Even less than that really if we’re considering how quickly their debut was put together compared to how prolonged the sessions for the white album were.
No... not 'progress.' Development. Hand was miles above anything that was out at the time (The Singing Nun, Sukiyaki, Jack Jones, Baby Elephant Walk...).
@@melissa9375Exactly. What people of recent generation don’t understand is that the Beatles turned popular music upside down when they arrived. Nobody had heard anything like it.
I agree. This song was really the forerunner to heavy metal IMO. There was never a song like this before. I wonder if they equated it with Charles Manson as being the reason they disliked it?
IMO McCartney has (or had) one of the most versatile voices ever. He could sing as sweet as a choir boy or belt like Little Richard with equal conviction.
@@ijonny25251 I had heard that it was when they were on tour supporting Little Richard that they had their first taste of weed. Beatles Bible also says : Some of The Beatles had actually been introduced to cannabis in 1960, although the drug had made little impression. ‘We first got marijuana from an older drummer with another group in Liverpool. We didn’t actually try it until after we’d been to Hamburg. I remember we smoked it in the band room in a gig in Southport and we all learnt to do the Twist that night, which was popular at the time. We were all seeing if we could do it. Everybody was saying, ‘This stuff isn’t doing anything.’ It was like that old joke where a party is going on and two hippies are up floating on the ceiling, and one is saying to the other, ‘This stuff doesn’t work, man.’ So you are probably right that in 1964 is where they had their first effective enjoyment of it with Dylan.
The big thing for me is not just how the Beatles could go heavy metal when they chose to, but how they did it waaay ahead of other musicians back in 1968!
Ringo showing Keith Moon had nothing on him for going a little crazy on the drums and screaming at the end a legendary phrase... "I Got Blisters On My Fingers"
Wrong! Ringo said it after a lot of brutal sessions of this song including a very long jam right before this version was recorded-obviously Ringo's voice
Paul McCartney wrote, sang, and played what some consider the first Heavy Metal Song. Some had remarked that the Beatles couldn't rock hard. Paul and the boys shut them up with his. Great pick of a fantastic song. Love your commentary - always witty and insightful.
…and shut them up, they did! When this album released, radio stations across America played it from beginning to end without ads. Never, ever heard of. My siblings and I just sat there dead quiet and in awe. (Sad our radios were pitiful & mono back then. You had to be absolutely loaded to have a stereo set to hear so many instruments).
Actually, one of the members of The Who (can't remember if it was Townsend or Daltrey) said in an interview that "I Can See For Miles," their current hit, was the loudest rocker ever, and McCartney took that as a challenge to up the ante.
Wrong and wrong. Not even close to heavy metal. It's hard rock, ala The Who. And barely connected to that maniac family in California carving up people with knives.
What I have heard is that Pete Townsend sent to McCartney something like the Who was the loudest band in the world, and McCartney took that as a challenge to make something really loud and screaming.
Classic Victorian fairground ride in the UK. Still around and loved today. Needs no power to run it, just a slippery slide, mat and some-one to sit on it!
Next up for the Beatles if you want more heavy sounding songs of theirs: I Want You/She's So Heavy - that one is a John song. The second half of the song is considered by many as the first doom metal song. This one is considered one of the first or even the first by some of the heavy metal genre.
Paul McCartney singing, Ringo is the one who screams "I've got blisters on my fingers!" (He'd been playing for nearly 27 minutes, the actual length of "HS").
By this point The Beatles just did whatever they wanted, in whatever genre. Back in the USSR on this same album is a nod to the Beach Boys and they knock it out of the park. That was Paul singing by the way.
This is the same guy that wrote Yesterday. Anyone who doesn’t consider Paul McCartney the greatest composer of pop/rock of all time is objectively wrong!
According to Paul, it was written after reading a quote from Pete Townshend of The Who , he said they’d just recorded their "loudest,dirtiest, rawest" song ever. Paul said ‘let me do that.’
JMBoy. On Tuesday I was at a Sir Paul concert here in my hometown of Newcastle Australia! Yes he did this song and it went off!!! Best thing was so many young people like yourself there and even teens rocking out!
Wrong. It's not metal. I hate how many people just parrot what they've heard. It's hard rock. They were taking on The Who, after a news report where someone said their latest single was the hardest, loudest, nastiest thing ever. And I suggest you listen to Cream's 1968 song "Politician" which has many of the elements of anything you'd find on a Black Sabbath track on their first two albums. Just more bluesy and three far better musicians doing it.
I love when U2 did their "live"version and the introduction was "here's a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles and we're stealing it back "......so cool ,man
Great tune! One of the first heavy metal songs and for good reason, it totally freaked us out when it was first released. For more hardcore Beatles, do I Want You, She's So Heavy. Beatles in 68/69 kicked out several real heavy rock classics that influenced heavy bands to come, they are well worth a listen Enjoy! 🎵🎸🎤🎹🎶
Zeppelin had the Heavy Metal title in 69 with Dazed and Confused, Whole Lotta Love . Blue Cheer has Summertime Blues & Steppenwolf coined the phrase "Heavy Metal Thunder" both in 68
"Helter Skelter" 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 'Til I get to the bottom and I see you again Yeah, yeah, yeah, ha-ha-ha! Well do you, don't you want me to love you? I'm coming down fast, but I'm miles above you Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answer Well, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer Now, helter-skelter Helter-skelter Helter-skelter Yeah Ooh! Oh will you, won't you want me to make you? (Ah) I'm coming down fast, but don't let me break you (ah) Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer Well, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer Look out! Helter-skelter Helter-skelter Helter-skelter Ooh Look out! 'Cause here she comes When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide And I stop, and I turn and I go for a ride And I get to the bottom and I see you again Yeah, yeah, yeah! Well do you, don't you want me to make you? I'm coming down fast, but don't let me break you Tell me, tell me, tell me your answer Well, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer Look out! Helter-skelter Helter-skelter Helter-skelter Well, look out! Helter-skelter She's coming down fast Yes, she is Yes, she is Coming down fast Oh yeah, helter-skelter Ooh I got blisters on my fingers - (Ringo)
At the time, Paul McCartney and Pete Townsend of The Who were having a friendly battle to see who could produce the dirtiest guitar sounds with the new more powerful amplifiers that we’re becoming available.
The Sixties were a trip. The Beatles took the Leave It To Beaver generation from "I want to Hold your Hand" to this. The first introduction to heavy metal/hard rock. The Beatles were the creators. This is modern music history. Nothing like it ever heard before. Analog recording. Genius innovators. They changed the world
Glad you chose this to react to. Iv’e said it before and took a lot of slack for what I’m about to say but I don’t care. This in my opinion was the first heavy metal song and The Beatles introduced us to that genre!
P.aul singing and Ringo screaming at the end because he was in pain. First heavy metal song. Now how about an opposite song from their early period that has the mpst beautiful 3-part harmony: THIS BOY....is heavenly
Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Helter Skelter" 52nd on its list of "The 100 Greatest Beatles Songs". Paul said......."I'd read a review of a record which said, "and this group really got us wild, there's echo on everything, they're screaming their heads off." And I just remember thinking, "Oh, it'd be great to do one. Pity they've done it. Must be great - really screaming record." And then I heard their record and it was quite straight, and it was very sort of sophisticated. It wasn't rough and screaming and tape echo at all. So I thought, "Oh well, we'll do one like that, then." And I had this song called "Helter Skelter," which is just a ridiculous song. So we did it like that, 'cos I like noise"
I read something about Pete Townshend bragging about the raunchiness (according to him at the time) of I Can See For Miles, and McCartney felt he wanted to top it.
The story is that Peter Townsend of The Who had described their new album as the hardest heviest rock ever made. Paul McCartney and the Beatles took up the challenge and Ringo got blisters on his fingers.
Funny that you said "what a ride" at the end, as a helter skelter is just that, a ride. It's a slide that spirals around the outside of a lighthouse shaped building that has the stairs to the top inside it
Wow...Great and incredibly powerful song. Superb vocal from Paul McCartney and wonderful drumming from Ringo. Wow this song has your heart pumping from beginning to end. I would love to have seen it live, Another brilliant composition from the Beatles and terrific reaction from Jim Boy.
Wow, thanks! I’ve been listening to this song since the White Album was released (I was 9 years old at the time) and I didn’t even know it was Lennon playing bass. I think it was the same 6 string bass featured in the Get Back film.
It's definitely not John. The sound of the bass is way more close in sound to the Fender Jazzbass Paul used for many songs from the album. John played mostly the FenderVI Baritone guitar if he was to play bass. Also rhythmically it's way more like Pauls playing, all be it a little more "sloppy".
No surprise!!! The Beatles started out screaming on the their songs.....before they started putting out melodic tunes for the general public.....but on the interior of their albums were songs like this that was not appropriate for the general airwaves for the radio. Also "I am the Walrus" was psychedelic and hardcore." by The Beatles. react to that too. Fire!!!
This song was Beatles response to reading in a Rock Magazine that *The Who* had the Most Hardcore Rock Song Ever. No one couldn't think of what song was being label that, so they wrote *Helter Skelter* The rest is Iconic history, remember T-Shirt Slogan *"Charlie Can't Surf"* 😁
A Helter Skelter, in England was a slide, at an amusement park. The slide would go around a cone shaped structure. Beach towns like Blackpool or Brighton had these Victorian era fun areas -go ti the beach, even if the ocean was cold, have a “day out”.
Good catch/call-out on the John Lennon Primal Scream stuff! It was Paul on vocals, but, sure, still a relevant remark. One of the hardest songs by the Beatles--or ANYONE!
This song and the song "Piggies" from the same album dropped off the airwaves after the Tate-La Bianca murders by the Manson gang. When a mass murderer claims inspiration from this, and his followers write "Piggies" in blood on the wall, it does something to the ratings.
@@sherryfish7067 Paul McCartney - vocals, rhythm guitar John Lennon - backing vocals, bass, tenor saxophone George Harrison - backing vocals, lead guitar Ringo Starr - drums, scream (at the end) Other musicians Mal Evans - trumpet
I first saw The Beatles on their American TV debut in February 1964 when I was four on The Ed Sullivan Show. I'm still learning things about them that are new to me. I highly recommend How The Beatles Changed the World. It's not your typical documentary. Usually it's clips or photos with folks they were close to. HBCW is an analysis of the culture in general and the London-New York pop scene that had always been reciprocal, simply exploding and expanding in new ways. Or how four subversive artists in sheep's clothing became repackaged into mainstream culture and promptly took it with them as they personally progressed. And mostly remained kind.
Paul tells a couple stories about how this song came about. There's the one about trying to outdo the Who, who had just recorded a song they considered the loudest and filthiest. There's also the one about Paul getting tired of critics thinking all he can do is pretty ballads. I think both are true. Paul said this song, based on the British amusement ride the helter skelter (a short tower of about 10 to 20 feet tall with stairs inside and a sliding board spiraling around the tower's exterior; google for image) was a metaphor for fame, that you work to make your way to the top, but the slide down is both exciting but quick. The thing is, Paul went to Hamburg with the rest of the early band and they played some of the raunchiest clubs there, so his background is not romantic love songs (though he could do them). Paul came up playing and singing rough 1950s rock and roll; his favorite singer was Little Richard. Compare "Helter Skelter" to his early recording of "Long Tall Sally", then his later song "Oh Darling". Final note: this song was released in November 1968; it wasn't until the next year that bands suddenly appeared playing this kind of hardcore music. Check the release dates on those bands' first albums. They all appeared 1969 to 1971. Led Zeppelin was 2 months later, Black Sabbath was almost a year later. Some say the Kinks, but that's just rock and roll. Some say The Who, but that's just hard rock.
Common mistake thinking only John can sing this kind of song. In fact, this is Paul-and Paul’s amazing vocal abilities, not only to be able to sing the beautiful, but also the gut wrenching screamer made his partner John very insecure and jealous, intensifying their rivalry and pushing the Beatles ever closer to breakup. John did an interview towards the end of his life, some years after the Beatles breakup where he stated he was hurt that Paul did not ask him to sing the lead on “Oh Darling”, which again was another song where Paul performs a tour de force vocal which is nothing short of amazing. Anyway, despite the increasingly unhealthy rivalry between these two, you have to give it to Paul for the vocals on this Beatles version of a heavy metal song-he sings this style as good as anyone, and better than many.
AMEN!! So many people don't even realize what Paul's voice is capable of, and JUST ONCE, I would like a reactor to do a back to back of "HELTER SKELTER" with either "HERE, THERE and EVERYWHERE," or "I WILL." BOTH songs and HELTER SKELTER sung BY PAUL, just to show people the contrast in Paul's vocal abilities.
Gee lots of BS here! There's no evidence whatsoever that Paul's screaming made John insecure or jealous. They'd both been doing raucous vocals since Cavern and Hamburg days and were well aware of each other's abilities long before 'Helter Skelter'. Maybe Paul was jealous of John? Incidentally John's fast heavy version of 'Revolution' pre-dated 'Helter Skelter' by about 2 months. A case of Paul following the leader? Indeed Emerick in his book writes how John set the heavy tone for the White Album with his demeanour and aggressive and loud playing. John never said he was hurt by not being asked to sing 'Oh Darling'. He said he could have done a better job, and it was more in his style. Paul definitely sounds to me like he's trying too hard on that one, like he might burst a blood vessel. George Harrison for one didn't like it. Thought he was just screaming. It was 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' about which John said he was hurt that Paul didn't involve himself or George in the recording.
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From “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to this,just four years later…..Thats progress.
Well said
Even less than that really if we’re considering how quickly their debut was put together compared to how prolonged the sessions for the white album were.
No... not 'progress.' Development. Hand was miles above anything that was out at the time (The Singing Nun, Sukiyaki, Jack Jones, Baby Elephant Walk...).
Five years, methinks 😊
@@melissa9375Exactly. What people of recent generation don’t understand is that the Beatles turned popular music upside down when they arrived. Nobody had heard anything like it.
I could never understand why the "critics" didn't like this song. Recorded a decade before the Sex Pistols and Nirvana was 2 decades away.
I agree. This song was really the forerunner to heavy metal IMO. There was never a song like this before. I wonder if they equated it with Charles Manson as being the reason they disliked it?
The critics were idiots, they slammed Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath as well, what a crock!
@@vicprovost2561 Pretty much true. The real critics are the people who buy the music. And these bands were popular by far back then, and even today.
Motley Crue did it too
👍@@nypinstripes2388
IMO McCartney has (or had) one of the most versatile voices ever. He could sing as sweet as a choir boy or belt like Little Richard with equal conviction.
Yes!
Even Little Richard was astonished because it was 1962 when he first heard them (they shared a concert) and they hadn't become famous yet
Little RICHARD introduced the band to marijuana - the sound changed from that moment
@@grahamhowes6904 no he didn't! it was Bob Dylan-well documented-every Beatle fan knows that
@@ijonny25251 I had heard that it was when they were on tour supporting Little Richard that they had their first taste of weed. Beatles Bible also says : Some of The Beatles had actually been introduced to cannabis in 1960, although the drug had made little impression.
‘We first got marijuana from an older drummer with another group in Liverpool. We didn’t actually try it until after we’d been to Hamburg. I remember we smoked it in the band room in a gig in Southport and we all learnt to do the Twist that night, which was popular at the time. We were all seeing if we could do it. Everybody was saying, ‘This stuff isn’t doing anything.’ It was like that old joke where a party is going on and two hippies are up floating on the ceiling, and one is saying to the other, ‘This stuff doesn’t work, man.’
So you are probably right that in 1964 is where they had their first effective enjoyment of it with Dylan.
The big thing for me is not just how the Beatles could go heavy metal when they chose to, but how they did it waaay ahead of other musicians back in 1968!
Agree, then came along Led Zepplin.....(not nearly as talented Lyrical by far as the Beatles. Am now 67, whata generation .
Ringo showing Keith Moon had nothing on him for going a little crazy on the drums and screaming at the end a legendary phrase... "I Got Blisters On My Fingers"
It was John that shouted that.
Look into it. RINGO said HE shouted it. John Never claimed he said it.@@FiremanSam60
@@FiremanSam60it was ringo, you could literally hear john asked "how's that ?" to ringo before he scream
@@FiremanSam60 It was Ringo.
Wrong! Ringo said it after a lot of brutal sessions of this song including a very long jam right before this version was recorded-obviously Ringo's voice
Paul McCartney wrote, sang, and played what some consider the first Heavy Metal Song. Some had remarked that the Beatles
couldn't rock hard. Paul and the boys shut them up with his. Great pick of a fantastic song. Love your commentary - always
witty and insightful.
…and shut them up, they did! When this album released, radio stations across America played it from beginning to end without ads. Never, ever heard of. My siblings and I just sat there dead quiet and in awe.
(Sad our radios were pitiful & mono back then. You had to be absolutely loaded to have a stereo set to hear so many instruments).
I love that Paul chuckled in the midst of his vocals!
Actually, one of the members of The Who (can't remember if it was Townsend or Daltrey) said in an interview that "I Can See For Miles," their current hit, was the loudest rocker ever, and McCartney took that as a challenge to up the ante.
Yes, Townsend and Paul were trying to out-dirty each other’s guitar sound
Different bass player and guitar player on this.
They could do ANY genre,and do it better than everyone else.
There’s the Beatles and everyone else
Fuckin A
Well...Wings....
@@sugarnadsnot even close . Did the wings transform culture and the music world? Stupid
They started genres mate 😂
I love seeing the reactions of young people hearing the Beatles for the first time.
Considered to be the 1st heavy metal song and highly connected with the Manson murders
Wrong and wrong. Not even close to heavy metal. It's hard rock, ala The Who. And barely connected to that maniac family in California carving up people with knives.
Background tidbit.
Helter Skelter is a British "carnival" ride.. its still in use😊
WOW! They made every kind of music didn't they?!? AWESOME!! Thanks
Man this guys... Made noise music!! (Or what I consider the first noise song, I talk about Revolution 9) God bless them, they are THE BEST!!
I heard an interview with Paul when he said that he wanted to write something harder and louder than The Who.
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer - Now THAT'S a R&R lyric!
When I hear people say I don’t like the Beatles, I say you haven’t heard all their music. They literally did everything.
What I have heard is that Pete Townsend sent to McCartney something like the Who was the loudest band in the world, and McCartney took that as a challenge to make something really loud and screaming.
Look Out!!! The Beatles finally let loose with this one. Best line is the last one in the song, "I've got blisters on my fingers!"
Ringo: I''ve got blisters on my fingers' haha!
Helter Skelter is a ride at a carnival. Paul explained that once in an interview.
Classic Victorian fairground ride in the UK. Still around and loved today. Needs no power to run it, just a slippery slide, mat and some-one to sit on it!
The look as it fades back in... when you experience the awesomeness
Next up for the Beatles if you want more heavy sounding songs of theirs: I Want You/She's So Heavy - that one is a John song. The second half of the song is considered by many as the first doom metal song. This one is considered one of the first or even the first by some of the heavy metal genre.
That’s an incredible song. One of my favorites
Killer song! You will get lost in this one, talk about a heavy trip, when we first heard it the whole room was in shock.
@@zenpuppy6025 Mine too! Another heavy-ish song of theirs might be Hey Bulldog which I also love.
I put "I want you" on the tape deck while i was in the army and they shouted at me hahahaha:) awesome song
The energy in the room when The Beatles recorded this track is on another level. That bass alone is so heavy. I get goosebumps.
That's John Lennon on that Six String Bass they had, he's killing it with those riffs.
Proud of you. You stayed after the Fade out! 👍 IDK why they did that! Just to mess with the Folks on Acid!
Someone said they jammed this for 20+ minutes and just did a large edit to get what was released, I would DIE to hear the entire jam. Goosebumps!
@@vicprovost2561I think the entire session is on Beatles Anthology which includes a more mellow bluesy version of this song as well.
Paul McCartney singing, Ringo is the one who screams "I've got blisters on my fingers!" (He'd been playing for nearly 27 minutes, the actual length of "HS").
different bass player and guitar player on this.
John was playing bass (not his usual instrument) for 27 minutes, that's why his fingers had blisters. Why would a drummer get blisters?!
@@wdygmab1It was Ringo. He said so in an interview.
In the interview he was asked why he said it and replied "Did I?". They told him he did but he doesn't remember it!@@rockhero2274
I’m pretty sure he played this for longer.
Heavy metal was born
Yes; now _there's_ the Beatles' wild edge! I'd recommend "It's All Too Much" for a track further down the madness rabbit-hole!
or..."Hey Bulldog"
By this point The Beatles just did whatever they wanted, in whatever genre. Back in the USSR on this same album is a nod to the Beach Boys and they knock it out of the park.
That was Paul singing by the way.
The Beatles... 1968! Enough said... ❤
Played this for a friend one day and he was shocked it was the Beatles. All these years later and they still surprise people
Often called the first HEAVY METAL song ever.
This is the same guy that wrote Yesterday. Anyone who doesn’t consider Paul McCartney the greatest composer of pop/rock of all time is objectively wrong!
According to Paul, it was written after reading a quote from Pete Townshend of The Who , he said they’d just recorded their "loudest,dirtiest, rawest" song ever. Paul said ‘let me do that.’
and paul said.........hold my beer....!!!
Correct. And The Who were not a METAL band. This oft-repeated nonsense about this being the first heavy metal song is just rubbish.
JMBoy. On Tuesday I was at a Sir Paul concert here in my hometown of Newcastle Australia! Yes he did this song and it went off!!! Best thing was so many young people like yourself there and even teens rocking out!
I hate you.
I had a ticket for sydney but was rostered to work.
Paul is so versatile amazing
“If You’re Going to Do Something, Do It Well. And Leave Something Witchy”
First Heavy metal song by about 2 years.
Wrong. It's not metal. I hate how many people just parrot what they've heard. It's hard rock. They were taking on The Who, after a news report where someone said their latest single was the hardest, loudest, nastiest thing ever. And I suggest you listen to Cream's 1968 song "Politician" which has many of the elements of anything you'd find on a Black Sabbath track on their first two albums. Just more bluesy and three far better musicians doing it.
Paul wrote this song. In a interview he said that
Helter Skelter was the name of a carnival ride.
Revolution and I’m Down are two more pretty hard rock Beatles songs. Thanks for reacting to this one. ✌️🖖
John plays bass on this song. Great freaking song! Enjoyed your reaction.
Ringo made this song so classical and Paul's Vocals were great!
Closest you will ever get to a Ringo drum solo at the refrain
Always a delight to see reactors hit this for the first time. It's a long way from "Yesterday" but just 3 years later!
I love when U2 did their "live"version and the introduction was "here's a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles and we're stealing it back "......so cool ,man
I loved that too!!
U2 sux.
@@samwisethebrave288 Seriously? Shut it.
I listened & watched with the fattest smile pulling my face in half!
Pure joy--
Thanks for your energy!
Great tune! One of the first heavy metal songs and for good reason, it totally freaked us out when it was first released. For more hardcore Beatles, do I Want You, She's So Heavy. Beatles in 68/69 kicked out several real heavy rock classics that influenced heavy bands to come, they are well worth a listen Enjoy! 🎵🎸🎤🎹🎶
False.
@@DerekDerekDerekDerekDerekDerek What's false lol
I Want You (She's So Heavy) is fantastic! It's the first modern song to use Drop D guitar tuning, making it a very heavy song!
@@DerekDerekDerekDerekDerekDerek LOL is right!
Zeppelin had the Heavy Metal title in 69 with Dazed and Confused, Whole Lotta Love . Blue Cheer has Summertime Blues & Steppenwolf coined the phrase "Heavy Metal Thunder" both in 68
"Helter Skelter"
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
'Til I get to the bottom and I see you again
Yeah, yeah, yeah, ha-ha-ha!
Well do you, don't you want me to love you?
I'm coming down fast, but I'm miles above you
Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answer
Well, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer
Now, helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Yeah
Ooh!
Oh will you, won't you want me to make you? (Ah)
I'm coming down fast, but don't let me break you (ah)
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer
Well, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer
Look out!
Helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Ooh
Look out!
'Cause here she comes
When I get to the bottom
I go back to the top of the slide
And I stop, and I turn and I go for a ride
And I get to the bottom and I see you again
Yeah, yeah, yeah!
Well do you, don't you want me to make you?
I'm coming down fast, but don't let me break you
Tell me, tell me, tell me your answer
Well, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer
Look out!
Helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Well, look out! Helter-skelter
She's coming down fast
Yes, she is
Yes, she is
Coming down fast
Oh yeah, helter-skelter
Ooh
I got blisters on my fingers - (Ringo)
They don't write like this anymore!
Aw my childhood, rang out in the house every single day, we were a house of Beatles lovers 🙏😌
The fast version of Revolution by the Beatles is my favorite song of theirs.
Yep John goes at it heavy at times with his vocals , just not on this one
This is the man with a thousand voices , Paul
john and george do the backings on this one, but John goes dirty on the Bass
At the time, Paul McCartney and Pete Townsend of The Who were having a friendly battle to see who could produce the dirtiest guitar sounds with the new more powerful amplifiers that we’re becoming available.
Maybe someone said it below. That was John on bass on this one... LSD !!!
Only start with a quarter dose, this song will accelerate your experience. 🎸
As noted by another person, Paul McCartney sang on this one.
The Sixties were a trip. The Beatles took the Leave It To Beaver generation from "I want to Hold your Hand" to this. The first introduction to heavy metal/hard rock.
The Beatles were the creators. This is modern music history. Nothing like it ever heard before. Analog recording. Genius innovators. They changed the world
Glad you chose this to react to. Iv’e said it before and took a lot of slack for what I’m about to say but I don’t care. This in my opinion was the first heavy metal song and The Beatles introduced us to that genre!
P.aul singing and Ringo screaming at the end because he was in pain. First heavy metal song. Now how about an opposite song from their early period that has the mpst beautiful 3-part harmony: THIS BOY....is heavenly
Crazy hard rock by the Beatles--thanks for bringing it to us!
Rolling Stone magazine ranked "Helter Skelter" 52nd on its list of "The 100 Greatest Beatles Songs". Paul said......."I'd read a review of a record which said, "and this group really got us wild, there's echo on everything, they're screaming their heads off." And I just remember thinking, "Oh, it'd be great to do one. Pity they've done it. Must be great - really screaming record." And then I heard their record and it was quite straight, and it was very sort of sophisticated. It wasn't rough and screaming and tape echo at all. So I thought, "Oh well, we'll do one like that, then." And I had this song called "Helter Skelter," which is just a ridiculous song. So we did it like that, 'cos I like noise"
I read something about Pete Townshend bragging about the raunchiness (according to him at the time) of I Can See For Miles, and McCartney felt he wanted to top it.
heavy metal !!! beatles forever!!!
The story is that Peter Townsend of The Who had described their new album as the hardest heviest rock ever made. Paul McCartney and the Beatles took up the challenge and Ringo got blisters on his fingers.
absolutely ♥ this song!
Amazing what they accomplished in 7 short years
John on Bass.
One of the baddest drop-down bass riffs ever recorded.
🎼🎸
This is BEFORE heavy metal
Funny that you said "what a ride" at the end, as a helter skelter is just that, a ride. It's a slide that spirals around the outside of a lighthouse shaped building that has the stairs to the top inside it
One of their greatest hits, That white Album Kicks Ass 🐲☯️🐉
Wow...Great and incredibly powerful song. Superb vocal from Paul McCartney and wonderful drumming from Ringo. Wow this song has your heart pumping from beginning to end. I would love to have seen it live, Another brilliant composition from the Beatles and terrific reaction from Jim Boy.
I want You/She's So Heavy. That is the Beatles rocker. Must.
I never considered "I Want You/ She's So Heavy" as a "rocker" to me it's more bluesy. I LOVE it, but in my opinion I wouldn't consider it a rocker.
LOVE this song. Anytime I'm frustrated by life, I turn it on and drum on the table. Instant relief.
John Lennon’s bass was incredible.
Wow, thanks! I’ve been listening to this song since the White Album was released (I was 9 years old at the time) and I didn’t even know it was Lennon playing bass. I think it was the same 6 string bass featured in the Get Back film.
It sounds kind of crappy when you hear the bass isolated, but it's perfection in the mix!
It's definitely not John. The sound of the bass is way more close in sound to the Fender Jazzbass Paul used for many songs from the album. John played mostly the FenderVI Baritone guitar if he was to play bass. Also rhythmically it's way more like Pauls playing, all be it a little more "sloppy".
The baddest grunge, garage band ,punk maniac music ever. Luvit!
Its actually considered birth of metal music.
A Helter Skelter was a huge slide at British amusement parks.
Best Beatles Album🎇
The first heavy metal song.
And the best.
That was 🔥🔥🔥🔥
If you ask me, this was the very early stage of punk rock. And from The Beatles, believe it or not
Another must listen is, “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except for Me and My Monkey” a hard hitting Lennon composition? Thanks
No surprise!!! The Beatles started out screaming on the their songs.....before they started putting out melodic tunes for the general public.....but on the interior of their albums were songs like this that was not appropriate for the general airwaves for the radio. Also "I am the Walrus" was psychedelic and hardcore." by The Beatles. react to that too. Fire!!!
2009 mix: better CHUNKY bass & cymbals
2018 mix: better guitar solo panning and clearer chorus/backing vocals
STILL NEEDS AN ULTIMATE REMIX IMO...
Another hard one on this album is John's everybody's got something to hide except me and my monkey🤯
Try Hey Bulldog. Great riff.
Helter Skelter was the name for a ride like at a fair
I saw McCartney in1990 and loved hearing this one live.
This song was Beatles response to reading in a Rock Magazine that *The Who* had the Most Hardcore Rock Song Ever. No one couldn't think of what song was being label that, so they wrote *Helter Skelter* The rest is Iconic history, remember T-Shirt Slogan *"Charlie Can't Surf"* 😁
The Who song in question was "I Can See For Miles" which doesn't sound all that hard
A Helter Skelter, in England was a slide, at an amusement park. The slide would go around a cone shaped structure. Beach towns like Blackpool or Brighton had these Victorian era fun areas -go ti the beach, even if the ocean was cold, have a “day out”.
Good catch/call-out on the John Lennon Primal Scream stuff! It was Paul on vocals, but, sure, still a relevant remark. One of the hardest songs by the Beatles--or ANYONE!
This song and the song "Piggies" from the same album dropped off the airwaves after the Tate-La Bianca murders by the Manson gang. When a mass murderer claims inspiration from this, and his followers write "Piggies" in blood on the wall, it does something to the ratings.
I love John and George singing the "ahhhh"s in the background.
The Beatles and the Rolling Stones !!!! 😊😊
England's Gift to the World. 😊 Thank You
Bealtes pioneered so many genres... here... heavy metal
Great piece, immortal, and Harrison's solo is wonderful ❤️
Paul's solo
@@sherryfish7067
Paul McCartney - vocals, rhythm guitar
John Lennon - backing vocals, bass, tenor saxophone
George Harrison - backing vocals, lead guitar
Ringo Starr - drums, scream (at the end)
Other musicians
Mal Evans - trumpet
Beatles can do anything they damn well please. That’s that.
RINGO got the last word !!
I first saw The Beatles on their American TV debut in February 1964 when I was four on The Ed Sullivan Show. I'm still learning things about them that are new to me. I highly recommend How The Beatles Changed the World. It's not your typical documentary. Usually it's clips or photos with folks they were close to. HBCW is an analysis of the culture in general and the London-New York pop scene that had always been reciprocal, simply exploding and expanding in new ways. Or how four subversive artists in sheep's clothing became repackaged into mainstream culture and promptly took it with them as they personally progressed. And mostly remained kind.
Paul tells a couple stories about how this song came about. There's the one about trying to outdo the Who, who had just recorded a song they considered the loudest and filthiest. There's also the one about Paul getting tired of critics thinking all he can do is pretty ballads. I think both are true. Paul said this song, based on the British amusement ride the helter skelter (a short tower of about 10 to 20 feet tall with stairs inside and a sliding board spiraling around the tower's exterior; google for image) was a metaphor for fame, that you work to make your way to the top, but the slide down is both exciting but quick.
The thing is, Paul went to Hamburg with the rest of the early band and they played some of the raunchiest clubs there, so his background is not romantic love songs (though he could do them). Paul came up playing and singing rough 1950s rock and roll; his favorite singer was Little Richard. Compare "Helter Skelter" to his early recording of "Long Tall Sally", then his later song "Oh Darling".
Final note: this song was released in November 1968; it wasn't until the next year that bands suddenly appeared playing this kind of hardcore music. Check the release dates on those bands' first albums. They all appeared 1969 to 1971. Led Zeppelin was 2 months later, Black Sabbath was almost a year later. Some say the Kinks, but that's just rock and roll. Some say The Who, but that's just hard rock.
Love what you are doing!!
I am new here.... But even your followers are chill. Very nice Sir
Fantastic!
Loved the heavier stuff from them
I have always loved this song !
good recognition to the beatles!
The Beatles did it all and just moved on to something else.
A blueprint conceptual album
This song created psychos literally
Common mistake thinking only John can sing this kind of song. In fact, this is Paul-and Paul’s amazing vocal abilities, not only to be able to sing the beautiful, but also the gut wrenching screamer made his partner John very insecure and jealous, intensifying their rivalry and pushing the Beatles ever closer to breakup. John did an interview towards the end of his life, some years after the Beatles breakup where he stated he was hurt that Paul did not ask him to sing the lead on “Oh Darling”, which again was another song where Paul performs a tour de force vocal which is nothing short of amazing. Anyway, despite the increasingly unhealthy rivalry between these two, you have to give it to Paul for the vocals on this Beatles version of a heavy metal song-he sings this style as good as anyone, and better than many.
AMEN!! So many people don't even realize what Paul's voice is capable of, and JUST ONCE, I would like a reactor to do a back to back of "HELTER SKELTER" with either "HERE, THERE and EVERYWHERE," or "I WILL." BOTH songs and HELTER SKELTER sung BY PAUL, just to show people the contrast in Paul's vocal abilities.
Gee lots of BS here! There's no evidence whatsoever that Paul's screaming made John insecure or jealous. They'd both been doing raucous vocals since Cavern and Hamburg days and were well aware of each other's abilities long before 'Helter Skelter'. Maybe Paul was jealous of John? Incidentally John's fast heavy version of 'Revolution' pre-dated 'Helter Skelter' by about 2 months. A case of Paul following the leader? Indeed Emerick in his book writes how John set the heavy tone for the White Album with his demeanour and aggressive and loud playing.
John never said he was hurt by not being asked to sing 'Oh Darling'. He said he could have done a better job, and it was more in his style. Paul definitely sounds to me like he's trying too hard on that one, like he might burst a blood vessel. George Harrison for one didn't like it. Thought he was just screaming.
It was 'Why Don't We Do It In The Road' about which John said he was hurt that Paul didn't involve himself or George in the recording.