Just a few short years before The Beatles all went their separate ways, they released The White Album. The band’s ninth album was a massive hit that included such timeless tracks as Back in the USSR, While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Happiness is a Warm Gun. One of their most standout hits followed a strike of inspiration from listening to The Who, however.
Paul McCartney recalled hearing The Who’s guitarist Pete Townshend describing one of their new songs as “the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock ‘n’ roll record you’ve ever heard”. This illustration of his song was enough for McCartney to get writing his own.
He said in The Beatles Anthology: “I never actually found out what track it was that The Who had made, but that got me going; just hearing him talk about it. So I said to the guys: ‘I think we should do a song like that; something really wild.'”
The song they penned has become the stuff of legend.
McCartney teamed up with his band to write the song Helter Skelter. The four-minute screamer showed a completely different side to The Beatles. The song was loud, raucous, chaotic. Yet, still, it had all the excellent elements of a Beatles track.
McCartney said of Helter Skelter: “You can hear the voices cracking, and we played it so long and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying: ‘I’ve got blisters on my fingers.'” Macca added that all they wanted to do was “make it louder”. He went on: “That was really all I wanted to do – to make a very loud, raunchy rock ‘n’ roll record with The Beatles. And I think it’s a pretty good one.”
Ringo Starr seemed to agree, but he gave a different description of the song.
READ MORE: The Beatles Paul McCartney: ‘George didn’t write band’s first song’
Helter Skelter was used as propaganda by the killer and cult leader Charles Manson. He told his followers a number of White Album songs – particularly Helter Skelter – were steeped in the “prophecy” of an upcoming “race war”.
After carrying out a murder in August 1969, Manson even wrote the words (misspelt) on a wall: “Healter Skelter”.
McCartney later commented on the song’s use by Manson. He said: “Unfortunately, it inspired people to do evil deeds,” adding Helter Skelter had “acquired all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem”.
