Helter Skelter by The Beatles

McCartney said that he was "using the symbol of a helter-skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom; the rise and fall of the Roman Empire – and this was the fall, the demise."

"‘Helter Skelter’ means confusion. Literally. It doesn’t mean any war with anyone. It doesn’t mean that those people are going to kill other people. It only means what it means. ‘Helter Skelter’ is confusion. Confusion is coming down fast. If you don’t see the confusion coming down fast, you can call it what you wish. It’s not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says, ‘Rise!’ It says ‘Kill!’ Why blame it on me? I didn’t write the music. I am not the person who projected it into your social consciousness." Charles Manson cult-murderer.

I am a veteran of (6) major outdoor rock festivals. Some went down without a hitch and others were smoke on the water.

My first experience with live music, tear gas, and chaos was in 1969.

The venue was the Denver Pop Festival at the Mile High Stadium in Denver, CO. On the last day of the band Zephyr’s performance, 60,000 paid concertgoers got a strong whiff of tear gas.

Outside the stadium, gate-crashers challenged the police daily. By the third day, they tried their best to break in. The police drew a hard line and tossed tear gas into the mob.

The wind blew clouds of tear gas inside the stadium.

People panicked and covered their faces and others ran from their seats. Many were hurt but no one died. I couldn’t breathe. It took hours to regain my eyesight.

I was not at the 1969 December music festival at Altamont. One concertgoer was stabbed to death by Hell’s Angels security. Three others died from accidents.

The next outdoor music festival I went to was later in the summer of 1969. The event was the Woodstock Music and Arts Festival. As we all know 400,000 people went to Woodstock. The event is famous for 3 days of peace. There was lots of mud and drugs but no violence.

As evidenced by the disastrous 1999 Woodstock the original could never be duplicated.

I finished the early summer of 1970 working as a stagehand at The People’s Fair Rock Festival. The festival was located outside of Stevens Point, Wisconsin.

On 200 acres of wood, the land in front of the stage was shaped like a bowl which created a natural amphitheater. Soon the sonic bowl filled with people blowing bubbles and throwing Frisbees.

Some of them sold LSD-coated cotton candy beneath makeshift street signs from sticks. The streets were named after whatever particular drug was being hawked on it--Love Street, Higher Avenue, and a Dairy Queen truck stocked with heroin.

I arrived early to build my teepee with the other crew.

My job was to fulfill the personal requirements of the musician’s riders. The other guys were carpenters and sound engineers.

I don’t recall hearing all the bands that played the three days. I remember Ravi Shankar would not perform unless we built him a windproof performance box.

The line-up included Buffy St. Marie, Siegel-Schwall, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Ted Nugent w/Amboy Dukes, Chuck Berry, and White Lightning. Classic to the period, whoever was on the road that month would appear at these shows.

I tried to serve hot tea to sitar master Ravi Shankar. He noticed my three-day unwashed body, and dilated pupils, he smiled at me and kindly shook his head no.

I also tended to Buffy Sainte-Marie — the Native American songwriter. She penned the antiwar hit song, “Universal Soldier.” At one point I guided her up the steep stage stairs and nearly dropped her and her guitar.

On my time off I tried to learn guitar.

I was learning more guitar tips everywhere I went. Like a small-scale Woodstock, the backstage scene at The People’s Fair was also ideal for meeting musicians.

I got my first blues guitar instruction from Jim Schwall.

Jim was the lead guitarist for the Siegel–Schwall band out of Chicago. His brother Corky was an amazing harmonica player and singer. The band wasn’t famous, but they were one of the best.

“This is the standard 12-bar blues progression.” Jim instructed me, “Strum four times on this chord and switch to this chord. Then do this turn around lick like this and repeat.”

He showed me how to use a bottleneck, which is a hollowed-out piece of smooth glass that fitted over my ring finger. The idea was to slide it up and down the strings.

The Fall of Babylon

Early Sunday morning, on the last day, unheard near the stage, gunshots rang out towards the back of the campgrounds. A fight broke out between a motorcycle gang and the hippies.

While I was backstage, I heard that several women had been raped, and 3 men were taken to the hospital for gunshot wounds. Most of the estimated 40,000 attendees left.

Fest-goers in retaliation burned gang motorbikes and drove the them off. No fatalities.

The police were moving in to shut down The Peoples Fest.

The promoter left without paying many on the crew.

The moment was symbolized by the mayhem-based group from Detroit, Iggy Pop and the Stooges. As the Godfather of punk rock, Iggy Pop slashed himself with glass his stoned disciples carried him like an Egyptian pharaoh above their heads.

The destruction became the new mother of the multi-day outdoor rock festival.

In 1972, I have been tear-gassed again at a Rolling Stones indoor concert in Minneapolis. Jagger called the event “Jumpin’ Jack Gas.” I don’t know who started it or why.

One girl was crushed against the stage.

The police threw tear gas and thousands trampled over each other trying to get out of the venue. No one was killed.

The helter-skelter of rock n roll.

Excluding sporting events, the sad list below of music concert-related death is a bitter reminder of what poor planning and mass audience hysteria can do.

Denver Pop Festival, June 1969: Injuries

Altamont, December 1969: 1 murdered, 3 dead from accidents

The People’s Fest, August 1970: 3 shots. Women raped. No fatalities.

Beverly Hills Supper Club, 1977: 165 people were killed in Southgate, Ky. at a show in the club’s Cabaret Room featuring singer and actor John Davidson.

The Who, 1979: A surge of concert attendees outside the arena left 11 people dead.

Roskilde Festival 2000: Nine men were trampled to death during a Pearl Jam set.

The Station Nightclub, 2003: During the performance by the band Great White. 100 people died and injured over 200 by a show-created pyrotechnic fire.

Mawazine music festival, 2009: After a stampede 11 people died and 30 others were injured.

Astroworld music festival, Nov 2021: A stage rush led to the deaths of 9 and left many others injured.

Helter Skelter lyrics

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide

Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride

Till I get to the bottom and I see you again

Do, don't you want me to love you

I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you

Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answer

Well, you may be a lover but you ain't no dancer

Helter skelter, helter skelter

Helter skelter

Will you, won't you want me to make you

I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you

Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer

You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer

Look out

Helter skelter, helter skelter

Helter skelter

Look out, 'cause here she comes

When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide

And I stop and I turn and I go for a ride

And I get to the bottom and I see you again, yeah, yeah

Well do you, don't you want me to make you

I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you

Tell me, tell me, tell me your answer

You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer

Look out

Helter skelter, helter skelter

Helter skelter

Look out, helter skelter

She's coming down fast

Yes, she is

Yes, she is

Coming down fast

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

Helter Skelter lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

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