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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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