Recording "Helter Skelter"

The Beatles began recording “Helter Skelter” as a slow blues jam on July 18, 1968. On this day, during a session that lasted from 7 pm to 2:30 am, they drastically reworked it, turning it into a precursor of the heavy metal genre.

This session, including all the next ones in September, were produced by Chris Thomas, as George Martin was on holiday. At this point in their career, the role of a formal producer was not as critical as it had been during their earlier years. It is reasonable to assume that in George Martin’s absence, they were essentially self-producing.

I came back from my holiday, and there was a note from George on my desk ‘Chris: Hope you had a nice holiday ; I’m off on mine now. Make yourself available to the Beatles. Neil and Mal know you’re coming down’. It took a while for the Beatles to accept me. Paul was the first one to walk in – I was sitting in the corner wearing a suit and tie! – and he said ‘What are you doing here?’ I felt such an idiot, but managed to blurt ‘Didn’t George tell you?’ ‘No.’ ‘Well, George has suggested I come down and help out.’ Paul’s reply was ‘Well, if you wanna produce us, you can produce us. If you don’t, we might just tell you to **** off!’ That was encouragement? I couldn’t speak after that…

Chris Thomas – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

Ken Scott was engineering. He was 21. I was 21. The tape op was probably 20. Here we were with the biggest band on the planet. It was ridiculous!

Chris Thomas – From “The Beatles” super deluxe book, 2018

An awful lot has been written about the Beatles being at odds with each other the entire time they were recording the White Album, but that to me is completely false […] For my book, I did an interview with Chris Thomas, who at that time was George Martin’s assistant. When Chris came back from a holiday [at the end of the first week of September ’68], there was a note from George [Martin] saying he had also gone on vacation and that Chris should go along to the studio and help out. Suddenly, having never produced anything in his entire life, Chris was the Beatles’ producer. Still, when I ended our interview with the standard ‘Is there anything else you would like to say?’ Chris’s immediate comment was, ‘Yeah, please let everyone know it was fun; it was nowhere near as bad as has been stated. We loved it.’ So, there are several of us who don’t see it the same way as other people. We had a blast. It was great.

Ken Scott – From The Beatles ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ (soundonsound.com)

It was trial by fire when George Martin went on vacation. He just said, “Make yourself available to The Beatles,” so I just thought I’d hang out with Mal Evans [Beatles roadie] and bring tea up from the canteen and stuff. The first one to arrive was Paul who said, “What are you doing here?” I said, “George asked me to carry on while he was away.” At that he said, “Well if you want to produce us, then produce us,” which made me feel absolutely catatonic.

The first afternoon they only addressed Ken. I knew if they ended up telling me to fuck off, then that was the end of my career with George Martin, and that’s what I was really worried about.

To make matters worse, they [The Beatles] always had these meetings about hiring and firing the people at Apple, and during one of these meetings I overheard John say, “He’s not really doing his bit.” I immediately thought he was talking about me. That evening we were doing “Helter Skelter” and I remember interrupting them when they made a mistake and they all came up the stairs one by one to listen. I thought, “Oh, what happens if I’ve just imagined this.” Fortunately I was right.

Chris Thomas – From “Abbey Road to Ziggy Stardust“ by Ken Scott, 2012

Before recording “Helter Skelter,” The Beatles warmed up with “(You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care,” a track written by Leiber and Stoller, and recorded by Elvis Presley in 1957 and Buddy Holly in 1958.

They recorded 18 takes, from take 4 through take 21, each with an approximate duration of five minutes. Paul McCartney and George Harrison handled the electric guitars, John Lennon played the bass, and Ringo Starr was on drums. Take 17 was released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset) in 2018. Take 21 was deemed the best.

At around 3:40, the song fades out entirely, then slowly fades back in, fades out again partially, and abruptly comes back with three cymbal crashes and Ringo Starr’s shouting. At the end of take 21, he threw his drumsticks across the studio and yelled, “I got blisters on my fingers!” This exclamation by Ringo was included only in the stereo mix of the track; the mono version, which was initially available only on LP, concludes with the first fade-out, omitting Ringo’s cry.

Overdubs onto Take 21 were added the following day, September 10.

The version on the album was out of control. They were completely out of their heads that night. But, as usual, a blind eye was turned to what the Beatles did in the studio. Everyone knew what substances they were taking but they were really a law unto themselves in the studio. As long as they didn’t do anything too outrageous things were tolerated.

Brian Gibson – Technical engineer – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

“Helter Skelter” was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio. Sometimes you just had to shake out the jams. Paul started screaming and shouting and made it up on the spot.

Ringo Starr – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

I went into the studio and said, ‘Hey, look, I’ve read this thing. Let’s do it!’ We got the engineers and (the producer) to hike up the drum sound and really get it as loud and horrible as it could and we played it and said, ‘No, it still sounds too safe, it’s got to get louder and dirtier.’ We tried everything we could to dirty it up.

Paul McCartney – From “The Beatles Anthology” book, 2000

While Paul was doing his vocal, George Harrison had set fire to an ashtray and was running around the studio with it above his head, doing an Arthur Brown. All in all, a pretty undisciplined session, you could say!

Chris Thomas – From “The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions” by Mark Lewisohn, 1988

That wasn’t a joke put-on: his hands were actually bleeding at the end of the take, he’d been drumming so ferociously. We did work very hard on that track.

Paul McCartney – about Ringo Starr shouting “I got blisters on my fingers!”

The recording process for ‘Helter Skelter’ was endless, a feat of endurance. So much so that Ringo, at the end of it, shouted out something about having blisters on his fingers. It was that kind of session. We had played the hell out of it, so maybe Manson did detect something infernal in it. The song has sometimes been credited as the start of heavy metal. I don’t know whether that’s the case, but it’s certainly true that the music preceding rock, the gentle and romantic dance music, was kicked over. We were kicking that out of the way with this song.

Paul McCartney – From “The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present“, 2021

From YouTube, November 1, 2018

Giles Martin talks us through the recording of Helter Skelter, from the first sessions of blues jams through to the revisited loud and heavy sessions and how it became the iconic finished master. Now remixed for the 2018 release of the White Album.

Session activities

1. (You’re So Square) Baby I Don’t Care

   Written by Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller

   Recording

   AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)

2. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 4

3. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 5

4. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 6

5. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 7

6. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 8

7. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 9

8. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 10

9. Helter Skelter

   Written by Lennon - McCartney

   Recording • Remake - Take 11

10. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 12

11. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 13

12. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 14

13. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 15

14. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 16

15. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 17

    AlbumOfficially released on The Beatles (50th anniversary boxset)

16. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 18

17. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 19

18. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 20

19. Helter Skelter

    Written by Lennon - McCartney

    Recording • Remake - Take 21

Staff

Musicians on "Helter Skelter"

Production staff

Going further

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.