Entertainment For Lively Minds
Helter Skelter - rockin' or bobbins?
Posted by DogFacedBoy on 28 November 2011 - 6:48pm.
Sparked by a discussion on Twitter today I thought I'd open it up to the Massive - Helter Skelter: does it rock or does it not?
I'm defintely in the rockin' camp. I like its slightly out of control and messy vibe. Macca's vocal is awesome - just listen to him shred his throat.
So over to you. Did Charles Manson steal it from The Beatles? Did Bono massacre it? I strongly recall seeing Macca at Glastonbury on the TV and thinking "man, thats a fuckin' great sound!'
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And here are the seperate tracks
Ringo steady as a rock
Lennon perhaps unsurprisingly all over the place on bass but what a great sound
Guitar!
Dunno about
you lot, I'm having great fun here doing my own remix by trying to synch these 3 like Flaming Lips "Zaireeka"...
You can raise & lower the volume of each instrument to your hearts content.
Fabulous vocal.
Slightly bollocks song. I'm with Ian McDonald: The Beatles were a bit unconvincing when trying to rock out.
Yet I still have some affection for it, and it's better than half of the rest of The White Album.
purely as a song, possibly bollocks
but as a rockin' rave up -- top notch.
Rave ups must be held to a different standard.
Waterloo Sunset can be played by a loud rock n roll band, a winsome lass with an acoustic guitar, a symphony orchestra, or on the pan pipes. It's always good (maybe not the pan pipes version).
Helter Skelter MUST be played by a band at ear-shredding levels or it's nearly pointless.
But when it IS played loud and with gusto - well that's what it's all about. That's what we all signed up for.
Same goes for I'm Down, or Tutti Frutti, Song 2, Ace of Spades, Search and Destroy.
Sometimes (most times?) there is nothing better in this world than Paul's rock n roll voice.
John's bass playing however? Deary me. Still, sounds good in the mix I suppose.
Ah but people might say that about Satisfaction
but Cat Power takes all the rock out of it and does a bloody good job to boot.
I think Helter Skelter is great as a live track and Macca presumably still plays it because it gets people moving. As an album track its okay certainly not the worst thing they ever did.
true, true
nothing is cut and dried, naturally.
Cat Power's is a top version of Satisfaction - but Satisfaction, though obviously upbeat, is hardly heads down no nonsense mindless boogie.
Taking ramalama songs and doing them inna oversensitive stylee, or as a bossa nova, or on a ukulele with a lickle girl voice is rife these days - Youtube is infested with them
doesn't make it right...
Rockin
So what was the consensus on Twitter? Or was there no consensus? It is Twitter after all.
That vocal. Oh my. Stunning.
The was no concensus
it was just a discussion about the song being overshadowed by the Tate murders and forever tainted. Plus a view that its a great vocal with some dodgy basswork from Lennon and that its a bit lumpen.
Plus we all wondered if the seperate parts were available to examine and bloody hell, they are!
Forever tainted
I encountered this in my own family. I was talking with my sister about the White Album, and she said, "I hate that Helter Skelter song. I can't believe the Beatles wrote a song about Charles Manson."
She's obviously not well versed in her Beatles history. But I was shocked to realize both she and her husband thought the Tate murders happened first and the Beatles song came afterward. I set her straight but I wonder how many other people think the same thing.
See, that's why everyone should watch
'Rattle and Hum' - Bono explains it all in fourteen words.
Tate
It was me re: the song & Manson murders. It's not that I didn't understand that the song came first or that I'm "not well versed", but that I cannot hear it without thinking of the murders, which then leads me to think of the sexual assault on a minor by Sharon Tate's widow. So, it's just that I find it hard to separate the song from those horrible events.
Plus, I think most of the White Album is crap, so hardly ever listen to it. Will listen to it again soon (along with the clips here. Not time at moment) and see what I think.
Rockin'
I'm sure the Anthology book (and Wikipedia, I note) suggests it was written as a response to The Who's aggression, and it doesn't quite have the fearsome edge of those guys.
But who cares? It's a pounding classic, and the drone of the guitars is as hypnotic as any of George Harrison's tabla tunes.
Rockin'.
It rocks like a Beatles bastard.
And Macca's vocal is blistering.
I think it's meant to be a glorious noise, and
a bit of an 'orrible racket. They had the time, the talent and the luxury to do whatever they wanted to at that point. So they did.
I don't mind U2's version. I don't think it is anyone's finest hour, but it works.
Rockin',
of course.
What makes it
is that churning, atonal guitar riff that runs through it, it could be Sonic Youth or My Bloody Valentine.
Strange
Why did they all switch instruments for this? According to Wikipedia, which credits Mark Lewisohn, Paul played lead guitar, George played rhythm guitar, and John played bass.
According to Geoff Emerick's book
A lot of what are believed to be George's lead guitar parts on a lot of Beatle tracks were actually Paul
When i was 13 and first heard it...
I assumed they had invented heavy metal!
I was quite quickly proven wrong by other school mates.
It's great
One of the better tracks on the White Album, and a great big messy sound. And for me anyway, better than the majority of the sitar tracks and music hall pastiches that pepper their latter day career. I'd have happily put up with them doing this kind of thing more often.
Stunning
Love Ian McDonald's RITH, but disagree with him here. Always loved the vocal, drumming, churning noise and sense of excitement.
Does the 18 minute plus version exist?
Rockin'!
Isn't there supposed to be some epic 20 minute version in the vaults? Would love to hear that!
Rockin'
I like the fact that they could just come up with this wild, out there, invention and leave it at that, where other bands would build a career on such a track. Similarly Tommorrow Never Knows. There, that was alright, what shall we have a go at next? Interesting they try the heavy rock route without going down the usual blues route - a style that is in fact parodied to some extent on Yer Blues. They seemed to see that as rather a fake approach. And that's why I think some of those White Album tracks appealed to the post punk bands and 'alternative' US rock bands - The Breeders covering Happiness Is A Warm Gun. Siouxsie and The Banshees did Helter Skelter and Dear Prudence. It's rock'n'roll modernised without the clichés of 70s rock that punk and post punk wanted to move away from. It rocks in an original, different kind of way.
And sounds surprisingly good in this little-known...
...bit of skiffle/bossa-nova verite from the studio:
Rockin'
Here's the proof, from 1983. Works for me
I GOT BLISTERS ON MY FINGERS!!!
(ahem). Rockin' - love it to death.
It's great!
Going to see Sir Paul in a couple of weeks, can't wait.
Siouxsie
I first heard it on the Banshees' album The Scream. Their version is faster and features the F word.