BEATLES MAGAZINE: "HELTER SKELTER": A ROCK ANTHEM's LEGACY

Sunday, 2 November 2025

"HELTER SKELTER": A ROCK ANTHEM's LEGACY

"The Beatles' 'Helter Skelter' laid a crucial foundation for modern heavy rock with its raw sound and distorted guitars. Paul McCartney's attempt to create an intentionally strident and chaotic song set a precedent for sonic intensity. It is recognized as one of the seeds of proto-metal, paving the way for more extreme genres. Its energy and aggression proved that rock could be more than melodic pop, leaving a mark on the evolution of hard rock right up to the present day."

"Helter Skelter" is an aggressive track featured on The Beatles' 1968 self-titled double album, commonly called the "White Album." While credited to Lennon–McCartney, the song was primarily conceived by Paul McCartney as an effort to produce a deliberately noisy and intense sound, aiming for maximum volume and distortion.

This notoriously raw recording is widely recognized as a major precursor in the early evolution of the heavy metal genre.

Beyond its musical importance, the song gained infamy due to its chilling association with cult leader Charles Manson. Manson bizarrely interpreted "Helter Skelter," along with other tracks from the White Album, as a prophetic, coded message foreshadowing an imminent race war in the United States, a cataclysm he and his followers referred to by the song's title.

Paul McCartney composed "Helter Skelter" after he was prompted by an interview with Pete Townshend of The Who. Townshend had boasted that his band's September 1967 single, "I Can See for Miles," was the loudest and most aggressive track they had ever produced. Feeling challenged, McCartney set out to surpass that intensity, aiming for the "most raucous vocal, the loudest drums."

In a Radio Luxembourg interview on November 20, 1968, just two days before the release of The Beatles (known as the "White Album"), McCartney elaborated on the song's creation. He recounted reading a review that described a group's record as wildly loud, full of screaming and echo. After hearing the actual record and finding it "quite straight" and "sophisticated"—not "rough and screaming"—he decided The Beatles would record the aggressive song that the review mistakenly described. He concluded, "Oh well, we'll do one like that, then... 'cos I like noise." John Lennon later confirmed this in 1980, stating the song was "Paul completely."

The title "Helter Skelter" refers to a popular British fairground attraction: a tall tower with a spiral slide.

However, the phrase also means "chaos and disorder" in British English.

Paul McCartney stated he used the ride as a symbol for the "rise and fall," specifically drawing a metaphor to "the rise and fall of the Roman Empire – and this was the fall, the demise."

He also admitted that the track served as his direct response to music critics who often dismissed him as the "soppy one" of The Beatles, capable only of writing soft, sentimental songs.

Personnel

For July 18:

Paul McCartney – lead vocal, guitar (Epiphone Casino)

John Lennon – bass (Fender VI)

George Harrison – guitar (Gibson SG)

Ringo Starr – drums

For September 9-10:

Paul McCartney – lead vocal, backing vocal, bass (1966 Fender Jazz), lead guitar solo (Epiphone Casino)

John Lennon – backing vocal, bass (Fender VI), sound effects (through tenor saxophone mouthpiece), piano[108]

George Harrison – backing vocal, lead/rhythm guitar, slide guitar (1957 Gibson Les Paul)

Ringo Starr – drums, vocal shout

Mal Evans – trumpet