Then I heard it and it was nothing like it. It was straight and sophisticated. It wasn't rough and screaming and tape echo, at all. So I had this song called 'Helter Skelter,' which was quite a ridiculous song. So we did it. I like noise." (This is an excerpt from beatlesbook.com, to read the full article click here)
The review that Paul was referring to in this 1968 quote was reportedly about the October 1967 released single by The Who entitled “I Can See For Miles,” which indeed pushed the envelope at the time as to raw energy on a pop record. Throughout the years, Paul would remember the article as saying different things, such as in 1985:
“That came about because I read in Melody Maker that The Who had made some track or other that was the loudest, most raucous rock'n'roll, the dirtiest thing they've ever done...It make me think, 'Right. Got to do it.' I like that kind of geeking up. And we decided to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number we could.”
In the book “Beatles Anthology,” Paul related: “I was in Scotland and I read in Melody Maker that Pete Townshend had said: 'We've just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock'n'roll record you've ever heard.'
I never actually found out what track it was that The Who had made, but that got me going, just hearing him talk about it. So I said to the guys, 'I think we should do a song like that; something really wild.' And I wrote 'Helter Skelter.'”
A Melody Maker review written by Chris Welch did appear in the magazine around this time reviewing the song, stating, “Forget 'Happy Jack' sitting in sand on the Isle of Man. This marathon epic of swearing cymbals and cursing guitars marks the retuen of The Who as a major freak-out forse.
Recorded in America, it's a Pete Townshend mystery and menace, and delivered by the emphatic Mr. Roger Daltry.” Whether this was the review Paul read or not, he continued to alter the contents of the article in interviews as the years progressed.
Sometime around 1994, Paul elaborated further about the writing of the song in his book “Many Years From Now” as follows: “I was always trying to write something different, trying to not write in character, and I read this and I was inspired.
'Oh, wow! Yeah!' Just that one little paragraph was enough to inspire me; to make me make a move. So I sat down and wrote 'Helter Skelter' to be the most raucous vocal, the loudest drums, etcetera etcetera. I was using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom – the rise and fall of the Roman Empire – and this was the fall, the demise, the going down. You could have thought of it as a rather cute title but it's since taken on all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem, and since then quite a few punk bands have done it because it is a raunchy rocker.”
For those who want more details about Charles Manson's interpretation of the song and his activities, I invite you to please look elsewhere. We refuse to give that any significance here because it has absolutely no relevance to the actual history of this historic Beatles song.
To solidify this point is John Lennon's 1980 quote from his Playboy Magazine interview. He stated that “Helter Skelter” was written by “Paul completely. All that Manson stuff was built around George's 'Piggies' and this song of Paul's about an English fairground. It has nothing to do with anything, and least of all to do with me.”
A “Helter Skelter” is an amusement ride popularized mostly in the U.K. with a slide built in a spiral around a high tower. The ride is usually built with the capability of riders climbing up inside the tower and then sliding down on the winding outside slide, sometimes on a mat or burlap sack. Using this as a metaphor, Paul describes the complexities and sexual tension experienced within a romantic relationship.
