You didn't think I was going to go through an entire month celebrating '60s rock and forget to include The Beatles, did you? Well, did you? "Helter Skelter" is one of my favorite Beatles songs, off of my favorite Beatles album, their self-title 1968 four-sided masterpiece we know as The White Album.
As rock lore goes, Paul McCartney wrote "Helter Skelter" after hearing an interview with Pete Townshend, who described "I Can See For Miles" as the loudest and rawest song The Who had ever recorded. Being a Beatle, Paul thought "Hell, I can one up anyone," so he did, writing a blistering (literally, if you believe Ringo's outburst at the end) rock song that is considered one of the first heavy metal songs.
A helter skelter is a British term for a large amusement park slide that spirals along a tower. You may be thinking to yourself, "Well, GMYH, why the hell are you including this song during Halloween week?" I thank you for your concern, and I'll tell you why. You see, a delusional failed folk singer turned cult leader named Charles Manson believed that "Helter Skelter" was a coded song that predicted an international race war. It was part of his motivation for the Manson Family murders in the LA area in 1969, and it ended up being the name of the best-selling book written by Vincent Bugliosi (the prosecutor in the Manson murder trial) about the murders and the subsequent trials (a chilling but worthwhile read). After Manson Family members murdered the LaBiancas, Patricia Krenwinkel wrote the misspelled "Healter Skelter" on the LaBiancas' refrigerator door in Rosemary LaBianca's blood. Creepy shit.
So it's a song about a slide that party inspired the grisly murders that, for all intents and purposes, marked the end of the '60s, flower power, and the Baby Boomers' hope. It's also a badass rock and roll song that showed The Beatles could rock and wail just as hard as anyone else on the planet.
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