On this day in rock music history …
The Beatles’ song “Helter Skelter” was played at Charles Manson’s murder trial as evidence on this day in 1971. Manson notoriously claimed the song was about an impending race war, and he said it led to his murderous acts.
Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Vincent Bugliosi, who led the prosecution of Manson and his followers, said Manson told his followers that several Beatles’ White Album songs – especially “Helter Skelter” – were part of the bands’ coded prophecy of an apocalyptic race war. It’s a ridiculous idea put forth by a psychopath, but Manson’s interpretation forever linked The Beatles and the song to The Manson Family’s murders.
Bugliosi named his best-selling book about the murders Helter Skelter, and at the scene of the LaBianca murders in August 1969, the phrase was found (and misspelled) in the victim’s blood on the refrigerator door. In October 1969, Manson’s defense team said they’d call on John Lennon for testimony. Lennon replied that his comments would be useless, especially since he didn’t help write the song. The song was primarily written by Paul McCartney.
In the final interview Lennon gave before his death in 1980, he dismissed Manson as just an “extreme version” of the type of Beatles listener who read false messages in their lyrics, such as the people behind the 1969 “Paul is dead” rumor. Lennon added: “All that Manson stuff was built around George’s song about pigs (“Piggies”) and this one, Paul’s song about an English fairground. It has nothing to do with anything and least of all to do with me.”
While Manson’s appropriation of “Helter Skelter” was undoubtedly insane, the use of the song and Manson’s murders did mark a turning point.
Joan Didion wrote in her classic 1979 collection of essays about the Sixties, called The White Album, that many people in Los Angeles cite the moment of the Manson murders in August 1969 as having marked the end of the decade. Others have written that “Helter Skelter” effectively captured the crises and darkness at the end of the decade, which contrasted sharply with the ethos of the Summer of Love. The Beatles would soon disband, and the counterculture dream they represented – perhaps unfairly projected onto them – would dissolve.
The link between “Helter Skelter” is eternally tied to Manson now, which tainted the song for many Beatles listeners, especially Baby Boomers. Interestingly, the song’s legacy has had some positive effects, though. Many cite “Helter Skelter” as a proto-metal song and one of the “prime progenitors of heavy metal.” Many of the early punk rockers tended to hate The Beatles, but “Helter Skelter” has also influenced Seventies-era punk rock.
McCartney was inspired to write “Helter Skelter” after reading an interview with The Who’s Pete Townshend, in which he described their September ‘67 single, “I Can See For Miles,” as the loudest, rawest, dirtiest song The Who had ever recorded. So, McCartney set out in his competitive style to one-up The Who and write something with “the most raucous vocal, the loudest drums.” He achieved that, for sure.
What do you think of “Helter Skelter”? Do you enjoy the song? Or is the link to Charles Manson enough to ruin it for you?
Sign up for email updates from The Third Eye below:
The Third Eye 
Leave a comment