10 Greatest Pre-Metal Metal Songs

Speaking of the Fab Four though, The Beatles were never ones to duplicate the same sound twice. Though they may have started writing the teenybopper rockers, the back half of the '60s saw them tearing rock and roll inside out, from folk on Rubber Soul to diving down the psychedelic rabbit hole on Revolver. By the time the White Album rolled around, Paul McCartney had traded in his ballads for something nastier on Helter Skelter.

When working on the mammoth double album, McCartney read an article in NME with Pete Townshend describing the Who's latest single as one of the heaviest songs ever created. Not wanting to be outdone, McCartney came up with Helter Skelter, which was inspired by something as juvenile as a playground slide. Weak subject matter aside, this is pretty much a metal song in hard rock clothing, with McCartney pulling out Little Richard style screams over some of the most aggressive guitar tones the group had ever laid down.

Then again, that didn't stop things from getting a little ugly just a few years later, when Charles Manson pointed the finger squarely at Paul's music as inspiration for his infamous killings across the Los Angeles area. Even though the Beatles weren't necessarily the first to do everything in rock and roll, this is just another glowing example of them being ahead of the curve in terms of raw fury on vinyl.