10 Beatles Tracks That Were Ahead Of Their Time

10. Paul McCartney: Helter Skelter (1968)

Helter Skelter has a complex and bloody history. The track will forever be affiliated with the violent Manson murders during the late '60s. Somehow, Charles Manson got it into his head that the tracks Blackbird, Piggies and Helter Skelter alluded to a coming race war. He adopted the latter's title as the name for his chaotic manifesto; his blueprint to instigate the conflict.

Of course, Helter Skelter (the song) made no such references. Paul McCartney's lyrics conjured the image of a fairground ride, to symbolise the thrill of a relationship... The most violent thing about it was the music itself. This was was the precursor to heavy metal. People like the Doors, Velvet Underground and the Mothers of Invention were playing darker and moodier music than anyone else, but no one had played as heavily as this.

McCartney had gotten wind that the Who had supposedly written the dirtiest, meanest sounding track in modern music, I Can See for Miles. Well, McCartney wasn't going to be beaten to the punch. He turned up the distortion, and flexed his vocal cords; screaming with all the venom of a glam metal frontman.