Search results
"Helter Skelter" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1968 album The Beatles (also known as the "White Album"). It was written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song was McCartney's attempt to create a sound as loud and dirty as possible.
The meaning of HELTER-SKELTER is in undue haste, confusion, or disorder. How to use helter-skelter in a sentence.
- Miscellaneous
- Legacy
- Etymology
- Quotes
- Use
- Origin
- Cultural references
'Helter-skelter' means 'pell-mell; in chaotic and disorderly haste'. Also, a Helter-Skelter is the name of an English fairground attraction with a spiral slide.
Those of a certain age might remember The Beatles' song from the 1968 White Album - Helter Skelter. If so, the song's lyrics may also evoke memories of clinging on to hessian mats and spiralling down fairground slides. These slides began appearing at British fairs around the turn of the 20th century. In 1906, the UK newspaper The Westmorland Gazett...
But, beyond the fairground, what is helter-skelter? The term long pre-dates the fairground ride and has been used to mean disorderly haste or confusion since at least the 16th century. Thomas Nashe used it that way in his 'Four letters confuted', 1592:
('To confute' is, or rather was, as it has been used only rarely since the 17th century, 'to render futile', 'to prove an argument to be false'.)
Helter-skelter has been in common use in England for the past 400 years and has been known in the USA since the 1820s.
Neither helter nor skelter had any meaning in themselves. Like many word pairs of this sort (called rhyming reduplications), they only exist as part of the pair - although skelter was used alone later, but only as a shortened form of helter-skelter.
The expression 'Helter-skelter' had something of a renaissance in the late 1960s when the American Charles Manson, the leader of the notorious Family cult, began using it as his name for the apocalyptic war between whites and blacks which he believed was soon to break out. Manson interpreted many of the lyrics in Beatles' songs to suit his maniacal...
Provided to YouTube by Universal Music GroupHelter Skelter (Remastered 2009) · The BeatlesThe Beatles℗ 2009 Calderstone Productions Limited (a division of Un...
- 5 min
- 18.1M
- The Beatles - Topic
Sep 22, 2023 · “Helter Skelter” is undoubtedly the Beatles’ most controversial song. However, the controversy is no fault of the group and all to do with the infamous Charles Manson co-opting the song for...
- Staff Writer
- 5 min
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 / Yeah, yeah,...
Nov 21, 2023 · published 21 November 2023. Rock’s most epic battle was always The Beatles versus the Rolling Stones, yet Helter Skelter was inspired by an imagined square-off with The Who. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.
