Don’t ever expect the Beatles to sound like the last song of theirs you heard. They broke new ground every day. Geniuses, all of them! Great reaction 😊
Macca, the man of the thousand voices. He can sing Yesterday with the sweetest voice and he can sing Helter Skelter and sound like a psicotic on a fit. Pure genious.
@@thesilvershining ABSOLUTELY, iF YOU PLAYED "Yesterday" or "Here There and Everywhere" by Paul and then "Helter Skelter" to someone who DOESN'T know the Beatles, they would NEVER guess that those songs are sung by the SAME man!! Paul had such a big range in his voice, so as far as I am concerned he had the best vocal ability in the Beatles. His voice was SO versatile.
Oh yeah. But each stage they took us through was better than the one before. In the one decade they were together starting from Rock n Roll they ushered in Pop Rock, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Metal, etc. it’s claimed they “invented” up to ten music genres
It's not too crazy to say that The Beatles invented the modern world. In many ways they did. And when they came to the USA they played stadiums (never done before) and refused to have segregated audiences at their concerts - the first time it was ever done.
They did in music ! They started the first video's when they were seen on Ed Sullivan via video tape twice . They also started feed back with the guitar in the beginning of " She's a Woman " .
John: "What do you want to do today Lads?" Paul: "I dunno know - let's invent heavy metal." John: "Okay ... how 'bout tomorrow?" George: "I guess we could record the greatest love ballad in pop history." Ringo: "Typical week then?"
Beatles fans are familiar with ALL of their songs. Beatles fans KNOW there are NO bad Beatles songs and that the sheer variety of sounds they made are unparalleled by ANYONE else
@@renekarser6495 By today's standards, possibly, but not by the standards of when it came out and became a number one hit. They put in chord progressions that George Martin said couldn't be done. They did it anyway. Their music was totally different, even back then, than what was charting.
@@renekarser6495 First uptempo pop/rock song they recorded, ever. George was 19 yrs old. What of worth does anyone publish right out of the chute at 19-21?
debatable. Cream's Sunshine of Your Life is up there, antecendece of hard rock and subsequently metal as it defined the ages that broke away and superseeded, on a rock, funk, equal plain in eclectic yearn
There is a movie you may be interested in that sort of touches on those sentiments. It is called Yesterday. I won't spoil it, but imagine the world today if the Beatles didn't exist, as their music is being brought to life through one man. Well worth a watch.
At the time The Who's latest single was I Can See For Miles which Pete Townsend called the heaviest record ever made. Paul McCartney said "Hold my beer".
@@nonrepublicrat Seriously, Ronald Bresselsmith is right, but he didn't say "hold my beer." He did make a comment but I can't recall it at the moment, All I know is that he told the others, right...we are going to make a really raucous song (to show up THE WHO) lol! AND they DID!! Helter Skelter is really an amusement part ride in the UK, that is a slide going around a cone shaped structure. It's even described in the lyrics.
Paul McCartney song with the Beatles,first metal song could be, problem the Beatles were a great influence on music and other artists, Paul McCartneys was unbelievable great on that song.
John played with time signatures in " Happiness is a Warm Gun ". It starts in 2/4 time , goes to 3/4 time , then there's a bit where they alternate a few bars of each before switvhing to 4/4 time at the behinning of the " happiness " part. I have read both that the middle bit here is in 5/4 time bit others say percussion plays in 4/4 while the others play in 3/4 .
"Ive got blisters on my fingers" was screamed by Ringo after they had done about 30 takes of the song and finally the constant banging on the drums was killing his hands and in anger, he shouted this. They decided to keep it in the final cut . Great decision !
I was on a firebase near the Laotian border in Vietnam in early '69. I'd just turned 20. I had a battery powered 8-track player I'd gotten at the PX in Chu Lai. My wife sent me the new White Album 8-track for my birthday. One afternoon I was on top of a bunker listening to these songs when we started taking mortar fire. I slapped on my helmet and we ran to our defensive positions, returning fire down into the valley and onto nearby hills with mortars and machine guns. I hadn't bothered to shut down the 8-track player, so this music was blasting for the half hour or 45 minutes that they fired on us and we fired back on them. This song and Revolution and the others - they were the background music to our fight, and our weapons added emphasis to the songs. This sort of thing happened all over Vietnam. It really was the first war with a sound track. The Beatles were the accompanying music to my life from '63 until they broke up. I like that young folk are discovering them.
I LOVE this comment!!!!! I tend to write long, narrative/personal comments like this and I feel silly afterwards, but then I'm reading yours and I'm like "that's exactly the kind of comment I love to find" so now I don't feel so bad. :) I love learning about peoples' lives through the lens of music. Thank you for sharing this... wishing you the best!
@@jjflash1645, it does sound like him, but it’s Ringo, according to everything I’ve read. My mother is a huge Beatles fan and used to have books, magazines with interviews.
This song was released in 1968, Black Sabbath's first album was 1970 and both Ozzy and Iommi were both big Beatles fans amd mentioned this song and a few others as influences.
@John Cornell ok, doesn't make the other songs come out any earlier. And I never said Helter Skelter was the first harder song, but it was probably one of the first that was a hit song.
@John Cornell here's him saying Sgt, Peppers is the best album he's ever heard, and he wishes he could make something even close to that. th-cam.com/video/1E3oqOlzfMI/w-d-xo.html
@John Cornell Helter Skelter was not on Sgt Peppers but it's not their early stuff which proves your comment about him saying he was only a fan of their early work to be untrue. And I have not seen any evidence of the quote you're talking about.
Paul apparently went out into the backyard of the studio between takes to shout as hard as he could to make his voice even more raspy. He couldn't bear that another bands song was called 'the most raw piece of music yet" (paraphrased) ... He thought he could do better, and he delivered.
Paul wrote this as a response to Pete Townsend of The Who saying they had written the heaviest song ever, which ended up being “I Can See For Miles.” Paul thought, “I can do one better,” more or less, and he did 😅
@@kerryn6714 well to be fair it was really Paul challenging The Who, and I’m not sure if they even knew about it. So Paul was really just challenging himself 😅
Helter Skelter is proto-metal. they blazed many many trails. they invented the simulcast, they invented the stadium concert, they invented the music video.
The Beatles covered the whole gamut of rock, from melodic ballads to this one, and everything in-between. That is why they were the best, because they could do it all
What I find creatively brilliant. Is in the late 60s when album covers were full of imagery, artwork, and posed photography. The Beatles once again took us to a new place: a blank white album cover. Simply saying it’s not the cover, it’s the music. Brilliant!
I saw an interview where Paul discusses the creation of Helter Skelter. To put simply, it was a reaction to Pete Townsend's "I can see for miles". Pete had hyped-up his song, and Paul was excited to hear it. Pete made it sound revolutionary. Paul listened and was completely deflated. He's like, Pete, I can do one better.
A "side" of the White Album? What is this "side" that you speak of? Just kidding. I'm old enough to remember that listening to the White Album meant picking one of four different sides, "Back in the day" you had to choose a side to listen to. When CDs first came around, I thought it was great that I didn't have to pick a side anymore. But over the years, I miss how a recording artist might array the songs of an album over a certain running order...it's like an intermission in musical theater. ABBEY ROAD is a great example. There's a side 1 and a side 2, and they are perfectly separated. Back then, a proper recording artist would factor in this "break." Nowadays we don't even listen to whole albums anymore. Sigh. (This is old nostalgic "sad dad" signing off for now...)
@@RDRussell2 Actually I like listening to it on cd between my favourite tracks While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Blackbird without interruption. And I don't have to get out my chair to turn it over !
@@RDRussell2 What do you mean "we"? I don't stop doing things that work well because other people have chosen to go about it in a way that is demonstratively less satisfactory. Custom is custom, I'm fine with that but if millions of people are doing a stupid thing, like driving all retail shops out of business so they can give more money to Bozo- it doesn't become intelligent when that number reaches 20 million. Or even 70 million. Stupid is what stupid does. Adding more lemmings doesn't alter the trajectory toward which they're racing.
Already "heavy metal" before this. This was released November 1968, after Blue Cheer's Summertime Blues and Hendrix first album in 1967, along with a host of others.
@@betsyduane3461 This is closer to heavy metal than Hendrix or Blue Cheer. Blue Cheer was more acid rock, especially the solo in Summertime Blues, though they did a little grinding. They had more of a clean sound in the guitars, not a ton of distortion. Hendrix was not this close to metal either with the Beatles grinding guitar sound here. However, loving guitars, I once listened only to Voodoo Child on my car stereo for 6 consecutive months.
After The Beatles established themselves as 'good little rock and roll band', they did their best to make every new song different from anything they had done before: Thus, we get gems like Helter Skelter
Lennon on the 6-strings bass is fucking brutal! And Ringo shouting "I got blisters on my fingers!" at the end...simply great! :D Please react to "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "It's All Too Much"!
The Beatles did 3 takes of this, one lasting over 10 minutes one lasting over 12 minutes and one lasting over 27 minutes! I think that's why it fades in and out, and of course Ringo's I've got blisters on my fingers!
A "Helter Skelter" is actually a British amusement park slide ride. You climb to the top of a tower shaped like a bullet, then go down a slide built into the tower in a circular fashion around the outside of the tower. The tower is very colorful as well
The Beatles could make magic in any gear, including quite a few like this one that they pretty much invented. As Brian May (lead guitarist of Queen) has commented, 'The Beatles opened the doors and we all [ie all subsequent bands] just walked through'. :-)
@@lynnarthur_stillkickin2024 I think that their later stuff isn't necessarily better just because it's 'later', which makes many people, by the way, overlook their early, great stuff... in other way, The Beatles maybe evolved, but didn't progress, because there's not such thing in music or art, generally speaking. I mean, Ticket To Ride is a better song than any song from the Let It Be album, or even than many songs from the White Album... I think that at least Lennon would agree with me, given that he hated Let It Be. But even so, that's an authority falacy
@@JulioLeonFandinho so basically what you're trying to say is you prefer their old stuff in your opinion? Cause It's all down to opinion. For example I literally couldn't disagree more when it comes to ticket to ride, that songs not better than Get Back, The Long and Winding Road, Dear Prudence, Cry Baby Cry, Polythene Pam, Helter Skelter, Rocky Raccoon, While My Guitar Gently Weeps or If I Needed Someone in my opinion. Their old stuff was still good music with the likes of Love Me Do, Can't Buy Me Love, I'll Follow The Sun and Mr. Moonlight. but it lacks the innovation that The Beatles brought to their later albums. Rubber Soul has the first use of Sitar in a Western pop album while Revolver and everything after changed the face of rock forever, I think the reason their early stuff is seen as lesser is because they were effectively taking inspiration from who had came before them while they gradually found their footing, rather than what they are most famous for, inventing completely new genres and pushing music forward.
They invented, did, recorded everything over 50 years ago. no close second. You will never see anything like that in you kids lifetime. Every type of music. It helped to have 3 lead singers and writers and the brain of JOHN LENNON!!! Make sure the music lives!!
I saw this performed live at a Paul McCartney concert in Vancouver back in 2019 (he sounded pretty damn good on this song for his age!)- he said that Helter Skelter was influenced by The Who. This was them trying to put their own spin on what The Who was doing at the time because they loved it so much.
As the years went on,and music tastes changed, the Beatles adapted nicely and this showed how skillful they were- going from a pop sound to a harder edge to reflective songs- that's why they're the best
"As the years went by and music changed" Sounds like they were playing catch-up, and not a part of changing music- which they definitely were at the front of- with the releases of Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper. A musical revolution in 3 albums and 3 years.
Music tastes changed as the world followed the Beatles. Many fans disliked at least some of songs on the latest albums. Before long, however, those songs became their favorites. The world adapted to the Beatles. Not vice versa.
You know, some people think “You Really Got Me” is the first metal song, some people think The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” is. Hendrix was also playing rather heavy stuff in 1967. I don’t know, but it’s all great music. All I know is, your face tells it all with this song. Try “It’s All Too Much” from the Yellow Submarine album.
Blue Cheer covering Summertime Blues (1968) and Iron Butterfly - In a gadda da vida (1968) were early. The first time Heavy Metal (Thunder) is actually used in lyrics was Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild (1968)
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 I don't know how old you are but being musically aware in the mid 1960's was like seeing the forest for he trees. Waves of new music came along after the Doo Wop /Elvis era. British invasion, folk, surf, Motown...It was hard to listen to something like "You Really Got Me" and not wonder if it was part of a whole new genre. Think of "You Really Got Me" - Van Halen? Think of "Can't Explain" - Bowie? Even "Pretty Woman" - Van Halen? Probably not.but where does Vanilla Fudge " "You Keep Me Hangin On" fit in? Who knew? We had no reference to use as a gauge. Then Uriah Heep came along and everything had changed. Rock and Heavy Metal were on different paths.
Paul played lead on this and sang. John played the bass line. Some say Heavy Metal was born here, though there are a number of songs in the 60s that were forerunners. Ringo yells about having blisters as they did over twenty takes. Try Hey Bulldog, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Revolution, All Too Much, Ballad of John and Yoko or the Medley from side two of Abbey Road.
"I Want You (She's so Heavy)" is definitely an underrated song. It's in my top 10 and I've been a fan of theirs for decades. My #1 is While My Guitar Gently Weeps. It has everything - it's a melodic rocker with great lyrics and amazing guitar work by Eric Clapton.
Somebody else said it, but another great song that Paul also sings lead on is, I’M DOWN. It’s the early Beatles, but is one of my favorites, and I typically like their mid to late stuff best. They were only together just 7 or 8 years as the Beatles, which is incredible.
You should listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows," They went from "Love Me Do" to this song within three just years. When it came out, it knocked people's socks off. Also listen to "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" "Good Morning, Good Morning," and "Yer Blues."
Listen to " Oh, Darling" for another song where Paul McCartney really sings hard like he is doing in this song but in a slightly different way. And the song is more melodic. For a song another song that is really heavy but sung by John you need to listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows". By the way: Helter Skelter is an exception. The Beatles are known for their melodic music but they dipped into many genres.
"The Beatles" were eclectic -- like no other. They made every "style" of music. That's why you need to listen to whole LPs, not just a cherry-picked song here or there.
Yeh. When they quit touring and went into the studio for Sgt. Pepper, no one knew they were working on an album. They took so long at it (8-9months) people started thinking they'd hit their limit and had bowed out. What an absolute surprise when Pepper was released!
This was the first hard-rock song, before heavy, punk or grunge even existed. The original version of Helter Skelter was to be this way: th-cam.com/video/QoK3HyIL0eo/w-d-xo.html For the Take 17 Paul decided to change the rhythm. He tried this: th-cam.com/video/rhiFJ6L3sS0/w-d-xo.html At the end of the Take you can hear Paul saying: "Keep that one. Mark it FAV" He just knew he did something never done before.
When you analyse the number of firsts that The Beatles were responsible for, it's mind blowing! I'm a pensioner now but I grew up in parallel to the birth of the The Beatles - I was even born within a couple miles of each of their four birth places in Liverpool too, which made me feel that they were my "homies"! If my father or grandfather had made me, as a child or young man, listen to music of their childhood or of 50 years previous and tried to tell me that this was some of the best popular music ever to have come to light, I'd have laughed and sarcastically said, "Yeah, yeah Dad/Grandad, dream on!". You're now listening to 50 year old music and finding it to be true of The Beatles and more so than ever! I love that you and others of your generation can listen to the Fab Four and instinctively and immediately feel that these guys are very special musicians; because that's what I felt back then when I would first hear them - and well before Metal was even a known genre! You may see that it's no accident that The Beatles were and still are, one of the top influences on so many of our great, contemporary artists.
Just want to thank you for your reaction. Watching you, I could appreciate and even enjoy this song again after decades of avoiding it. At ~ 6:00, during the crescendo, you spontaneously said, "Something's coming, something's coming." That gave me the shivers, creeped me out. For many Californians in particular, this song carries some very negative associations having nothing to do with the Beatles whatsoever. Even while they were still together, the Beatles' music influenced hundreds of millions of people. (Some people even attribute the eventual fall of the USSR to the influence of Sgt Pepper's & Levi's jeans.) Among so many human beings, it's inevitable there will be a tiny few who go off the deep end. Some did & later blamed this song. Eventually, no one living will remember those unfortunate associations except a few historians. May it be so. Meantime, enjoy the Beatles' great and seminal music for itself. Watching you experience it for the first time is healing for this elder. Blessings to you & yours.
Great to see you get into it man. I’m 68. I have been captivated by these guys since well before I was your age. There are so many wonderful songs. And so much variety. Lovely to see you so happy discovering Helter Skelter.
Having been 5 years old when I heard me first Beatles song, they broke ground with every song. I would agree that this was one of the first heavy metal songs, but that was what they were best at. Ground Breaking. "A little bit of John, Paul and George".
This gentleman had me ROTF laughing. I'm very surprised he'd not heared it before, what with the way the 'Manson gang' perverted it. But I must say...........I'm really digging these reaction videos of Beatles songs. It's like when I show a movie which I have seen to somebody who hasn't seen it before. It's like seeing it again for the first time too because I'm taking in the other person's reactions and feelings.
The first time I heard it when I was kid I got chills immediately. In fact I found a little scary to be completely honest. So I went on to learn it on guitar as quickly as possible and I still love playing it all the time.
Paul wrote Helter Skelter after hearing some Who music. He just took it up several notches from where they left off, and it became the first song that could be called a 'heavy metal' song. Wrote it in 1968. Have you heard I've Got a Feeling? That's some strong R&B.
Hi, have you done Revolution? Also, another great one is; Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey 🐒....and... The ballad of John and Yoko
Check out a yt video of Paul's Dodger Staduim concert in 2019. Ringo makes a surprise appearance and the whole place explodes. They do Sgt Pepper reprise and Helter Skelter. It is a must hear.
I suggest you react to their "live" performance of "Revolution." Then if you want to go 'old-school' Beatles Rock & Roll, pull up a live performance of "Long Tall Sally." They really got after it... and Ringo goes crazy.
Yeah, 'Revolution' is a total must, it's got to be the rocking single version and not the slower 'White album' version (and DEFINTELY not 'Revolution #9', their worst track ever)
Arguably "Long Tall Sally" is perhaps the most important song in the creation of the Beatles -- Lennon was reportedly blown away be it when he first heard it, declaring it "better than Elvis", and was obviously highly impressed by Paul's spot on rendition of it. It was performed on every live tour they did, and the last song they performed in San Francisco on their very last tour.
The fadeout and fade in was where they sliced out 15 minutes of them bashing away. Ringo's "blisters" is a sincere comment. Revolution, Taxman, Hey Bulldog are all rockers but IT'S ALL TOO MUCH is an underrated psychedelic freak out.✌🤟
I'm a 71 year old musician still doing Beatles music . It brings a tear to my eye , not just this song , but the fact young people are listening to this and understanding why we cry as they cry for a relationship they never got to know ! Hopefully with this new A I , they can show you what you missed , God Bless You all !
Great reaction N S. A Helter Skelter is a British Fairground slide and it is drummer Ringo Starr who developed the "Blisters on my fingers". Best of luck with your channel . RNB
Don’t ever expect the Beatles to sound like the last song of theirs you heard. They broke new ground every day. Geniuses, all of them! Great reaction 😊
A truer statement I've never heard.
Absolutely! No 1 song sounds the same!!
👍☺️
This only really applies once you get to rubber soul. Before that a lot of songs sound quite similar
@@MidnightAssass1n Not really. Even a lot of their earlier stuff sounds different.
Macca, the man of the thousand voices. He can sing Yesterday with the sweetest voice and he can sing Helter Skelter and sound like a psicotic on a fit. Pure genious.
His voice is the 8th wonder of the world!
@@thesilvershining ABSOLUTELY, iF YOU PLAYED "Yesterday" or "Here There and Everywhere" by Paul and then "Helter Skelter" to someone who DOESN'T know the Beatles, they would NEVER guess that those songs are sung by the SAME man!! Paul had such a big range in his voice, so as far as I am concerned he had the best vocal ability in the Beatles. His voice was SO versatile.
@@patticrichton1135 Yep! Paul’s my favorite singer of all time.
@@thesilvershining I am right with you on that! TOO many people diss Paul, those are the ones that haven't heard everything Paul can do with his voice
His vocal range is ridiculous
"Helter Skelter" must have sounded futuristic in 1968.
It was, I was in chock.
that is nothing, imagine listening to Tomorrow Never Knows in 1966. Now that is futuristic. Or alien.
No.
@@bartstarr100 so were you there?
Oh yeah. But each stage they took us through was better than the one before. In the one decade they were together starting from Rock n Roll they ushered in Pop Rock, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Metal, etc. it’s claimed they “invented” up to ten music genres
It's not too crazy to say that The Beatles invented the modern world. In many ways they did. And when they came to the USA they played stadiums (never done before) and refused to have segregated audiences at their concerts - the first time it was ever done.
There was no segregation then.
B.S..
They did in music ! They started the first video's when they were seen on Ed Sullivan via video tape twice . They also started feed back with the guitar in the beginning of " She's a Woman " .
John: "What do you want to do today Lads?"
Paul: "I dunno know - let's invent heavy metal."
John: "Okay ... how 'bout tomorrow?"
George: "I guess we could record the greatest love ballad in pop history."
Ringo: "Typical week then?"
Me: "Whatever"
You funny..that's good..
Great!
Yeah, that sounds just about right.
George: LSD song?
John: ok
Paul: no
Ringo: No problem 😂
Beatles fans are familiar with ALL of their songs. Beatles fans KNOW there are NO bad Beatles songs and that the sheer variety of sounds they made are unparalleled by ANYONE else
Please please me is shit tho
@@renekarser6495 By today's standards, possibly, but not by the standards of when it came out and became a number one hit. They put in chord progressions that George Martin said couldn't be done. They did it anyway. Their music was totally different, even back then, than what was charting.
@@southernwanderer7912 yeah i like their old style but i never liked please please me
@@renekarser6495 Waiting for u to compose something better! Cheerio!
@@renekarser6495 First uptempo pop/rock song they recorded, ever. George was 19 yrs old. What of worth does anyone publish right out of the chute at 19-21?
Paul had one of the best screams in rock and roll.
Absolutely!
Too bad we didn't hear MORE from that side of him.
Indeed could do the sweetest ballad or the heaviest rock voice that’s why he is one of if not the best
Have you heard him sing, "Beware My Love"?
Here you go:
th-cam.com/video/crlp_ZXDMaY/w-d-xo.html
Hey Jude, period.
Yes, this was the birth of Metal Welcome to the world of THE BEATLES 😍
debatable. Cream's Sunshine of Your Life is up there, antecendece of hard rock and subsequently metal as it defined the ages that broke away and superseeded, on a rock, funk, equal plain in eclectic yearn
th-cam.com/video/b56e9Ot20_8/w-d-xo.html
m.th-cam.com/video/yQBpFMZmMqI/w-d-xo.html
th-cam.com/video/M8hrm3Un6bo/w-d-xo.html
@@RockaFellaa Ozzy and Tony both cite the Beatles as their number 1 influence.
I'd pay just to hear a Beatle song for the first time again
Me too. I saw them on Ed Sullivan in early 60s. They keep me going for years. I dreamed about them.
@@barbarastrayhorn4667 omg so cool
I was born in 95
Dad showed the magic
@casanobeats Ikr, the excitement and awe, your heart beats fast and you somehow feel electrically charged.
There is a movie you may be interested in that sort of touches on those sentiments. It is called Yesterday. I won't spoil it, but imagine the world today if the Beatles didn't exist, as their music is being brought to life through one man. Well worth a watch.
Please Please Me.
At the time The Who's latest single was I Can See For Miles which Pete Townsend called the heaviest record ever made. Paul McCartney said "Hold my beer".
whatever
@@nonrepublicrat Seriously, Ronald Bresselsmith is right, but he didn't say "hold my beer." He did make a comment but I can't recall it at the moment, All I know is that he told the others, right...we are going to make a really raucous song (to show up THE WHO) lol! AND they DID!! Helter Skelter is really an amusement part ride in the UK, that is a slide going around a cone shaped structure. It's even described in the lyrics.
Then he handed his beer back, and recorded "We don't get fooled again "
Paul McCartney song with the Beatles,first metal song could be, problem the Beatles were a great influence on music and other artists, Paul McCartneys was unbelievable great on that song.
@@patticrichton1135 It's about the Manson Gang and the murder of Sharon Tate.
Happiness is a warm gun, it’s a must!
John played with time signatures in " Happiness is a Warm Gun ". It starts in 2/4 time , goes to 3/4 time , then there's a bit where they alternate a few bars of each before switvhing to 4/4 time at the behinning of the " happiness " part. I have read both that the middle bit here is in 5/4 time bit others say percussion plays in 4/4 while the others play in 3/4 .
Yes it is.
True
Bang bang shoot shoot
"Ive got blisters on my fingers" was screamed by Ringo after they had done about 30 takes of the song and finally the constant banging on the drums was killing his hands and in anger, he shouted this. They decided to keep it in the final cut . Great decision !
That sounded like John.
@@jamespenny9482 Nah, definitely Ringo according to people who were there.
I was on a firebase near the Laotian border in Vietnam in early '69. I'd just turned 20. I had a battery powered 8-track player I'd gotten at the PX in Chu Lai. My wife sent me the new White Album 8-track for my birthday. One afternoon I was on top of a bunker listening to these songs when we started taking mortar fire. I slapped on my helmet and we ran to our defensive positions, returning fire down into the valley and onto nearby hills with mortars and machine guns. I hadn't bothered to shut down the 8-track player, so this music was blasting for the half hour or 45 minutes that they fired on us and we fired back on them. This song and Revolution and the others - they were the background music to our fight, and our weapons added emphasis to the songs. This sort of thing happened all over Vietnam. It really was the first war with a sound track. The Beatles were the accompanying music to my life from '63 until they broke up. I like that young folk are discovering them.
Amazing story. Should be a banner scene in a movie.
I LOVE this comment!!!!!
I tend to write long, narrative/personal comments like this and I feel silly afterwards, but then I'm reading yours and I'm like "that's exactly the kind of comment I love to find" so now I don't feel so bad. :)
I love learning about peoples' lives through the lens of music. Thank you for sharing this... wishing you the best!
OMG John Smith, what a phenomenal story. I'm glad you made it out. Thanks for sharing.
Great story.... scary but great.
oh shit, what a story
“I got blisters on my fingers.” Best line ever from Ringo.
I think John said that.
@@jjflash1645, it does sound like him, but it’s Ringo, according to everything I’ve read. My mother is a huge Beatles fan and used to have books, magazines with interviews.
@@Tuesdays_Gone Thanks for the info. I stand (or sit) corrected.
@@jjflash1645 you’re welcome. It does sound like something John would’ve said.
@@jjflash1645 Ringo
'Oh darling' is another great hit. Paul's voice range very shines there.
True,great track!
Original Beatles fans are quite familiar with these songs, we grew up on them.
I'll be 63 on March 25th! The bus driver had their songs play on his transistor radio
This song was released in 1968, Black Sabbath's first album was 1970 and both Ozzy and Iommi were both big Beatles fans amd mentioned this song and a few others as influences.
@John Cornell both Dazed and Breakdown were recorded in 1968 so doubt they were playing them before thwy recorded them.
@John Cornell ok, doesn't make the other songs come out any earlier. And I never said Helter Skelter was the first harder song, but it was probably one of the first that was a hit song.
@John Cornell here's him saying Sgt, Peppers is the best album he's ever heard, and he wishes he could make something even close to that.
th-cam.com/video/1E3oqOlzfMI/w-d-xo.html
@John Cornell Helter Skelter was not on Sgt Peppers but it's not their early stuff which proves your comment about him saying he was only a fan of their early work to be untrue.
And I have not seen any evidence of the quote you're talking about.
@John Cornell Ahh dazed and confused the song they stole from Jake Holmes..
Paul's rock and roll voice is sublime. Damn they had fun in the studio.
Really wish he'd have carried it better into his Wings band. That band is just so boring to me besides a few songs like Band On The Run
Paul apparently went out into the backyard of the studio between takes to shout as hard as he could to make his voice even more raspy. He couldn't bear that another bands song was called 'the most raw piece of music yet" (paraphrased) ... He thought he could do better, and he delivered.
@@BenZoet Oh yeah I think it was "The Who" can't remember the song off the top of my head though.
@@iamamaniaint The story always says I CAN SEE FOR MILES, which is dumb, because MY GENERATION was far louder and more aggressive than that song!
@@ChrisMaxfieldActs there's a certain epicness to "I can see for miles" so maybe that was what inspired them?
McCartney's voice is amazing.
Maybe the understatement of the century.
Paul wrote this as a response to Pete Townsend of The Who saying they had written the heaviest song ever, which ended up being “I Can See For Miles.” Paul thought, “I can do one better,” more or less, and he did 😅
They should've known better-never challenge The Beatles!
@@kerryn6714 well to be fair it was really Paul challenging The Who, and I’m not sure if they even knew about it. So Paul was really just challenging himself 😅
@@andyscott5277
Ok, fair enough.
Helter Skelter is proto-metal. they blazed many many trails. they invented the simulcast, they
invented the stadium concert, they invented the music video.
The Beatles were heavy metal on Helter Skelter way before heavy metal. It's a mind blowing song. Thanks for your review.
The Beatles covered the whole gamut of rock, from melodic ballads to this one, and everything in-between. That is why they were the best, because they could do it all
Feliks Gailitis, :D but they did it first....
What I find creatively brilliant. Is in the late 60s when album covers were full of imagery, artwork, and posed photography. The Beatles once again took us to a new place: a blank white album cover. Simply saying it’s not the cover, it’s the music. Brilliant!
They couldn't agree on a photo for the cover, so they just left it blank.
Their version of a brown paper bag.
I saw an interview where Paul discusses the creation of Helter Skelter. To put simply, it was a reaction to Pete Townsend's "I can see for miles". Pete had hyped-up his song, and Paul was excited to hear it. Pete made it sound revolutionary. Paul listened and was completely deflated. He's like, Pete, I can do one better.
Hard to believe this album was recorded over 50 years ago! It will still amaze 100 years from now.
This is off my favourite side on the White Album. Or is it. Can't decide only had it 50 years
A "side" of the White Album? What is this "side" that you speak of?
Just kidding. I'm old enough to remember that listening to the White Album meant picking one of four different sides, "Back in the day" you had to choose a side to listen to. When CDs first came around, I thought it was great that I didn't have to pick a side anymore. But over the years, I miss how a recording artist might array the songs of an album over a certain running order...it's like an intermission in musical theater. ABBEY ROAD is a great example. There's a side 1 and a side 2, and they are perfectly separated. Back then, a proper recording artist would factor in this "break." Nowadays we don't even listen to whole albums anymore. Sigh. (This is old nostalgic "sad dad" signing off for now...)
@@RDRussell2 Actually I like listening to it on cd between my favourite tracks While My Guitar Gently Weeps and Blackbird without interruption. And I don't have to get out my chair to turn it over !
@@RDRussell2 What do you mean "we"? I don't stop doing things that work well because other people have chosen to go about it in a way that is demonstratively less satisfactory. Custom is custom, I'm fine with that but if millions of people are doing a stupid thing, like driving all retail shops out of business so they can give more money to Bozo- it doesn't become intelligent when that number reaches 20 million. Or even 70 million.
Stupid is what stupid does. Adding more lemmings doesn't alter the trajectory toward which they're racing.
I had it on 8 track, switch sides on the middel a song. I must be an ancient! 😝
It does take time! And it keeps changing; very confusing!
"Hey Bulldog" is a great Beatles song, it slaps.
I like its all too much
Yess Hey Bulldog
Absolute banger. That bass guitar is relentless and that solo breaks right into your domain without a knock on the door. Love it
And Back In the USSR, it rocks
Lennon and McCartney. The greatest song writers ever!!!
And George Harrison ❤
Paul's vocals on this were just magnificent and would be very hard to duplicate these days, pure rock'n'roll....
It's more like something that heavy metal developed from and it also has a punk rock feeling.
Already "heavy metal" before this. This was released November 1968, after Blue Cheer's Summertime Blues and Hendrix first album in 1967, along with a host of others.
@@betsyduane3461 I didn't say it's heavy metal or that they invented heavy metal.
@@betsyduane3461 This is closer to heavy metal than Hendrix or Blue Cheer. Blue Cheer was more acid rock, especially the solo in Summertime Blues, though they did a little grinding. They had more of a clean sound in the guitars, not a ton of distortion. Hendrix was not this close to metal either with the Beatles grinding guitar sound here. However, loving guitars, I once listened only to Voodoo Child on my car stereo for 6 consecutive months.
@@betsyduane3461 none of those artist produced the same pounding downbeat instrumentation and screaming before dude
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 Two years before Helter Skelter
Love - 7 And 7 Is 1966
th-cam.com/video/6An7KGK6U3c/w-d-xo.html
After The Beatles established themselves as 'good little rock and roll band', they did their best to make every new song different from anything they had done before: Thus, we get gems like Helter Skelter
Lennon on the 6-strings bass is fucking brutal! And Ringo shouting "I got blisters on my fingers!" at the end...simply great! :D
Please react to "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "It's All Too Much"!
The first ever song to fade out, just to come back in!
Actually before this Strawberry Fields Forever fades out then comes back in.
Element’ry Penguin yes, you're right! But they're still both by the Beatles!
@@johnandrews3151 of course!
The Beatles did 3 takes of this, one lasting over 10 minutes one lasting over 12 minutes and one lasting over 27 minutes! I think that's why it fades in and out, and of course Ringo's I've got blisters on my fingers!
@@beatlebrian4404 i airways thought that was John yelling
A "Helter Skelter" is actually a British amusement park slide ride. You climb to the top of a tower shaped like a bullet, then go down a slide built into the tower in a circular fashion around the outside of the tower. The tower is very colorful as well
The Beatles could make magic in any gear, including quite a few like this one that they pretty much invented.
As Brian May (lead guitarist of Queen) has commented, 'The Beatles opened the doors and we all [ie all subsequent bands] just walked through'. :-)
Try"Revolution"by the Beatles you will enjoy 😎
Yes!
All three songs... "Revolution", "Revolution 1", and "Revolution 9".
Warning while listening revolution by the beatles pls lower the volume.
Revolution 9 scared me when i was a Child 😂😂
And that’s why you have to do the Beatles chronologically. You actually get to watch their progression musically.
progression is the wrong word
I'd say watch is the wrong word...
@@JulioLeonFandinho I think the Beatles would disagree with you.
@@lynnarthur_stillkickin2024 I think that their later stuff isn't necessarily better just because it's 'later', which makes many people, by the way, overlook their early, great stuff... in other way, The Beatles maybe evolved, but didn't progress, because there's not such thing in music or art, generally speaking.
I mean, Ticket To Ride is a better song than any song from the Let It Be album, or even than many songs from the White Album... I think that at least Lennon would agree with me, given that he hated Let It Be. But even so, that's an authority falacy
@@JulioLeonFandinho so basically what you're trying to say is you prefer their old stuff in your opinion? Cause It's all down to opinion. For example I literally couldn't disagree more when it comes to ticket to ride, that songs not better than Get Back, The Long and Winding Road, Dear Prudence, Cry Baby Cry, Polythene Pam, Helter Skelter, Rocky Raccoon, While My Guitar Gently Weeps or If I Needed Someone in my opinion. Their old stuff was still good music with the likes of Love Me Do, Can't Buy Me Love, I'll Follow The Sun and Mr. Moonlight. but it lacks the innovation that The Beatles brought to their later albums. Rubber Soul has the first use of Sitar in a Western pop album while Revolver and everything after changed the face of rock forever, I think the reason their early stuff is seen as lesser is because they were effectively taking inspiration from who had came before them while they gradually found their footing, rather than what they are most famous for, inventing completely new genres and pushing music forward.
Relentless! It grabs you and doesn’t let go until it’s done.
Over 50 years ago. "You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer...' best R&R line pretty much ever.
They invented, did, recorded everything over 50 years ago. no close second. You will never see anything like that in you kids lifetime. Every type of music. It helped to have 3 lead singers and writers and the brain of JOHN LENNON!!! Make sure the music lives!!
It IS, Dude! Definitely the Birth of Heavy Metal.
It just blows my mind that this song was recorded over 50 years ago! Just insanely ahead of their time!
I saw this performed live at a Paul McCartney concert in Vancouver back in 2019 (he sounded pretty damn good on this song for his age!)- he said that Helter Skelter was influenced by The Who. This was them trying to put their own spin on what The Who was doing at the time because they loved it so much.
As the years went on,and music tastes changed, the Beatles adapted nicely and this showed how skillful they were- going from a pop sound to a harder edge to reflective songs- that's why they're the best
"As the years went by and music changed"
Sounds like they were playing catch-up, and not a part of changing music- which they definitely were at the front of- with the releases of Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sgt. Pepper. A musical revolution in 3 albums and 3 years.
Music tastes changed as the world followed the Beatles. Many fans disliked at least some of songs on the latest albums. Before long, however, those songs became their favorites. The world adapted to the Beatles. Not vice versa.
The Beatles never adapted to anyone. They led the world and the world adapted to them.
Ringo Starr his immortal words, I have blisters on my fingers, must be Helter skelter. Great reaction. 😀👍❤️✌️🌼
That's one thing that made the Beatles so great. They had songs for every age and taste in music.
It's just so fucking raw hardcore metal
"Tomorrow Never Knows" is a mind bender off their album "Revolver".
Definitely a precursor
Try “I’m So Tired”, “Yer Blues”, “Savoy Truffle”, “Julia”, “Dear Prudence “..
Ringo played so hard that he actually did have blisters on his fingers!
Ringo is incredibility underrated.
Let us NOT forget the “5th Beatle’s” contribution on keyboards, Mr. Billy Preston!!!
A phenomenal musician, singer, & songwriter in his own right!
They are Ozzy's favorite band and Lemmy from Motorhead hitchiked to see them play at the Cavern in Liverpool before they were famous.
Just found your channel. Keep the Beatles coming! I’m 68 yrs old. They were the soundtrack of my youth. You are in for a wild. Wonderful journey!
Thank you for that great reaction.....I will hit subscribe now! You can never go wrong with the Beatles. They are a bottomless pit of great songs!
You know, some people think “You Really Got Me” is the first metal song, some people think The Who’s “I Can’t Explain” is. Hendrix was also playing rather heavy stuff in 1967. I don’t know, but it’s all great music. All I know is, your face tells it all with this song. Try “It’s All Too Much” from the Yellow Submarine album.
Blue Cheer covering Summertime Blues (1968) and Iron Butterfly - In a gadda da vida (1968) were early. The first time Heavy Metal (Thunder) is actually used in lyrics was Steppenwolf's Born to be Wild (1968)
@@heyhuey4429 All great examples too. Now that I think of it, The Music Machine’s “Talk Talk” was 1966 too. Great heavy early rocker.
You really got me isn't metal it doesn't have the same pounding throbbing Down Beat instrumentation or constant shrieking
@@heyhuey4429 Born to Be Wild is upbeat
@@eziospaghettiauditore8369 I don't know how old you are but being musically aware in the mid 1960's was like seeing the forest for he trees. Waves of new music came along after the Doo Wop /Elvis era. British invasion, folk, surf, Motown...It was hard to listen to something like "You Really Got Me" and not wonder if it was part of a whole new genre. Think of "You Really Got Me" - Van Halen? Think of "Can't Explain" - Bowie? Even "Pretty Woman" - Van Halen? Probably not.but where does Vanilla Fudge " "You Keep Me Hangin On" fit in? Who knew? We had no reference to use as a gauge. Then Uriah Heep came along and everything had changed. Rock and Heavy Metal were on different paths.
Paul played lead on this and sang. John played the bass line. Some say Heavy Metal was born here, though there are a number of songs in the 60s that were forerunners. Ringo yells about having blisters as they did over twenty takes. Try Hey Bulldog, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Revolution, All Too Much, Ballad of John and Yoko or the Medley from side two of Abbey Road.
Give a mention to the Kinks!
What was George Harrison doing, making the tea??😂
@@alanshepherd4304 , playing the other guitar? :D
I feel you brother... Beatles are awesome... The greatest band of all
"I Want You (She's so Heavy)" is definitely an underrated song. It's in my top 10 and I've been a fan of theirs for decades. My #1 is While My Guitar Gently Weeps. It has everything - it's a melodic rocker with great lyrics and amazing guitar work by Eric Clapton.
Underrated by who? What the fuck are you even talking about?
I’ll bet you didn’t think Paul’s perfect sweet voice could scream like that?! Lol
Somebody else said it, but another great song that Paul also sings lead on is, I’M DOWN. It’s the early Beatles, but is one of my favorites, and I typically like their mid to late stuff best. They were only together just 7 or 8 years as the Beatles, which is incredible.
You should listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows," They went from "Love Me Do" to this song within three just years. When it came out, it knocked people's socks off.
Also listen to "Happiness Is a Warm Gun" "Good Morning, Good Morning," and "Yer Blues."
YES! Tomorrow Never Knows. The whole song in the key of C. Thank you George Martin. Any other producer would probably have rejected such a concept.
Tomorrow Never Knows is great, but Happiness Is a Warm Gun has the coolest Grunge guitar riff ever...in 1968. Could have been an Alice in Chains song.
That while album is incredible!
"while" -- just a typo, or a mashup of "whole" and "white"?
@@keensoundguy6637 Typo. Oops! :)
Do :"Rain". It is one of the greatest Beatles Songs and one of the less well known.
Their white album is phenomenal! Try reacting to their song "Everybodys got something to hide except for me and my monkey".
Real Beatle fans knows all their songs! For more rocker, check out "Revolution", "Hey Bulldog", "Back in the USSR", "Drve My Car" and "Day Tripper".
Hey Bulldog most underrated Beatles song
Listen to " Oh, Darling" for another song where Paul McCartney really sings hard like he is doing in this song but in a slightly different way. And the song is more melodic. For a song another song that is really heavy but sung by John you need to listen to "Tomorrow Never Knows". By the way: Helter Skelter is an exception. The Beatles are known for their melodic music but they dipped into many genres.
"The Beatles" were eclectic -- like no other. They made every "style" of music. That's why you need to listen to whole LPs, not just a cherry-picked song here or there.
U think they can't suprise or go another step and then They just go up another level again and again. Incredible
Yeh. When they quit touring and went into the studio for Sgt. Pepper, no one knew they were working on an album. They took so long at it (8-9months) people started thinking they'd hit their limit and had bowed out. What an absolute surprise when Pepper was released!
Even being familiar with the album for years, you come in thinking you're ready for this one. You're never ready.
This was the first hard-rock song, before heavy, punk or grunge even existed.
The original version of Helter Skelter was to be this way: th-cam.com/video/QoK3HyIL0eo/w-d-xo.html
For the Take 17 Paul decided to change the rhythm. He tried this: th-cam.com/video/rhiFJ6L3sS0/w-d-xo.html
At the end of the Take you can hear Paul saying: "Keep that one. Mark it FAV"
He just knew he did something never done before.
Wow! A bluesy version. I believe I would have put that on the album along with the the other! That would bring interest.
love your reaction - i was 15 when i first heard this. i'm now 70! still love it as much as ever
Amazing song, the Beatles were way ahead of they’re time. This song is timeless just like most of their songs.
When you analyse the number of firsts that The Beatles were responsible for, it's mind blowing! I'm a pensioner now but I grew up in parallel to the birth of the The Beatles - I was even born within a couple miles of each of their four birth places in Liverpool too, which made me feel that they were my "homies"! If my father or grandfather had made me, as a child or young man, listen to music of their childhood or of 50 years previous and tried to tell me that this was some of the best popular music ever to have come to light, I'd have laughed and sarcastically said, "Yeah, yeah Dad/Grandad, dream on!". You're now listening to 50 year old music and finding it to be true of The Beatles and more so than ever! I love that you and others of your generation can listen to the Fab Four and instinctively and immediately feel that these guys are very special musicians; because that's what I felt back then when I would first hear them - and well before Metal was even a known genre! You may see that it's no accident that The Beatles were and still are, one of the top influences on so many of our great, contemporary artists.
Just want to thank you for your reaction. Watching you, I could appreciate and even enjoy this song again after decades of avoiding it.
At ~ 6:00, during the crescendo, you spontaneously said, "Something's coming, something's coming." That gave me the shivers, creeped me out. For many Californians in particular, this song carries some very negative associations having nothing to do with the Beatles whatsoever. Even while they were still together, the Beatles' music influenced hundreds of millions of people. (Some people even attribute the eventual fall of the USSR to the influence of Sgt Pepper's & Levi's jeans.) Among so many human beings, it's inevitable there will be a tiny few who go off the deep end. Some did & later blamed this song.
Eventually, no one living will remember those unfortunate associations except a few historians. May it be so. Meantime, enjoy the Beatles' great and seminal music for itself. Watching you experience it for the first time is healing for this elder. Blessings to you & yours.
The Beatles created the environment for many fusions of rock.
The Beatles song you should try next is "It's All Too Much." It's so over-the-top, it might melt your skull.
Great to see you get into it man. I’m 68. I have been captivated by these guys since well before I was your age. There are so many wonderful songs. And so much variety. Lovely to see you so happy discovering Helter Skelter.
Having been 5 years old when I heard me first Beatles song, they broke ground with every song. I would agree that this was one of the first heavy metal songs, but that was what they were best at. Ground Breaking. "A little bit of John, Paul and George".
This gentleman had me ROTF laughing. I'm very surprised he'd not heared it before, what with the way the 'Manson gang' perverted it. But I must say...........I'm really digging these reaction videos of Beatles songs. It's like when I show a movie which I have seen to somebody who hasn't seen it before. It's like seeing it again for the first time too because I'm taking in the other person's reactions and feelings.
This whole album is iconic
Absolutely the beginning of Metal !!! Love the Beatles!
"Tonorow never knows" it´s another great Beatles song.
Oh Darling McCartneys vocals just rip the carpet off the floor Incredible
The first time I heard it when I was kid I got chills immediately. In fact I found a little scary to be completely honest. So I went on to learn it on guitar as quickly as possible and I still love playing it all the time.
In one thousand years from now, The Beatles will be in the classroom.
Oh Darling is a HARD Beatles song...mainly the intense vocals
That song still cannot be covered to this day. No one can replicate that performance!
Paul wrote Helter Skelter after hearing some Who music. He just took it up several notches from where they left off, and it became the first song that could be called a 'heavy metal' song. Wrote it in 1968. Have you heard I've Got a Feeling? That's some strong R&B.
I think it was I Can See For Miles. ✌️
Hi, have you done Revolution? Also, another great one is;
Everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey 🐒....and...
The ballad of John and Yoko
Check out a yt video of Paul's Dodger Staduim concert in 2019. Ringo makes a surprise appearance and the whole place explodes. They do Sgt Pepper reprise and Helter Skelter. It is a must hear.
I suggest you react to their "live" performance of "Revolution." Then if you want to go 'old-school' Beatles Rock & Roll, pull up a live performance of "Long Tall Sally." They really got after it... and Ringo goes crazy.
Yeah, 'Revolution' is a total must, it's got to be the rocking single version and not the slower 'White album' version (and DEFINTELY not 'Revolution #9', their worst track ever)
I've sent him links to Revolution, live, and a link to an early live performance in which they were rocking. No reaction yet.
Arguably "Long Tall Sally" is perhaps the most important song in the creation of the Beatles -- Lennon was reportedly blown away be it when he first heard it, declaring it "better than Elvis", and was obviously highly impressed by Paul's spot on rendition of it. It was performed on every live tour they did, and the last song they performed in San Francisco on their very last tour.
That's why they were so important... they were geniuses indeed.
The fadeout and fade in was where they sliced out 15 minutes of them bashing away. Ringo's "blisters" is a sincere comment. Revolution, Taxman, Hey Bulldog are all rockers but IT'S ALL TOO MUCH is an underrated psychedelic freak out.✌🤟
1968...Helter Skelter...the Birth of Heavy Metal.
Thank you, John, Paul, George and Ringo!
This is metal before metal. Dear Prudence and Happiness Is A Warm Gun, also Yer Blues all from The White Album also.
I'm a 71 year old musician still doing Beatles music . It brings a tear to my eye , not just this song , but the fact young people are listening to this and understanding why we cry as they cry for a relationship they never got to know ! Hopefully with this new A I , they can show you what you missed , God Bless You all !
"Sergeant Pepper, the Reprise" is short but it rocks as well.
Great reaction N S. A Helter Skelter is a British Fairground slide and it is drummer Ringo Starr who developed the "Blisters on my fingers". Best of luck with your channel . RNB
You cannot recommend just a few songs from this band. It's like going into Baskin Robbins at 10 and pointing out your favorite flavor.
No other drummer could have made this song sound this good.