The Beatles classic Ringo Starr labelled “total madness”
The recording studio was where The Beatles came to life. They used it as their canvas, successfully reimagining popular music and creating songs that will live forever. Although not all The Beatles’ risks paid off splendidly, they had far more hits than misses.
In their pursuit of pushing sonic boundaries, they notably explored the fields of psychedelia and introduced an Eastern flavour to their music, thanks to their experience in India. However, one area in which they don’t often get the credit they deserve is their pivotal role in progressing heavy rock.
Of course, bands like Black Sabbath were responsible for creating heavy metal as we know it today. However, The Beatles played a significant part in developing the genre with ‘Helter Skelter’. Although it sounds relatively tame by today’s standards, it was revolutionary in 1968. The dark and twisted rock classic was heavier than anything in the mainstream, introducing many to a whole new musical language.
The song was written primarily out of spite by Paul McCartney. In an interview with Melody Maker, The Who’s Pete Townshend had boasted about his band creating “the loudest, rock ‘n’ roll record” of all time, which made McCartney task himself with taking his crown and upping the ante. McCartney later explained in Anthology: “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.'”
The final result was ‘Helter Skelter’, which captured the Fab Four at their most untamed and unleashed their animalistic tendencies. The session was chaotic from start to finish, which fuelled the creation of the track. At one stage, when McCartney laid down his vocals, George Harrison set fire to an ashtray before running around the studio with it above his head, epitomising the session.
McCartney added, “You can hear the voices cracking, and we played it so long and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying,’ I’ve got blisters on my fingers’. We just tried to get it louder: ‘Can’t we make the drums sound louder?’ That was really all I wanted to do – to make a very loud, raunchy rock ‘n’ roll record with The Beatles. And I think it’s a pretty good one”.
The take of the track that was deemed acceptable was the group’s 21st attempt at recording ‘Helder Skelter’. It inexplicably featured John Lennon on bass and even their roadie, Mal Evans, on the trumpet. They may have made ‘Helter Skelter’ under a cloud of mayhem, yet somehow, The Beatles successfully translated the mayhem from the EMI Studios onto the anarchic final mix.
For Ringo, the song is not only a source of pride from a musical perspective, but his memories of the recording session are incredibly precious. Starr later remembered: “‘Helter Skelter’ was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. Sometimes you just had to shake out the jams, and with that song – Paul’s bass line and my drums – Paul started screaming and shouting and made it up on the spot”.
Sadly, Charles Manson’s fixation with ‘Helter Skelter’ gave the song an unwanted new meaning. For many years, McCartney felt uncomfortable playing the song for that very reason before eventually incorporating it into his setlists and taking ownership of it once again.’Helter Skelter’ is now one of the highlights of his live show, which always raises the roof.
Poetically, on December 19th, 2024, he introduced his old friend, Starr, to join him in performing the track at London’s O2 Arena almost 60 years after they initially recorded the composition. A lot has changed in that time, but their bond remains as strong as ever, as does their appreciation of ‘Helter Skelter’.
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