Step away from the hysteria of Charles Manson’s misinterpretations and acid-fried murders, and the chaos of The White Album, and listen to ‘Helter Skelter’ as it started out, a much longer song. Engineer Brian Gibson, in The Beatles Recording Sessions, briefly describes a 27 minute version that was recorded as the song was being worked on: ‘One of the versions of “Helter Skelter” developed into a jam which went into and then back out of a somewhat bizarre version of “Blue Moon”.’ Here’s a 12 minute version, since that legendary longer version has never been released, officially or otherwise:
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
‘Til I get to the bottom and I see you again
Yeah, yeah, yeah, ha-ha-ha!
Well do you, 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
Now, helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Helter-skelter
Yeah
Ooh!
