reception

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[15]
Rolling Stone[16]

Upon its release, the album met with mixed reviews from music critics. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic gave the album a favorable review but noted that "even a few years on from its 1994 release, Portrait of an American Family began to sound a little dated, especially since its Nine Inch Nails-meets-W.A.S.P.-meets-Alice Cooper formula was fully realized on Manson's follow-up album, Antichrist Superstar. Here, it's in sketch form, and by the end of the album it's clear that Warner, Manson, whatever you want to call him, needs a full canvas to truly wreak havoc."[15] Rolling Stone gave the album a negative review and said that "Manson's debut [...] isn't the sharply rendered cultural critique of America he'd like you to think it is. Most of the record comes off like some low-budget horror movie.[16]

Legacy

In July 2014, Guitar World ranked Portrait of an American Family at number 18 in their "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994" list.[17]

Re-Release

2009

In late 2009, it was re-released by Interscope and sold through Hot Topic stores as a special edition boxset combination of a T-shirt bearing the album artwork and colored vinyl LP record of the album. The color of the disc is green, matching most of the bands fonts at the time of the albums original 1994 release, however this reissue featured some imagery from The High End of Low on its label, much to the dismay of fans.[18]

Portrait of an American Family Tour

Twiggy Ramirez and Marilyn Manson performing at the Slammie Awards show at The Edge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA on July 3, 1994.

Nine Inch Nails' Self Destruct Tour was the first tour Marilyn Manson embarked on, now under management of major record label Interscope Records. They were an opening act for Nine Inch Nails. The band was on the tour from April 24, 1994 until December 11, 1994.

The Portrait of an American Family Tour was the second tour Marilyn Manson embarked on. It was also the band's first headlining tour under a major label. The band was on the tour from December 27, 1994 until March 11, 1995. During these concerts, the stage usually was arranged like a living room, much like the one on the album cover artwork. A table with a lamp, candy canes and multiple six-sided dice were the most commonly seen props.

Track listing

All lyrics written by Manson (except track one, "Prelude (The Family Trip)", taken from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory; track 12, "My Monkey" which contains lyrics written by Charles Manson; track 14, which was written by Gary Numan[19]. 

No. TitleMusic Length
1. "Prelude (The Family Trip)"  Manson, Gacy 1:22
2. "Cake and Sodomy"  Berkowitz 3:53
3. "Lunchbox"  Berkowitz, Gein 4:34
4. "Organ Grinder"  Gein, Berkowitz 4:22
5. "Cyclops"  Berkowitz, Gein, Gacy 3:32
6. "Dope Hat"  Manson, Berkowitz, Gacy 4:20
7. "Get Your Gunn"  Berkowitz, Gein 3:17
8. "Wrapped In Plastic"  Berkowitz 5:35
9. "Dogma"  Berkowitz 3:26
10. "Sweet Tooth"  Gacy, Gein 5:03
11. "Snake Eyes & Sissies"  Gacy, Berkowitz, Gein 4:07
12. "My Monkey"  Berkowitz 4:31
13. "Misery Machine" (Actual song ends at 5:03)Gein, Berkowitz, Gacy 13:09

Charts and certifications

Album charts

Charts (1995) Peak
position
United States (Billboard Top Heatseekers)[20] 35

Certifications

Region Provider Certification Shipment Actual sales
United Kingdom BPI Silver[21] 60,000+[22]
United States RIAA Gold[3] 500,000+ 645,000+[23]

Singles

Single Chart (1997) Peak
position
"Get Your Gunn" Canada (Billboard Singles Chart)[24] 11
"Lunchbox" Canada (Billboard Singles Chart)[24] 5

Credits and personnel

Marilyn Manson[25]
  • Mr. Manson – vocals, producer, brass, loops, artwork, adaptation, composer, logo (credited as "accusations, child manipulations, backwards masking, polaroids")
  • Daisy Berkowitz – guitars, acoustic guitars, composer (credited as "psychoacoustical guitars")
  • Madonna Wayne Gacy – calliope, hammond organ, saxophone, theremin, brass, overdubs, loops, composer, sound effects (credited as "hammond organ, theremin, saxophone, calliopenis, brass, babies, distorted muzette, loops") Voice (8)
  • Sara Lee Lucas – drums, sound effects (credited as "hitting")
  • Gidget Gein – bass, composer
  • Twiggy Ramirez – "base tendencies" (an often misunderstood pun, which of course, would be different from the bass guitar)
Production[25]
  • Trent Reznor – executive producer, digital editing, editing, pandora, programming, mixing, brass, guitar (3)
  • Robin Finck – synthesis, keyboards (uncredited on album, however Manson has confirmed his involvement)
  • Roli Mosimann – engineer
  • Sean Beavan – assistant producer, programming, digital editing, editing, mixing, brass
  • Alan Moulder – assistant producer, engineer, mixing
  • Charlie Clouser – drums (8), African drums, drum programming, digital editing, editing
  • Chris Vrenna (credited as "Podboy") – percussion ('skull' on "Sweet Tooth"), programming, assistant engineer
  • Hope Nicholls - vocals, saxophone, citronella
  • Robert Pierce (aged 6) - vocals on "Lunchbox" and "My Monkey"
  • "Melissa (aged 19)" - 'violation' on "Wrapped in Plastic"
  • Gary Talpas – packaging

References

Footnotes
  1. ↑ "Marilyn Manson Biography". Rolling Stone. Archived from the original on February 21, 2009. Retrieved June 9, 2015.
  2. ↑ Shafer, Joseph (April 8, 2015). "The 10 Best Marilyn Manson Songs". Stereogum. Retrieved June 26, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "RIAA Database Search for Marilyn Manson". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved 2008-08-14.
  4. 1 2 3 Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 144
  5. ↑ Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 123
  6. ↑ Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 128
  7. ↑ Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 134
  8. ↑ Greg, Baker (1994-07-20). "Manson Family Values" (Tabloid). Miami New Times (Village Voice Media, Inc.). Retrieved 2006-09-09.
  9. 1 2 Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 147
  10. ↑ Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 151
  11. ↑ Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 95
  12. ↑ Marilyn Manson (1999-05-28). "Columbine: Whose Fault Is It?". Rolling Stone (op-ed essay) (Wenner Media LLC) (815).
  13. ↑ Finn, Natalie (August 5, 2007). "Marilyn Manson Accused of Bilking the Band". E!. Retrieved March 24, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Manson & Strauss 1998, p. 150
  15. 1 2 Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Portrait of an American Family review". AllMusic. All Media Guide (Rovi). Retrieved 2011-06-28.
  16. 1 2 "Rolling Stone Album Guide for Marilyn Manson". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media LLC. Retrieved 2011-06-28.
  17. ↑ "Superunknown: 50 Iconic Albums That Defined 1994". GuitarWorld.com. July 14, 2014. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  18. ↑ "Portrait of an American Family [Limited Edition Vinyl Box set with T-Shirt]". Amazon. Retrieved 2011-05-23. delete character in |title= at position 32 (help)
  19. ↑ "Portrait of an American Family". allmusic. All Media Guide (Rovi). Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  20. ↑ "Portrait of an American Family Charts & Awards". allmusic. All Media Guide (Rovi). Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  21. ↑ "BPI - Statistics - Certified Awards - Search for Marilyn Manson". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved 2013-10-07.
  22. ↑ "Until July 2013, the BPI relied on a record company to request an award. Under the new system, sales figures are automatically recognised as soon as a record passes the relevant threshold." in "BBC News - Beatles albums finally go platinum". BBC News. BBC. September 2, 2013. Retrieved October 7, 2013.
  23. ↑ Grein, Paul. "This Year's "Gift" Is Smaller". Yahoo! Music. Retrieved 2010-11-17.
  24. 1 2 "Portrait of an American Family Charts & Awards Billboard Singles". allmusic. All Media Guide (Rovi). Retrieved 2011-05-23.
  25. 1 2 "Portrait of an American Family credits". allmusic. All Media Guide (Rovi). Retrieved 2011-05-23.
Bibliography
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