However, none of these quite captured the volume or energy Paul was after. A number of versions were captured that night, the longest an epic jam on the song stretching to 27 minutes and 11 seconds.

At this stage, the lyrics weren’t fully realized, with Paul alternating his “Helter Skelter” refrain with “Hell for leather”. John is on bass, locked into Ringo’s rigid snare to hold down a tight, slow, bluesy groove over which Paul and George add electric guitars. The versions The Beatles recorded that night bear little resemblance to the finished track. The first attempt to record the song properly came on July 18, 1968. And I had this song called ‘Helter Skelter’, which is just ridiculous song, so we did it like that ’cause I like noise.” Hell for leather

So I thought, Ah, well, we’ll do one like that then. And then I heard their record and it was quite straight, and it was very sort of sophisticated and wasn’t rough and screaming and tape echo at all. It must be great, a really screaming record. In an interview with Radio Luxembourg in November 1968, he talked about the song’s origins: “I’d read a review of a record, which said ‘and this group…’ it was about some group, I can’t even remember, saying, ‘This group really goes wild and they just stuck echo on everything, they’re screaming their heads off,’ and I just remember thinking, Oh, it would be great to do one like that, it’s a pity they’ve done it. “Helter Skelter” went through a number of incarnations as Paul sought to create the heaviest Beatles track yet. Preparing to record “Blackbird” at Abbey Road Studio Two one evening, Paul McCartney warmed up with an early version of “Helter Skelter.” A light yet funky acoustic piece with a falsetto vocal, this nascent version sat at the opposite end of the spectrum to the screaming rocker that would eventually grace side three of The Beatles’ “White Album”.

What did helter skelter mean