Helter Skelter

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Helter Skelter is a song off The Beatles' 1968 self-titled album. It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon/McCartney.

Contents

Writing

Paul McCartney was inspired to write a louder, heavier song after he read an interview of Pete Townshend of The Who saying that their song I Can See For Miles was The Who's most extreme song they had made so far. Paul recalled, "I was in Scotland and I read in Melody Maker that Pete Townshend had said: 'We've just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock 'n' roll record you've ever heard.' I never actually found out what track it was that The Who had made, but that got me going; just hearing him talk about it. So I said to the guys, 'I think we should do a song like that; something really wild.' And I wrote Helter Skelter. You can hear the voices cracking, and we played it so long and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying,'I've got blisters on my fingers'. We just tried to get it louder: 'Can't we make the drums sound louder?' That was really all I wanted to do - to make a very loud, raunchy rock 'n' roll record with The Beatles. And I think it's a pretty good one." In England, a helter skelter was a carnival ride that was basically a spiral slide. Paul said, "I was using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom - the rise and fall of the Roman Empire - and this was the fall, the demise, the going down. You could have thought of it as a rather cute title but it's since taken on all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem, and since then quite a few punk bands have done it because it is a raunchy rocker." In America, however, this ride was not as well-known, leading some to misinterpret the lyrics, most notably Charles Manson. Manson and his 'family' murdered many people in the United States in 1969 due to 'meanings' supposedly written on The Beatles album. He had misinterpreted this and other songs on the album as being about an apocalyptic race war. Paul commented, "Charles Manson interpreted that Helter Skelter was something to to with the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. I still don't know what all that stuff is; it's from the Bible, Revelation - I haven't read it so I wouldn't know. But he interpreted the whole thing - that we were the four horsemen, Helter Skelter was the song - and arrived at having to go out and kill everyone." When Manson went on trial for murder in November 1970, he gave this testimony, "Helter Skelter means confusion. Literally. It doesn't mean any war with anyone. It doesn't mean that those people are going to kill other people. It only means what it means. Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down fast. If you don't see the confusion coming down fast, you can call it what you wish. It's not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says, 'Rise!' It says 'Kill!' Why blame it on me? I didn't write the music. I am not the person who projected it into your social consciousness." Though The Beatles had often been amused when people misinterpreted their songs, they had found this more serious. John told Rolling Stone in 1970, "We used to have a laugh about this, that or the other, in a light-hearted way, and some intellectual would read us, some symbolic youth generation wants to see something in it. We also took seriously some parts of the role, but I don't know what Helter Skelter has to do with knifing someone. I've never listened to it properly, it was just a noise."

Recording

Helter Skelter was first recorded on July 18, 1968, when three takes were recorded. These takes, in contrast to the loud studio version, were slower and more bluesy. These takes lasted 10:40, 12:35, and 27:11, respectively. Take 3 is the longest official recording ever made by The Beatles. This take, however, has not been heard by anyone outside The Beatles, including bootleggers, making it one of the most sought-after Beatles outtakes. An edited version of the 12:35 Take 2, lasting 4:38 was included on Anthology 3. This version also includes Paul McCartney occaisionally singing "Hell For Leather" instead of "Helter Skelter." Brian Gibson, technical engineer for this session, recalled, "They recorded the long versions of Helter Skelter with live tape echo. Echo would normally be added at remix stage otherwise it can't be altered, but this time they wanted it live. One of the versions developed into a jam which went into and then back out of a somewhat bizarre version of Blue Moon. The problem was, although we were recording them at 15 ips [inches per second] - which meant that we'd get roughly half an hour of time on the tape - the machine we were running for the tape echo was going at 30 ips, in other words 15 minutes... The Beatles were jamming away, completely oblivious to the world and we didn't know what to do because they all had foldback in their headphones so that they could hear the echo. We knew that if we stopped it they would notice. In the end we decided that the best thing to do was stop the tape echo machine and rewind it. So at one point the echo suddenly stopped and you could hear 'bllllrrrrippppp' as it was spooled back. This prompted Paul to put in some kind of clever vocal improvisation based around the chattering sound!" They remade the song on September 9 in 18 takes, all shorter than the previous attempt's versions. They recorded overdubs on September 10. Brian Gibson remembers, "The version on the album was out of control. They were completely out of their heads that night. But, as usual, a blind eye was turned to what The Beatles did in the studio. Everyone knew what substances they were taking but they were really a law unto themselves in the studio. As long as they didn't do anything too outrageous things were tolerated." Producer Chris Thomas recalled George Harrison setting fire to an ashtray, running around with it on top of his head, doing an impersonation of the singer Arthur Brown during Paul's vocal overdubs. Paul McCartney remembers, "We got the engineers and George Martin to hike up the drum sound and really get it as loud and horrible as it could and we played it and said, 'No, still sounds too safe, it's got to get louder and dirtier.' We tried everything we could to dirty it up and in the end you can hear Ringo say, 'I've got blisters on my fingers!' That wasn't a joke put-on: his hands were actually bleeding at the end of the take, he'd been drumming so ferociously. We did work very hard on that track." Take 21 was considered the best take, featuring John Lennon on bass, lead guitar, backing vocals, and saxophone, Mal Evans on trumpet, Paul McCartney on lead guitar and lead vocals, George Harrison on backing vocals, and Ringo Starr on drums. Ringo recalls, "Helter Skelter was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. Sometimes you just had to shake out the jams, and with that song - Paul's bass line and my drums - Paul started screaming and shouting and made it up on the spot." The mono and stereo mixes significantly differed. The mono mix, which was mixed on September 17, was 3:36 in length. The stereo mix, the only mix of the song currently in print, which was mixed on October 12, fades out completely, then fading back in again. It includes Ringo shouting "I've Got Blisters On My Fingers!" and lasts 4:29. This mix is included on the CD.

Recording Sessions


LOVE Mix

Segments of the vocal overdubs of Helter Skelter were included as part of the outtro of Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite on the 2006 remix album LOVE. Also in this section is the jam section from I Want You (She's So Heavy).

Personnel

The Beatles

Guest Musicians

Production

Available Versions

Available On

Source

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