Helter Skelter in a Summer Swelter: How a Beatles’ Song Influenced One of the Darkest Moments of the 1960s
The Beatles are one of the most influential musician in history. Even to this day, there are a countless number of musicians who admitted that they were inspired by the group. Names like Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl, Noel and Liam Gallagher, and Ed Sheeran are among the names that have stated that The Fab Four had influenced them to become musicians. Unsuprisingly, The Beatles’ influence goes way beyond just music. There is an entire page on Wikipedia about the cultural impacts of The Beatles that goes way beyond just music. Perhaps one of the most interesting is the social impact that they made during the 60s.
Speaking about the social impacts the group had throughout the 60s, the ones that will always be in the conversation is perhaps how the group brought about the ‘British Invasion’ to the US and how they influenced the drug culture in the 60s. However, one Beatles’ song may have unwittingly influenced one of the darkest moments of the 1960s. The song in question is their 1968-released track titled Helter Skelter.
Helter Skelter is one of the many tracks included in the White Album. Penned by McCartney, it was probably the loudest hard rock track of its time. According to McCartney, Helter Skelter was his response to an article about The Who’s I Can See for Miles in which the band’s frontman Pete Townshend stated that it was “the dirtiest, loudest, filthiest song ever”. Felt challenged, Paul then went on to write Helter Skelter. Until this day, Helter Skelter is still regarded as one of the precursor to heavy metal music. The term ‘helter skelter’ is a British English word of an amusement park ride with a slide built in a spiral around a high tower. Alternatively, the term can also mean confusion and disorder. Although McCartney has stated that the song was about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, some viewed in differently.
Photo by Rhys Kentish on Unsplash
Enter Charles Manson, the infamous leader of cult known as the Manson Family, who was the mastermind of the murder of Hollywood actress Sharon Tate. According to Manson, Helter Skelter was a metaphor of a forthcoming race war in the US, incited by the civil rights movement that would eventually end up with the white race “coming down fast” “from the top to the bottom” and the black people coming out as the dominant race in the US. Manson, who then named the scenario after the song, believed that the war would start with black Americans murdering the whites, followed by a retaliation from the whites and so on until a full scale war erupted. Manson then told his followers that they would wait out the war in hiding and would come out after the blacks had emerged victorious and would then proceed to take the country from the blacks and rule it afterwards. Manson has also hinted to his followers to initiate Helter Skelter themselves if the blacks didn’t start it.
The Mansons would then proceed to start the war themselves. In August 1969, the family set out to murder the up-and-coming actress Sharon Tate, who was 8 months pregnant at the time. The cult also murdered 6 other women, all of whom were white. In one of the scene, the cult member wrote “Helter Skelter” on the refrigerator door in one of the victims’ blood. They planned to put the blame of the murders on the black people, hoping the white Americans to retaliate and start the race war. Unfortunately for them, and fortunately for the rest of the country, the war never happened. And by December of the same year, Manson and his accomplices in the murder had been arrested. In 1971, Manson and his accomplices in the murder, four in total along with Manson, were sentenced to death. Although had been sentenced to death, Manson would live on in the prison all the way to his death by cardiac arrest in 2017.
Now, more than 50 years after the murder, the Helter Skelter scenario still looms large in our minds of what would happen if the racial tension in a country goes unchecked. On a lighter note, although still very grim, Manson family murders has also sparked numerous depiction of the event in various forms of pop culture, with the most popular one being Quentin Tarantino’s latest film, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. And it all started with, although perhaps unintentionally, a song named after a children’s playground ride.