Bobby Beausoleil

by Richie Unterberger
Musicians like Led Zeppelin have flirted with the occult; guitarist Bobby Beausoleil took it much further, and eventually got as much international press as Led Zeppelin, but not for his music. Beausoleil played in several obscure Californian rock groups in the '60s, and fell in with avant-garde filmmaker Kenneth Anger, who at the time was trying to assemble a screen treatment with plenty of occult imagery, Lucifer Rising. Then he fell out with Anger, burying Lucifier Rising footage in the California desert. In the late '60s, he mixed with a much more dangerous crowd, the Manson family; his involvement with their activities got him a stiff prison sentence. When Anger, after many years, finally finished Lucifer Rising, he engaged Beausoleil to write and record the soundtrack. Remarkably, Beausoleil was able to do this in prison, with a band composed entirely of fellow inmates. The soundtrack -- portentous instrumental rock with a cosmic/orchestral flair -- is now available on CD.