This is the end...

New Marilyn Manson single drops by surprise: Curiously, some of Manson's best work has been his covers of others' work, like Gary Numan's "Down in the Park", Eurythmics "Sweet Dreams", Depeche Mode's "Personal Jesus". Though, his attempt at covering Patti Smith's "Rock n Roll N*****" was absolutely a song any artist trying to be edgy should have stayed away from, I guess if anyone was going to throw themselves on that particular sword, it was going to be him.
Having been thinking about this, Patti Smiths responses to being asked about the song, and wondering if I'd been too critical in my assessment of his choice to cover it, I thought it deserved a brief context: it was a talking point by Smith around an essay being discussed at the time entitled "The White Negro" by Norman Mailer, where the derogatory term was talked about by way of applying it to a demographic of outsiders. She used the term to identify people like Jesus, Jimi Hendrix, Jackson Pollock, etc with the moniker.
Manson would attempt to use this same rationale as a way of giving legitimacy to an often ostracised subset of society in the goth subculture some validation through this interpretation of Smith's song and by extention Mailer's essay. Personally, I'm sure there were better means that could be used, but hey.
"The End", originally recorded by The Doors has been given the Manson treatment for CBS' upcoming adaptation of Stephen King's "The Stand".
The Doors' version carries itself with a gait that feels like someone is on their way out; be that a relationship, of life, a psychedelic trip. What it *is* is Jim Morrison and The Doors putting forward something a little more unsettling than "Riders on the Storm".
Manson's version has all the apocalyptic swagger of a piece of music that could underscore a character like The Stand's Randall Flag. It doesn't unnecessarily over-complicate the original with heavier instrumentation, it takes the blueprint laid down by The Doors and runs with it, highlighting it in parts with the use of vocoder or autotune, and more menacing use of guitar, yet feels surprisingly restrained considering the artist covering it.
If this is anything to go by, there could be hope for the upcoming remake of The Stand, given how hit and miss the original was. It has the potential to be amazing now that it's being produced for a subscription platform (CBS All Access) and not bound by the rules otherwise enforced on public access television networks, and King's involvement as well as his son with the script-writing.