1997 was Marilyn Manson's year. He seemed to be on the cover of every single music magazine. I swear Hit Parader (RIP) literally didn't have anyone else on their cover all year. The more disturbing the image, the better. Manson helped sell a lot of magazines that year, and he zonked a lot of young, impressionable minds - mine included. Every Saturday at the grocery store I'd stand before the racks of magazines and stare slack-jawed at this mutant seemingly sent straight from the bowels of hell to the CD players of young America.
"Antichrist Superstar" made him, well, basically that. His follow-up "Mechanical Animals" was a bold step in a new direction (and my personal favorite of his albums). An eloquent appearance in "Bowling for Columbine" and a legendary stand on Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrent" made people realize that there was more to the man than mismatched eyes and a lack of eyebrows. 2000's album "Holy Wood" was his apotheosis, the final piece in a loosely plotted reverse trilogy that included "Antichrist" and "M.A."
In the earlier days of his superstardom, outrageous rumors swirled: that he had had his lowest ribs removed so he could auto-fellate himself; that he regularly gave away free drugs at his concerts, and numerous reports of his upcoming onstage suicide. He wasn't just fascinating to a white bread Missouri boy - he was fucking terrifying, but therein lay part of the appeal. By 2001, he had developed a relatively serious reputation as a social commentator. His music was no longer mere shock shlock, but a weighty diatribe against the hypocrisies of the world.
His 15-minutes of fame lasted around five years. I don't know what happened - perhaps after 9/11 people were just too tired - too jaded - to really be shocked by a slender androgyne tearing pages out of the Bible onstage. Subsequent releases seemed to lose focus - the first lyrics of "Holy Wood's" follow-up "Golden Age of Grotesque" are literally, "Everything's been said before. Nothing left to say anymore." That doesn't bode well for a man who had been a bottomless pit of words and opinions up to that point.
Manson and his rotating crew of band members have soldiered boldly on through the 2000's and even to today, but the "magic" is gone. Young people have moved on to newer, more savage antichrist idols, and his original fanbase are now minivan driving accountants.
He has become an antichrist superstar adrift.
It should have been apparent that what he had wouldn't (or couldn't) last forever, and it's amazing it lasted as long as it did. His impact and influence cannot be understated, but it seems his legacy gets washed further from relevance with each passing day. I think often about those rock stars that went on to become legends after their sudden, shocking deaths. What Jimi Hendrix or Kurt Cobain still linger as potently in the public consciousness if they were alive today? Can you imagine Jimi trying to placate the tastes of the 80's? Or Kurt guest-judging on American Idol? Death was probably the best thing that could have happened to their careers, solidifying legend in perpetuity.
Whether it was all highly cunning rock-star posturing (likely) or not, Marilyn Manson flamed to his zenith, in my opinion, in 2001. Had those onstage suicide rumors ("he's gonna do it onstage on Halloween...no shit, it's true! I swear I heard it!") proven true, he would have martyred himself in the eyes of a generation of lost youth. For a while there, it seemed his artistic resolve was so strong that he may actually be capable of such a thing.
But in the end, the antichrist was just a man. Of course he was. And he will likely live a long life, fading away into the golf-playing "where are they now?" pop-culture back burner. And he's rich and set. And I'm glad for him. I really am.
I'm not saying Marilyn Manson's continued survival is an opportunity lost (even I am not that morbid), but it is a blow for rock and roll as a concept worth flaming out over. The world is rarely changed by flashing lights and horror-show makeup alone. I can see that now, and I suppose I could then, too. But when you are young it's so much easier to believe.
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