The concept for 'Helter Skelter'
came from a music paper's rave review of a new single by the
Who. At the time, Paul hadn't herd the single in question,
but the paper's comments made him want to create something
which could provoke an equally powerful
description.
The single was 'I Can See For
Miles', which was released in October 1967, and the most
likely review was written by Chris Welch in Melody Maker.
"Forget Happy Jack sitting in sand on the Isle of Man,"
wrote Welch. "This marathon epic of swearing cymbals and
cursing guitars marks the return of the Who as a major
freak-out force. Recorded in America, it's a Pete Townshend
composition filled with Townshend mystery and menace, and
delivered by the empathic Mr. Roger Daltry."
However, it's impossible to be sure
that this was in fact the review, because Paul's description
has changed over the years. In 1968, he reported that this
review had said "the group really goes wild with echo and
screaming and everything," but 20 years later his memory of
it was more fanciful, claiming that it described the Who
single as, "the loudest, most raucous rock'n'roll, the
dirtiest thing they'd ever done." However Paul's account of
the effect that the review had on him hasn't changed: "I
thought 'That's a pity. I would like to do something like
that.' Then I heard it and it was nothing like it. It was
straight and sophisticated. So we did this. I like
noise."
Despite being described as having
'swearing cymbals' and 'cursing guitars', 'I Can See For
Miles' had a discernible melody throughout and could not
properly be described as raucous. Paul wanted to write
something that really did 'freak people out' and, when the
Beatles first recorded 'Helter Skelter' in July 1968, they
did it in one take which was almost half an hour long. They
returned to it in September, by all accounts 'out of their
heads', and produced a shorter version. At the end of it,
Ringo can be heard shrieking, "I've got blisters on my
fingers."
Most British listeners were aware
that a helter skelter was a spiral fairground slide but
Charles Manson, who heard the White Album in December 1968
thought that the Beatles were warning America of a racial
conflict that was 'coming down fast'. In the scenario that
Manson had developed, the Beatles were the four angels
mentioned in the New Testament book of Revelation who,
through their songs, were telling him and his followers to
prepare for the coming holocaust by escaping to the desert.
Manson referred to this future uprising as 'Helter Skelter'
and it was the daubing of these words in blood at the scene
of one of the murders that became another vital clue in the
subsequent investigation. It was because of the song's
significance that Vincent Bugliosi, the Los Angeles District
Attorney who prosecuted at Manson's trial, named his
best-selling account of the murders Helter
Skelter.
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