LOS ANGELES, Dec. 26 – Hippie cult leader Charles Manson hopes to finance his legal defense against seven counts of murder in the Sharon Tate slayings by selling a record album, an attorney said Thursday.

George E. Shibley, the lawyer who is handling Sirhan B. Sirhan’s appeal and who has identified himself as an old friend of Manson’s, says the defendant was conducting negotiations with a record company.

Shibley, who declined to name the record company, said the negotiations were in connection with tapes Manson recorded prior to his arrest.

The attorney said the bearded, long-haired Manson learned to play the guitar while serving in federal prison several years ago and was considered an excellent guitarist and “an adequate vocalist.” He said the album would contain a number of protest songs and numbers Manson improvised.

Manson was known as a musician in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco where he lived after his release from prison, before he and his tribe of followers known as “The Manson Family” moved to Southern California.

Susan Atkins, a defendant turned informer in the Tate killings last August and the slayings two days later of Leno LaBianca and his wife, has indicated Manson bore a grudge against Terry Melcher, son of Doris Day. The grudge came about, Miss Atkins said, when the young producer was not interested in recording Manson’s songs.

Miss Atkins, 21, claimed Melcher’s home became a “symbol of rejection” to Manson and he later sent his followers to the Benedict Canyon house, by that time occupied by Miss Tate.

Manson, 35, has been granted court permission to act as his own lawyer but he is expected to seek some legal advice from other attorneys.