Beatles – "Helter Skelter" (1968)

When I get to the bottom

I go back to the top of the slide 

Where I stop, and I turn, and I go for a ride 

'Til I get to the bottom and I see you again! 

[NOTE: It wasn’t easy to decide which Beatles song most deserved to be included in the first class of inductees into the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME.  I seriously considered “A Day in the Life,” and I even toyed with the idea of choosing the 16-minute, eight-part medley on the second side of Abbey Road.  But at the end of the day, “Helter Skelter” simply couldn’t be denied.  Here’s a revised version of my original 2010 post about “Helter Skelter.”]

I never bought The Beatles -- a/k/a “The White Album.”  (I’m not sure why.  It was a two-record album, so maybe it was a little too expensive.)

The Beatles was a very popular record when I was in college, even though it had been released in November 1968 – almost two years before I started classes.  I heard it played much more often in the dorms than Abbey Road.

The songs on this album are all over the place.  It’s wildly uneven, with some of the worst Beatles songs ever recorded – “Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da,” “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” “Blackbird,” “Rocky Raccoon,” “Honey Pie” . . . do I really need to go on?

One song really stands out: “Helter Skelter.”  Both it and “A Day In The Life” clearly belong in the 2 OR 3 LINES “GOLDEN DECADE” BEST ALBUM TRACKS HALL OF FAME, but I had to pick one or the other.

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To paraphrase something George Washington once said about government, “Helter Skelter” is not reason, it is not eloquence, it is force.   

What is most surprising about “Helter Skelter” is that it apparently was wholly a Paul McCartney creation.  Who would have thought that the mild-mannered McCartney – the schmaltziest of the Beatles – could have written a stick of dynamite like “Helter Skelter”?

Paul McCartney in 1968

I would have bet money that the song was a John Lennon creation.  But in a 1980 interview, Lennon said, “That's Paul completely . . . . It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me.”  

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According to a biographer, McCartney was inspired to write the song after reading a 1967 magazine interview with Pete Townshend, who described the Who’s latest single, “I Can See for Miles,” as the loudest, rawest, dirtiest song the Who had ever recorded.  (“I Can See for Miles” is a brilliant song -- so original and so good that it's quite takes one’s breath away.  Keith Moon's drumming on this record has never been equalled.)

The Beatles did 18 takes of “Helter Skelter” on September 9, 1968, and the 18th take is the one that is on the LP.  Ringo Starr is the Beatle who says "I got blisters on me fingers!" at the end of the song.  (I always assumed it was Lennon.)

In British English, the term “helter skelter” not only means “in undue haste, confusion, or disorder,” but is also the name given to a tall, spiralling amusement park slide:

A “Helter Skelter” carnival ride

Of course, the phrase is also associated with Charles Manson, who believed that a number of the songs on the “White Album” (including this one) prophesied that there would be an apocalyptic race war in the future.  

Click here to read a Wikipedia article that explains Manson’s thinking, which is as looney-tunes as it can be.

(I used to think that the most tasteless band name I had ever heard was the Dead Kennedys.  But then I heard a band that called themselves Sharon Tate’s Baby.  Much worse, I think.)  

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Here's a link to a webpage that provides a detailed breakdown and analysis of the words and music of “Helter Skelter” for those of you who would like to learn more.  

The author of that page captures the very visceral experience of listening to “Helter Skelter”:  

One almost flinches before it the same way you move back a step from the edge of the subway platform as the train comes into the station.

Click here to listen to “Helter Skelter.”  (Buckle your seat belts low and tight across your hips before you hit the “play” button.)

Mike Gravel was Bernie Sanders
before there was a Bernie Sanders

And click here to watch a truly bizarre video of "Helter Skelter" featuring former Alaska senator and 2008 Democratic presidential candidate Mike Gravel.  (After leaving politics, Gravel became the CEO of a company that sells marijuana-infused products.)