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The Beatles · S9 E6
Helter Skelter
Paul sets out to write the loudest, most chaotic rock song ever recorded. He succeeds. Then Charles Manson turns it into something nobody intended
September 9, 1968. Paul McCartney has read a review of The Who calling their new single the loudest, dirtiest, most aggressive thing a rock band has ever recorded. He walks into Abbey Road and tells the others: we can do louder.
"Hey Bulldog" (The Beatles, 1968). Recorded in a single session on February 11, 1968, while cameras rolled for the "Lady Madonna" promotional film. This is the Beatles at their most ferociously tight, powered by John's grinding piano riff and one of Paul's nastiest bass lines. The energy on display here is a preview of where the White Album sessions would go: louder, rawer, and more aggressive than anything they'd attempted before. "Helter Skelter" takes this energy and pushes it off a cliff.
Hey Bulldog, The Beatles (1968)
The piano riff was originally a fragment from another Lennon song that wasn't working. George Harrison's guitar shadows it so closely they almost sound like the same instrument. The band hammered through takes while a film crew captured the session for the planned Yellow Submarine film. Listen for the ad-libbed exchange between John and Paul at the end, where they start barking and laughing at each other, too wired to stop playing.
Sources
Lewisohn, Mark. "The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions." Hamlyn, 1988.
MacDonald, Ian. "Revolution in the Head." Chicago Review Press, 2005.
The Challenge
The review that sets Paul off is about The Who's "I Can See for Miles," which Pete Townshend had described as the heaviest thing they'd ever done. Paul takes this personally. He wants to prove that the Beatles can out-rock anyone, and "Helter Skelter" is his answer: a deliberately chaotic, screaming, feedback-drenched assault that runs for nearly four and a half minutes on the album.
Sources
Miles, Barry. "Many Years From Now." Secker & Warburg, 1997.
MacDonald, Ian. "Revolution in the Head." Chicago Review Press, 2005.
“I just thought, right, got to do it. I'm going to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number we can. That was 'Helter Skelter.'”
— Paul McCartney
TAP TO REVEAL: How long was the original version of 'Helter Skelter'?
Manson
In August 1969, Charles Manson and his followers murder actress Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles. Manson claims the White Album contains hidden messages instructing him to start a race war, and "Helter Skelter" is his key text. The phrase is found written in blood at one of the crime scenes. A song Paul wrote about a fairground slide in a competition with The Who becomes forever linked to the most notorious crime of the decade.
Sources
Bugliosi, Vincent. "Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders." W. W. Norton, 1974.
The Beatles. "The Beatles Anthology." Chronicle Books, 2000.
Helter Skelter
Birthday, The Beatles (1968)
Recorded in a single evening on September 18, 1968, nine days after the "Helter Skelter" session. The band laid down the backing track, then took a break to walk to Paul's house around the corner and watch "The Girl Can't Help It" on television. They came back to the studio buzzing with rock and roll energy and finished the song in hours. Yoko Ono and Pattie Harrison sang backing vocals, making it one of the few Beatles tracks where non-band members contribute vocals in the studio.
Birthday, The Beatles (1968)
"They say it's your birthday, well it's my birthday too, yeah." The lyric is deliberately stupid, and that's the point. Paul wanted a pure rock and roll song with no subtext, no hidden meanings, and no pretension. The guitar riff is built on a simple boogie pattern that Chuck Berry would recognize, and the whole track exists in the same universe as "Helter Skelter": the Beatles proving they can play louder and harder than anyone when they feel like it.
What can you hear Ringo shout at the end of 'Helter Skelter'?
January 2, 1969. The Beatles arrive at Twickenham Film Studios on a freezing Thursday morning to rehearse for a live comeback concert. Cameras are rolling for a documentary. Within two weeks, George Harrison will quit the band on film, and the whole project will nearly collapse before a last-minute idea saves it: playing on the roof.
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