Fun fact: Paul created this song after reading in a magazine that Pete Townshend (from the Who) claimed that his band had created the loudest song ever. So, Paul was like "Hold my beer, I'm gonna do one even louder" lol
If Paul created metal with Helter Skelter , then John created , or at least brought psychedelia to the masses with Tomorrow Never Knows.........Revolution , as good as it is , is not a ground breaker ?
No band deserves the label "The Best" more than The Beatles; the only reason people say otherwise is because they're too familiar. What genre of music do The Beatles play? They don't play genres, they bend music to their will and make new sounds. Listening to this in 1968 was like watching a UFO landing on your front lawn
The band recorded this on Sept. 9th, 1968....only four days earlier they filmed the "Hey Jude" video! So when you see Paul sitting at the piano, looking all cute and innocent, just know what was going to come out of him four days later!
What sets the Beatles apart is how they never stuck themselves in a box. Two tracks before this McCartney's singing "Mother Natures Son" which is the polar opposite from this track. McCartney had a million voices to choose from.
The first 6 tracks on this side are brilliant... Birthday Yer Blues Mother Natures Son Everybody's Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey Sexy Sadie Helter Skelter
Don't be dramatic... The Beatles did not do blues, jazz, roll, country, classical, punk, or metal better than everybody else. Not even close -- just to name a few genres of the time (1960s).
You should listen to Paul singing "OH DARLING" where he gets gritty and screamy with his voice in parts. THAT'S why they are so GREAT, cos their music covers so many genres of music, they never were stuck in the box, just doing one style. We were always excited when the next album would be released cos we never knew WHAT we were going to hear next! They NEVER disappointed.
I honestly was confused the first times I listened to "Oh! Darling", I thought it was some other guest singer singing those gritty parts, I was like "who the hell is that, he doesn't sound like any of the Beatles!". :p
Can anybody scream and screech and yet still be in tune better than Paul McCartney ... just shows the incredible variety of this band. Agree with you, it's pheromonal!
@@hachemshahrour8740 Yes, you're right, Kurt Cobain was awesome and there are quite a few other great 'singers' who could do this really well, but would it be fair to say that the Beatles were probably the first to introduce this into pop music? And it wasn't just Paul ... John Lennon was a revelation in Twist and Shout? Thanks for your reply, Hachem.
I was 13 when this came out, remember sitting around with friends and us all being blown away. Any Beatle album release was an opportunity to get together with your friends.
I remember the first time I heard this song ! I was with some friends listening to the White Album. So cool and sophisticated , beautiful and then Helter-skelter comes on and we were completely taken aback.. when it was over we didn't speak for about a minute just looked at each other with surprise and pure joy! Once again the Beatles had taken us to places we didn't know existed! We were so lucky to have the Beatles in our lives! I have loved, I love and I will love them forever and four days 🙏
During the session, they had played this a bunch of times in a row and a the end of the last take, Ringo threw his drumsticks across the room and yelled, "I've got blisters on my fingers!", indicating that he was pretty much done with this song.
Throughout their career, every album took music off in a different direction. This WAS the beginning of Punk and Metal just as they started off Psychodelic earlier. They were the great creators of genres.
Looking back, these four men literally changed the music map. Young people bought guitars and drums, formed groups and started writing their own songs because of them. So many bands became popular due to their influence. After " Helter Skelter, " it's no coincidence that musicians collaborated to establish heavy metal as a genre.
The way to listen to this is in headphones sitting back on your couch, including the preceding song, "Sexy Sadie," which is not nearly so hardcore, and fades off into mellow silence at the end, you're kinda dozing off, then ... KACHOWWW! "Helter Skelter" shocks you halfway across the room and rattles your skeleton!!'
The story for this song was that Paul McCartney had read a comment from Pete Townshend of the Who, about how their 1967 single ‘I Can See For Miles’ was the heaviest and dirtiest song the band had recorded. So Paul had a listen, thought ‘It’s not as heavy as I thought it would be’, so he wrote this to be the counterpoint to it and to show that the Beatles could do that sort of music as well.
The whole White Album is a miracle. Black Bird. While My Guitar Gently Weeps. Dear Prudence.... I love the covers of Dear Prudence best by Siouxie and the Banshees and Leslie West (of Mountain)RIP😥 but many have covered it including the Grateful Dead and Sean Lennon. Blackbird, one of the most beautiful songs of all time, has been covered by so many, it’s more like who hasn’t? Jeff Beck’s instrumental is a standout.
I know there were other heavy songs back then. Still for me this is Proto Metal/Punk all day long. McCartney's voice on this track is amazing! Doesn't matter how many times I hear it. It's always incredible! They are all first rate on this song. 😀
@@Dreamcatcher9000 "In a gadda da vida" (Iron Butterfly) sounded heavy to me at the time... or some of the songs by Jimmy Hendrix, Cream, Deep Purple, The Doors, The Rolling Stones, Steppenwolf.
@@KlausJLinke I replied to the OP. But anyway, yes, most of the bands you mention did some heavy stuff, except The Doors and The Rolling Stones, they were never like heavy-heavy bands, and Deep Purple weren't that heavy in 1968, they became after. But whatever, NOTHING was heavy as Helter Skelter, not even close. This was pure metal. Not even punk, I disagree with you. Punk is more raw and faster, Helter Skelter is more heavy and slower.
When it was heard on the Radio Back then it blew everyone away. It’s like what am I hearing this can’t be a Beatles song this totally different type of music I never heard before! What’s going on? The start of heavy Metal music invented by The Beatles!!👍👍🎸🎸🎸🥁😎
When you say, This is really different from the Beatles, that's true of all their songs lol They aren't bound at all to any one genre. That's why they're so wonderful and surprising. And the tunes aren't just different from each other, they're all really really good! It's like they were so generous with their talent. They just kept serving more and more when they didn't have to.
Back in the day, every song of the Beatles was mainstream. Because every Beatles fan, and that was a huge amount of people, had to hear everything the Beatles released, because of their importance and their creative power.
Well said we didn’t know how revolutionary it was while living through it because we accepted all Beatles songs as the way it should sound. Their popularity gave them the opportunity to stretch themselves to the max.
In a complete travesty, the track wasn't played much on the radio and fell by the wayside because it became associated with the notorious Charles Manson murders (no fault of the Beatles of course). It's made a bit of a comeback this century and there's a video you would love, here on UTube, of Paul McCartney playing it live in New York. One of the absolute best by the Beatles ... way ahead of it's time. Cheers
@@kimberlygabaldon3260 Partly I think he and his followers had no idea what a Helter Skelter was, as the term wasn't common in the USA. People still debate whether Manson was delusional himself or cunningly manipulating gullible followers - or some of both.
Listen to: -I've got a feeling -I want you (she's so havy) -While my guitar gently weeps -Revolution -Happines is a warm gun -Everybody's got something to hide except for me and my monkey -I me mine -The end Those Beatles songs aren't that hard as Helter Skelter but are part of their hardest stuff in my opinion. Just what you'd easily identify as rock
Glad you noticed the really heavy drums on this track. It was as heavy as Ringo Starr ever played on a Beatles song, and it was him who yelled out at the end, "I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!"
I’ve heard many cover versions of this song, but never heard it sung better or played better by anyone, and I’m guessing that I never will. Beatles - simply the best !
I’ve come to the conclusion that the only way to cover a Beatles song and do it better than them is to: a) take a Ringo song b) add a group of soulful back-up singers c) have Joe Cocker sing the hell out of it.
The Beatles (always spell The with a capital T) don't have a genre. Their genre is The Beatles. Helter Skelter is a big circular slide in Liverpool. "When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide. Then I stop and I go for a ride, 'til I get to the bottom and I see you again."
@@taragreenetarotastro yes I've got to see Paul four times the third time there was a lady probably seventy five getting down to Helter skelter I saw him when he was in his forties fifties sixties and seventies every time great wish I could have seen him in the beatles and wings but revolver and alot of their other stuff blew my mind to
Beatles/Don't Pass Me By This song, from the White Album, was the first song written by Ringo Star to be included on a Beatles album. It is very tongue-in-cheek and is one of my favorites by Ringo.
Living through that time. It always makes me laugh hearing what people who weren’t there saying what they think The Beatles were. They were it. They experimented with any kind of everything. They are Bach and Beethoven and light years past that
Ringo gave Led Zeppelin their name. I believe as the story goes, an excited Robert Plant was telling Ringo about his new band he and Jimmy were putting together with Jimmy, John Bomham etc and Ringo said something like (really good): "....that ought go over like a Led Zeppelin." And the rest as they say is History. 😃
Dude! There is a hell of a lot more to The Beatles than poppy songs. This came out in 1968 so this is the forefather of this sort of heaviness, at least on record. The Who were doing proto-punk, proto-metal stuff back then and Paul basically said , "Hold my beer"
The White Album was my first Beatles album that my brother bought in 1969. I was 9 years old I still have it in my vinyl collection. I have the original poster and all 4 photos of the Fabs. Worth some $$. I'm in my 60s and Helter Skelter is one of my favorites along with Happiness is a Warm Gun.
A "Helter Skelter" was a sort of carnival ride, a big slide that would twist round and round on the way down, so naturally there is an implied double meaning.
During Summer 1968, before this LP was released, the debate was whether "hard rock" -- a new label -- originated with "The Kinks" ("You Really Got Me") or "The Yardbirds". The label "heavy metal" didn't yet exist.
Its actually Paul Mac on lead guitar. George is playing rhythm guitar which is also awesome but let's put credit where credit is due. Ringo is the guy at the end with blisters.
Shows the powerful influence of the Beatles, Luke. You're still getting lots of views and comments a year after you posted this video. Helter Skelter was really a watershed moment in the history of Rock. Cheers
As a side note Charles Manson took this song to heart saying the Beatles were talking to him. He thought they were telling him how to create a Helter skelter world and become the leader. That's why the most famous book written about Manson is called Helter skelter
One thing that is often overlooked on the "White" album is how the Title ....."The Beatles" was purposely printed a bit askew The Beatles, and many associated with them, had always done little thing like this.....seemingly just for the hell of it. BTW.... No one had any blisters on their fingers as all who play a guitar know, they had long developed calluses on their finger tips and could no longer get blisters or feel any discomfort on them . It's just one more playful, tongue in cheek thing from The Beatles. "The Helter Skelter scenario is a theory put forward by Vincent Bugliosi, the lead prosecutor in the Tate-LaBianca murder trial. It is mostly based on the testimony of Paul Watkins, as a motive for the series of murders that were committed by the Manson Family"
Imagine how people reacted to it back in 1968. It certainly blew Manson away. ;) Its good you listen to the original mix rather than the update remix, which kind of takes away some of the punch, especially with the bass guitar.
It's an park ride. Basically a slide they called 'Helter Skelter'. The band performed several takes of this song in the studio. It kind of degenerated into extended jam sessions, one lasting over 27 minutes. Because of the continuous playing, Ringo had to shout at the ending about the blisters on his fingers from thrashing at the drums for several hours. This song is rarity in that it was one of the very few times John is playing the bass. He sounds like he's trying to murder the instrument. John did not like playing bass. Maybe he was trying to murder it but it works for the song. The Beatles were so 'scrutinized' at the time that, of course, there were many clues sprinkled throughout the album on how Paul was dead. But of real interest is that this album featured predominantly in the motivation for the Manson killings in the late 60s with this song being one of the key points suggesting a forth coming race war. (Don't ask me. Manson was a kook)
Paul said this was his response to an article he read stating that the Beatles had done it again making a song that is so hardcore rockin roll. I forget which song they were referring to.
This is considered by many to be the first heavy metal song. Paul McCartney is quoted (referring to this song) “I just love noise”. That pretty much sums it up. He said it was about an amusement park ride. I strongly recommend “Oh Darlin’” from the Abbey Road album. Paul’s ripping vocals in that are even more impressive than this. Good luck with your channel 🌺✌️
A helter skelter was a popular fairground spiral slide - fun but not usually scary even for small children. It was familiar to everyone in Britain at the time, but not, at least under that name, in the USA.
If you listen to the start of the lyrics, he is describing the Amusement Park ride which was called Helter Skelter and was a big slide that encircled a cone shaped structure "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 till I get to the BOTTOM and I see you again," perfectly describes the Helter Skelter ride. I have seen it when I was in England. Just go on the internet and type in Helter Skelter Amusement Park ride, and you will see photos of it. I agree that there is sexual references in it to, but for me he clearly describes the ride as well.
