10 Greatest Beatles Classic Rock Songs
7. Helter Skelter
The very phrase “classic rock,” is at risk of sounding fusty and old fashioned. Classic rock is your dad, or grandad, listening to Status Quo or Frampton Comes Alive. It’s a defied rock canon, set like a bug in amber, with none of the giddy thrill of the new. It’s worth saying then that in 1968 Helter Skelter’s proto-metal sounded breathtakingly ahead of its time.
Paul McCartney was inspired to write and record the thunderous track after hearing The Who’s Pete Townshend talking about a new song that was the heaviest thing he’d ever written. Not to be outdone, Macca wrote an extra heavy song of his own.
The resulting influential classic was helped along by drummer Ringo Starr, who hit his kit so hard that he famously ended up with, “blisters on me fingers!”
Paul gives his all on vocals. There are moments where he sounds less like the guy who sang such ballads as Yesterday and Eleanor Rigby and more like Axel Rose as he screams his way through The Beatles’ heaviest ever track.