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 California 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
Beausoleil fell out with Anger, burying Lucifer 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 life 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 playing portentous instrumental rock with a cosmic/orchestral flair. ~ Richie Unterberger