The Beatles' "Helter Skelter"

>> It sounds like he's got a grin on his face while you see that.

“>> He's at the top of everything, the peak energy, the peak to know everything.”

>> He's covered up his eyes. >> He's miles above you, because he's so high. >> Lecture today we're diving into a group that changed the landscape of rock music forever. A group that despite lasting not even a decade still drives the conversation of what a recording career can and should look like, so much so that they are getting four movies in 20, 28 alone.

>> That's right, Ziaola, and we could not contain our excitement to talk about, not just what the group means to popular music as a whole, but also what they mean to us. >> Right. >> So today's episode is just part one of a two-part episode where we break down two of our personal favorites from this band's expansive and extensive discography. >> It was not an easy decision to make, which do something to you.

>> Difficult choices. Today we're covering a song spearheaded by the group's softest member to turn. >> The term to shed that image and create a screaming record, a company by the most rockest vocal and loudest drums the group had ever recorded. >> And those are all air quotes, because they're literal McCarthy.

>> They're from his mouth. >> A song so heavy, it left blisters on the drummer's fingers. >> Famous. >> And might have even invented the genre of heavy metal. >> So we'll tell you tell you tell you the answer.

>> Woo! We're talking one song and that song is helped us get out to buy the Beatles. [MUSIC] >> Oosterfreude, for all of you to all the price. >> Milka Groser, Schmonz will haze, up 90 grams, for 0.1 Euro, 9.20 or a Vila Delvia Frischkeze, up 150 grams, for 0.980 cents, all the.

>> Good, it's for all. >> I got blisters on my air guitar finger. >> Okay, I'm glad you clarify. >> Air guitar drumming. >> I'm at the right of the director as sometimes DJ Dialloridl.

>> And I'm producer DJ Songwriter and musicologist luxury aka, the guy who whispers. >> Interpolation. >> And this is one song. >> The show where we break down the stems and stories behind iconic songs across genres. Telling you why they deserve one more listen.

>> You will hear these songs like you've never heard them before.

>> And you can watch one song on YouTube while you're there. Please like and subscribe. >> So Dialloridl, we've already talked about our shared love of the Beatles when we covered come together. >> Yeah.

>> Whenever earliest episode 7 or 8, scroll all the way back in our archives because we are at episode 124 today. So it was some time ago, but Dialloridl specifically, this song's "Helter Skelter" and the white album from which it derives. What do they mean to you?

>> Gosh, you know, it's so interesting that we're doing something for the white album because it's literally one of the albums that came to the latest in my life. Still in my 20s, but like it was not, I was a sergeant pepper guy. >> Yeah. >> Easily.

“That's one of the first albums I ever remember.”

I love the Beatles growing up.

I've said before on this show that a hard day's night was literally the first piece

of music I ever bought for myself. I still own the record, still says Dialloridl written in a five-year-old's handwriting. >> That is such a testament to your character in some ways. It's your classy guy, that was your first record. I love it.

>> Well, look, it's one of those funny things where television was my entry point in some ways to the music that I purchased because in Atlanta growing up, syndicated cartoons in the afternoon. The Beatles cartoon would come on and then the Jackson Five cartoon would come on. Famously, the members of these groups did not supply their voices to -- but they did play

the songs and so I really liked the music of a hard day's night era Beatles. That was what was really cool. And by the way to this day, I still love Mama's Pearl by the Jackson Five because that was the outro song on that show.

>> The first time I remember hearing hulters' culture, once and even the Beatles.

Because again, that wasn't my era Beatles fandom.

“No, I think the first time I heard this song helped us culture.”

It was actually this cover by Motley Crew. >> You know what? I'm a Motley Crew fan. >> Yeah, no blister. >> That was a little bit of a lie down.

I'm literally -- I'm a big Motley -- I love Motley Crew. We're going to do Motley Crew, so that was like so by the numbers of the book. It was tamer than the original. It was tamed down a song recorded 15 years earlier. But that's what's interesting.

They got out the difference between the Beatles in 1968 and Motley Crew in 1983. >> Yeah, this song was only 15 years old at that point. >> Right, for us that's 2011, so it would be like Empire, the Sun, or something. It's so recent. >> It's not that long.

>> It wasn't that long ago. But they were revered, the flip side of it and what makes me think that they did it so kind of reverently. The Beatles were so huge that it's almost too risky to cover them.

So yeah, there was probably a little bit of reverence on them. >> They probably would like, let's cover this song and as they were getting into it, it's like, let's not mess with it too much. And it ends up interestingly sounding tamer. >> It sounds tamer than the Beatles version.

What about you, Luxury? What does this song mean to you? When did it come onto your radar? >> Well, kind of like you, I would say that white album Beatles is a little bit later. In terms of appreciation, because it is such a different band, they were experimenting.

They were doing crazy stuff across the narrative of the two albums. You have like early proto sampling and experimentalism. And then you have this rock as song and then you've got terrible stuff like sexy Sadie, which nobody wants to listen to, and everyone skips over every time. I would just say that the soundtrack to my growing up in the early '80s, late '70s, like

as a very small child. Like I remember hearing the Beatles and solo Paul, and there was a divorce happening in my parents in my life, so it's a little bit of the soundtrack to that. And maybe the darkness and strangeness of this album specifically, it's not the innocence of the hard day's night Beatles.

This is the sort of weird, breaking up, arguing version of the Beatles, and that translates into the music.

“I think I sensed that intuitively as like a four year old.”

>> It's like when you read that both George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are going through divorces when they make Temple of Doom, and as a result, Temple of Doom feels a lot darker. I didn't even know that that makes sense, right? Is that the one with the heart being ripped out? >> Yeah, there's this, you know, and a lot of problematic, racial depictions like that.

Yeah, like it's just like they were going through dark times, so they made a dark movie. And the Beatles are going through a dark time, and the white album is, it isn't Sergeant Peppers, it lacks a certain cohesiveness that that album famously had. >> I would agree, but it is now probably my favorite record, it's between that, and I don't know, revolver, Abbey Road, and White album are like neck and neck.

>> It's so interesting, I feel like I have an opposite, so is that your three? >> I suppose, I'm saying it out loud, and I'm like, yeah, I'll stick with that. And I would probably -- >> Samigan, revolver. >> It's like the cure episode where just like heaven is like maybe the perfect song, but I don't listen to it as often, because it's like I kind of get it, revolver is like that

to me. I love revolver, but I don't go to it as often, because I've gone to it enough. >> Yeah, yeah.

>> But tomorrow never knows.

Forget about it. But I would say I go to -- >> But you do were revolver, Abbey. >> Abbey Road, White album. >> And White album.

“>> And the opposite, in so many ways, but really, I think my three are Sergeant Peppers, rubber”

soul. >> Mm-hm. >> That's mid-period, then. >> Yeah, I like that. >> Yeah, mid-period.

You know, and I know it's not an album, so don't come at me commenters, but a magical mystery tour. >> That is a -- >> No, very few people are going to name that one, but that's a good one. >> But I was underrated.

>> And I always say, when put on this pot, what's your favorite beat, I usually go with

rain, which is recorded during those sessions. >> Well, those are great. So rain and paper back, right, or 100% agree that's underrated. >> That's underrated. I think that's like a single, though, right?

I don't think -- I think that's a single in between albums. We're getting in the weeds. This is actually good that we're getting in the weeds.

“>> The magical mystery tour, I think, was only an album in the States or something like”

that. Like, because in the UK, they didn't have the same album driven, you know, industry or something. >> I'm glad we wandered down this lane, you know, just spontaneously. >> This -- this piny lane. >> Bear, thank you so much, strawberry fields.

It bears mentioning at the top of our episode about the Beatles. The first of two parts, that this is probably the most discussed, the most investigated, the most musical logically. There is probably more information out there about the Beatles. More books written, more podcasts, more videos, more everything than any other band

that's ever existed. >> Yeah, I totally agree if the Beatles were a person, they had the first iPhone, and they have literally every day of their life to be able to scroll through and say, "Oh, yes, on July 17, 1967, I was here." And had an uncanny, you know, run in with a waitress, like, we know everything. >> So this perfectly -- I get back to the answer to your question.

I would say that not only were the Beatles and that McCartney record in this song, like part of my childhood, but in early, like, luxury, early, like, like, luxury, Robin being interested in breaking down music, there are two things about this record and the Beatles in general that kind of start me off down the path that lead to a talking today, which is that they're putting out all these alternative versions and early takes, and, you know, there's even some isolated stems that are coming out on their anthology releases in the 90s, and to go along with that, there's this incredible book by Mark Lewison called the Complete Beatles Chronicle, which literally is, a day by day, accounting of the Beatles, every single recording session, every premier they attended, and this amount of information in this detail really stuck with me, I'm like, "I love this.

I love gooding this comprehensive amount of a band." So that's another thing you learned that you would never learn otherwise.

>> We just didn't have that with any other band. If anything like Led Zeppelin was the opposite, you got the albums and maybe a photograph every five years, and that's about it. So the Beatles having all this information really meant something to me. I wanted to know, it sort of triggered a thirst for, like, an awareness of, you can listen to just the vocals, wait, what, I want that all the time.

>> Love it. So the year is 1968. The Beatles have retired from touring two years earlier, and they have just gotten back from their fame, meditation, retreat, and India. Ready to record their follow-up to Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. Okay, so here's what they do. They book open-ended studio time at Abbey Road Studios, which led to a new approach to recording, where before the band would work together to finish and record the songs, many of the songs on the White album, which is technically the Beatles' self-titled album, but everybody calls it the White album.

The songs on the White album were written and created largely independently, with overdubs from the other members added later. And you can hear that in songs like, "Well, my guitar gently weeps, Martha, my dear, and dear prudence." >> Yeah, they're starting to get into their solo era a little bit where you can really hear distinctively the different voices from band members from one song to the next. Like their version of a love below speaker box. >> Yeah, you know, great analogy. >> Really one person's taking the lead on each song.

“>> When we were deciding which songs to do, one of the reasons I think we both really like the idea of held your sculptures, because I think I said something like, it felt like a very early metal song.”

>> Yeah. >> And it could have influenced the genre. You're more than metal guys, so I can't wait to get your take. >> You'll talk about that when we get into the stems, but there is something there, but yeah, let's talk about it when we get there.

>> Also, even if it did have a huge impact on the genre, metal, it didn't always have to go that way.

>> Yeah, basically the first version of held your sculpture was a chord on July 18th. Just a day after the world premiere of Yellowstone Marine and Piccadilly Circus, the band recorded three takes of the song, with the final still never released take, lasting 27 minutes, 27 minutes, almost half an hour. >> Let's hear a little bit of the second take of held your sculpture recorded that night. [MUSIC] >> It's so slow. >> [LAUGH]

>> It's a blue song too. >> Absolutely just a straight up blue song, yeah. >> No, that's about it. >> But it's not the song that we now think. >> No, but it's interesting that even then they felt that there was something there, because they kept on doing take after take, and they did the 27 minute version famously.

“And I mentioned that Mark Lewis in book, it's really important because we have this incredible chronicle of like getting in the headspace of what this band had been doing when this song was recorded.”

And as we're about to get into the second version of the song a little bit later. But again, going back to just the headspace on Thursday, July 18th, 1968, when they recorded that version that we just heard of held your sculpture. You mentioned the night before, they had seen the world premiere of Yellow Sun Marine. >> Yeah. >> The day before that, it's important to point out that they are engineer had quit.

Jeff Emerick, who wrote an incredible book by the way called Here There and Everywhere, my life recording the Beatles.

He had worked with them on Sergeant Pepper, revolver Juan Grammys. He was basically George Martin, famously the Beatles producer. We'll be talking about him in a moment, because he plays a role in the story. He was his right hand man, and just two days earlier he had quit. He was tired of all the fuss and infighting between the band members, and he was like, "I'm out of here. This is not fun." >> He's like, "You guys do short to record the Beatles."

“So I love that little tip of information, because that's Tuesday, July 16th.”

The next day, the band's like, "We're going to take the day off and recover from our infighting that made our engineer quit." And then on the 18th, they're doing the early, shelter, sculptor, slow, blues, jam, over and over again at this lagubrius pace. There's something interesting to think about what was happening for them internally, that they needed this maybe to refresh after this week of turmoil. >> Points to you for using lagubrius, so well, that's it. But yes, it starts off very slow, and Paul talks about how he got the idea to up the intensity of helped his sculptor.

After reading a review of "I Can See For Miles" by the who, in a 1985 interview Paul said, "I read a melody maker that the who had made some track or other that was called the loudest, most raucous, dirtiest thing they've ever done." And we decided to do the loudest, nastiest, sweatiest rock number that we could. >> Whether it's verified or unverified that the song was actually "I Can See For Miles."

The fun part is that when Paul finally heard their music, he was like, "Oh, that's not, he was essentially like, that's not what I really did to hear."

>> Yeah, it kind of like, really? >> That's rockus? >> He was like, "Oh, we can do more rockus." >> And I feel like we are creators and like where people who will read a review or something are here without there. And then you'll be like, "Oh, wait, I thought that was going to be totally different."

>> Right. >> That lane, that thing that got me excited to go through that movie or watch that show or hear that song,

>> Well, I was just going to say also like, I remember the first time I heard the sex pistols, how shocked I was. >> Yeah. >> Because the sex pistols that were such a legendarily, like you heard the stories, you saw the images, you saw like, you know, that they invented punk rock is the narrative.

And when I heard it, I was like, this is sort of middle of the road, 70s rock and roads kind of slow. [ Music ]

>> I love the sex pistols and I love never mind the books, but the first time I ever heard it,

I was definitely surprised that this was what was considered punk rock and rockus is. I wasn't hearing it in the music. >> That's such a good point, especially about the sex pistols. >> So six weeks later, enter the unsung hero of our episode. It's Chris Thomas, 21 year old engineer who had been an assistant to producer George Martin.

So he walks and he comes back from vacation and he finds a note on his desk at Abbey Road, which is called EMI Studios at the time. The note says, "Dear Chris, hope you have a nice holiday. I'm off on mine now, make yourself available to the Beatles, and then George Martin, the Beatles producer, the legend, goes on vacation."

>> Goes on vacation for three weeks, leaving 21 year old Chris Thomas. The first time he's ever been in the studio control room alone with the Beatles, the biggest band on planet Earth. >> He says that he's like sitting off in a corner like in a suit. >> Yeah, he's like what he's justified.

>> Feeling very square. >> What do you do? >> He says that Paul was the first one to walk in and when Paul walked in, Paul was like, "What are you doing here?" He said, "I felt like such an idiot, but man should have blurred out, didn't George tell you how about George Martin,

“and Paul's reply was, "Well, if you want to produce as you can produce this,”

if you don't, we might just tell you to fuck off." >> [LAUGH] >> It was just so intimidating. >> So intimidating. >> It's like this happy go like he's sort of like the cheerful one. But in story after story, you sort of get the scissors.

He's got a mean size. >> Here's the thing.

I'm going to defend Paul because to me what's going on here is Paul is trying to keep the band together. This is a hard position for anyone to be in. >> Right. >> Is he doing it the right way? Is he handling people the right way?

Maybe he could certainly make a case. But I think the meanness quote unquote, which I don't just agree, that's a mean thing to say. That's super intimidating. But my sense is that it's coming from like,

oh my god, our engineer just quit. We're having, we're infighting. >> Yeah. >> And you're wringling quit. >> Yes, in August. >> Ringo had quit.

>> And he came back like literally one week before they started this session. >> First, we have Emerick Quitting, then we have Ringo Quitting. Paul is like, this thing is falling apart. >> Martin, he's in the city or out of control during this period. >> It's falling apart at the seams.

This is his baby, you know, the band.

“And he's just trying to keep it together,”

and maybe his people skills, you know, a little bit challenged at this time. He's losing his temper a little bit. That's definitely kind of simultaneously, quote, mean thing to say in kind of funny too.

I can see how he's like, look, just don't fuck it up. So Chris Thomas says that quote, "I just jumped in the deep end. They were doing a take. Somebody made a little cock-up,

so they messed up a little flub. Look, I am, if you will. >> A little cock-up. >> A little cock-up. >> So he said something went wrong there.

And the Beatles said, no it didn't. >> Oh, this sucks. >> Which I love. >> Let me tell you something,

like, if you've never worked on a TV show,

and you have a guest director for one week, sometimes that cast can eat that director. >> Oh my God. >> Oh my God. >> It is not pretty to see.

It is not cool. >> Can you imagine? >> I've never taken it in it, but it's just like, >> It's like the substance you teach. >> This is a kind of a joy in filing on it.

>> They don't know the inner mechanisms and rhythms of the relationships of the primary cast, so to speak. And yeah, I actually feel bad for Chris. >> It's absolutely.

>> You don't want to be, there's nothing worse than being Yoda by somebody who's very rich, successful in famous. That's the pits. >> That is the pit. >> You're like, there's no, you're not going to wake up

tomorrow, broken destitute. So where's my revenge? >> Listen, this is a heroes journey that we're on here. So Chris Thomas, this is his moment, this is his moment to shine.

He says they all went up the stairs to listen, and then they agreed with him. So I think clearly in this moment, he wins them over. He gains their trust and the rest of the session

by all accounts is excitingly raucous and crazy, but also produces the music we're going to hear today, because it's at this session on the 9th of September that from 7 p.m. till 2.30 a.m. they do 21 takes of the song "Helter Scalter,"

but they have changed it dramatically to go from this slow blues to something more akin to the version that we all know and left. >> This is something that I hear almost any time I get into a car I want to drive fast.

Like that opening guitar room, something I hear almost every time. >> So they do these 21 takes, they're all about five minutes each. They've now kind of figured out how to turn this into a song because before they were jamming on it. And this is also the genius of the band,

“but I think this is McCartney in this case.”

This is his song, primarily. When we get into the splits, I'll be more specific about that. But he's gotten it down to five minutes. He's got a verse, he's got a chorus, he's got a bit of a structure. It's the last of those 21 takes that makes its way

to the white album to what becomes the white album, or itself titled. And on the very next day they do these crazy overdubbs. And it sounds like the September 10th, 1968 session is where things go extra, extra crazy.

>> Yeah, let's talk about it.

As technical engineer Brian Gibson tells it, they were completely out of their heads that night. But as usual, blind eye was turned to what the Beatles did in the studio. Everyone knew what substances they were taking.

But they were a law into themselves in the studio. As long as they didn't do anything to outrageous things were tolerated. Yeah, there's a story about like George literally running around the studio, not playing an instrument, just with a candle.

>> With a flaming ash tree on his face. >> With a flaming ash tree. >> Somehow he said an ash tree on fire,

“which much fire do you need to send an ash tree on fire?”

>> Right, so that's a reference to there's a song by Arthur Brown called Fire, which was a hit that had come out like a month before. And to this day Arthur Brown, you can see him live. He has a flaming headpiece.

So that was like his thing. >> That was his own fire. >> The song is called Fire. So there was a reference to that. And it added a layer of danger, I suppose, to the session.

[MUSIC] >> It almost sounds like when you put a bunch of instruments in there with kindergartners. Everybody just picks up an instrument for like five seconds and tries to play it.

They put it down and pick up another one. It sounds like pure case. >> We're going to talk about when we get into the Sims. There are some instruments on this record. I had no idea where they are, but once you know they're there,

it's like, oh, that's what that phrase is sound like. >> Well, exactly. And listen, Chris Thomas is doubly an unsung hero. Because not only was he the only babysitter that day, keeping things on track so to speak,

“but and making them incredible as the producer,”

the sole person in the control room.

I should say, along with Ken Scott, the second engineer,

the two of them made this song exist and kept track of the Beatles not burning the place down. >> Yeah. >> But importantly, he's not credited on the song as a producer or even a co-producer. But on the tapes, according to Mark Lewison and according to his archival research,

he is on the tapes as a producer. It just didn't, they just didn't credit him with that title, unfortunately. But he also went on to produce without credit the song "Birth Day." [MUSIC] >> Happiness is a warm gun.

[MUSIC] >> One of my absolute favorite. >> Absolutely. >> And two of the songs that sound the best on the record to my ears. Like I love that those are rock and songs that drum sounds are great on those.

>> By the way, happiness is a work of him. It's such a mind twister. >> Yeah. >> It's got four different sections to it. It's like three different times.

>> Exactly. >> The time suggests you're constantly changing. He must have thought he was going crazy. >> We love Chris Thomas, and he is a big part of the White House, because he also played Harps Accord on Piggy's Melotron on Bunglow Bill

and ElectroPiano on Savoy Truffle. But don't cry too many tears for Chris Thomas, because he went on to produce Pink Floyd, The Pretenders,

and not on importantly, he produced never mind the Bullocks.

>> It comes full circle. >> It comes full circle. Chris Thomas is the producer of that Sex Missile records that I thought was a bit middling sounding. In terms of rockessness and punk rock dumb.

But what a great record that I listen to all the time still to this day. >> All right. Well, we're going to take a quick break. But when we get back, we're going to break down Helter's skeleton's connection to metal.

We're going to break down what we think these lyrics are all about. And we're going to settle the debate. Who is playing the bass on this song? Stick around. We'll be right back.

>> All right. Welcome back to one song. Let's get into the stems. Why don't we start with the drums? >> Richard Ringo, Star, Starkey, Young Drums.

Let's listen. He's playing the crash the whole time. [MUSIC] >> And then he's got that motif, which we hear a bunch of times.

[INAUDIBLE] He plays it a few more times like here. [MUSIC] Right here. [INAUDIBLE]

>> Shout out to Ringo because on my little animal drum set. >> Yes. >> From the Muppets, I thought I was Ringo. I was just down there every day with my father's records. >> This is a very animal song.

It's also a very Mitch Mitchell meets Keith Moon song. And certainly you said the crash, the heavy use of crash in Tom's. Super the who. It's super Keith Moon from the who. Who famously would stand up a lot of times and wouldn't hit the high-hat very often.

So a lot of crashes and that contributes already just in the first layer of the drums.

Rockusness is rising. We have rising, rockusness. >> Just because we're hearing the crash on every single beat of the song pretty much. >> But we've also said on the show before.

“I think that the one thing that Ringo does well is he does provide structure.”

>> Yeah. >> Because he's not often the guy who is taking lead on this song. He's not trying to show boat. >> Yeah. >> And it allows you to really appreciate the music that's written by a Paul or John.

>> Well, it's interesting to note too that we're not that different of a BPM from the slow version.

But imagine that don't. >> Right. >> Ringo could have gone. >> That would have rocketed up. So we're already dialing up the rockusness that Paul wanted.

>> You know what's cool about this is that for years, I could have sworn that the drums slow down just like the smallest bit.

Just like maybe like one BPM when they finally come crashing in.

>> From the guitar intro. >> Yeah. >> But once I heard the stems, I was like, there's literally no slow down. They come in with such a force.

Maybe there's maybe some echo in the room or something like that, but I'm also picking up on. But like, no, it doesn't slow down. It's just to have time. >> We don't know where it's going to go yet, because it's just the guitar.

So it's a bit of a surprise when the drums come in. And you're basically half time.

“I think maybe what you're picking up on is we are going half time.”

Because you could have come in and go. Boom. [MUSIC] >> Right. >> But it goes one and two and three and three and three.

So in 1968, they're making a transition from four track to eight track recording. So Sergeant Pepper incredibly is on four track. If you can bloody believe it, one of the greatest albums of all time. I was recorded on four track a year earlier. In 1968, they are recording on eight track.

But we still have this phenomenon that we've had on a few episodes like Jimmy Hendrix.

When we're in basically 60's songs.

>> Yeah. >> Beach Boys, et cetera. Rolling stones where the stems are limited because they use multi-track meaning. >> Exactly. >> They would often start with the drums and bass or the whole band.

And then you would bounce a lot of things onto a single track to free up a track. We're saying in orchestra like we have on this song. Meaning stuff is baked together. >> If you've got 24 instruments, you might have four instruments on one track. >> Exactly right.

So what we're going on here in the drum track is we have some really cool crazy sounds, which I will now play for you and then we'll talk about what they are. [MUSIC] >> Busing B. >> I didn't know that we had a kazoo.

>> It sounds like a kazoo. >> It's basically no different from a kazoo. >> It's the mouthpiece for a saxophone. >> Oh no way. >> That's John Lennon playing.

The mouth just the mouthpiece for a saxophone. To get that annoying kazoo B's buzzing around.

“>> I think I've always heard that B's buzzing is probably like some kind of effect on a guitar or something.”

>> Sure. >> Yeah. >> It's only saxophone mouthpiece. >> We know from the Lewis and book that on the tenth they overdubbed. They were running around with flames coming out of their heads and they were overdubbing

sax mouthpieces on top of the track. And they were also overdubbing just more drums. For example, you can hear in this next section. Ringo's still playing that crash beat when he's playing the snare on top of it. Listen, you'll hear there's two Ringo's coming up.

[MUSIC] >> Right, right, right. I mean, look, there's no no shade. No shade, but it makes sense that five year old me on that drum set thought I could play like Ringo. >> Right, you felt heard.

>> This is a drum beat? >> I can do that. >> That's the job. >> I can do that. >> This one.

>> Here's another section. This is a little Tommy section. [MUSIC] >> I'm just emphasizing these fills of Ringo's because besides being iconic and having motifs here and there. There's also a lot of low end that is coming from it.

There's a lot of heaviness.

“And as we get into the metal or not metal conversation in just a moment, I think contributing to that sound and the heaviness is the sound of the drums.”

The sound of the crashes, which includes the sound of the room in the studio at Abbey Road where it's recorded. But you're getting a lot of that heaviness in what Ringo is playing, how he's playing it. And the sound of the drums as they were recorded. >> One of my favorite things about this song is the very end of it. >> Yeah.

>> With you here, our drummer boy Ringo, scream, I got blisters on me fingers. I always loved it. Didn't know it, but apparently not on the mono version. On the mono version, they just fade out, which I think you lose a full minute of the song. >> Yeah.

>> And you lose him screaming about his blisters. Can we hear a little bit about the blisters? >> Let's get into the blisters, as you mentioned, unusual. Look, it's 1968. There's some things we take for granted.

But in 1968, the song fading out, meant that it was over. So it fading back in was really surprising. >> They do that on talking. >> On drummer fields. >> On drummer fields too, yeah.

>> So that little studio trickery was another kind of way of being surprising and a little bit on that guard. >> We can bring down the volume, and then we can bring it back. It's really, it's like literally a avant-garde technique because don't forget that just a year earlier, if not like the entirety of their career up to this point.

They're writing basically pop songs with the occasional tobrone never knows throne and they're starting to experiment on revolver.

But now they're full on like, let's just make interesting stuff. It's not always going to be a pop song. >> They're like, hey, we're not going to go on tour anymore. >> Well, I'm not releasing it. >> Do all these studio tricks.

>> And there are no singles that were released from this record. So they're not thinking about charts.

They're just thinking about what is interesting to them and following their artistic views.

“So once we come back from that fade out, we have extra craziness in the drums leading to that magic moment.”

You just talked about, let's listen. [ Music ] >> And famously on the canonical track, that sort of like, it sounds more background in it. It's got a big guitar present in it. >> Yeah, it grew in it.

>> Yeah, yeah. >> But you can hear a little more clearly because it's, I guess his, you know, it's the mics near the drums. >> Yeah, yeah. [ Music ] >> And I want to play this as a from an interview that he gave about that famous line.

>> I only got Bliss's ones and that was on Helter Scelter because it was like three hours long. It was a jam. And we would just beat those drums. And as you heard at the end of it, I got Bliss's on my finger. I tend to get Bliss's if I haven't played in a while.

You know, I get Bliss's because of the sticks, but I just carry on and get over it. >> And indeed he did carry on because that was technically the 18th take where he says, I got Bliss's on my fingers. And there were three more to go before we got to the canonical 21st take of the final version. >> So Mark Lewis and his book indicates that John Linn and actually played the bass on this song,

but there's been a lot of debate on that in columns on rock magazines, internet forums, parking lots outside of Oasis concerts, including me. You know, the debate being was this John or was this Paul. Let's hear a little bit of the bass and let's see if we can tell. >> All right, here we go.

And this is some of the nastiest bass you'll ever hear in recorded music history. Let's listen to the very beginning. [MUSIC] >> Sounds so good. >> That's like a perfect bass tone.

>> I feel like a perfect bass tone.

“>> No, no, I think there's do we think we hear there.”

>> So to your point, there is some speculation that it might have been John. Or it might have been Paul different sources have different theories. I found this one, here's take 17, listen to the very beginning of take 17. You can hear Paul explaining something about what he wants to happen. And the way he's doing it to my musician ears for lack of a better way of saying it.

From having been in a situation where I've got an instrument, and I'm talking to somebody and explaining something, the kind of interplay between what he says and what you hear, it sounds like somebody saying to do a thing and then doing the thing themselves. >> Okay, let's hear it.

[MUSIC] >> So that sounds to my ears like Paul playing the bass and explaining what to do. Maybe to John, maybe to George, it's unclear. But here I'm going to go and play. On that dirty sounding bass.

So to me, that's a pretty strong argument for like this is probably Paul playing the bass.

“But Lewis and for whatever reason has speculated that it's John on bass,”

we may never know for sure.

So that could be Paul playing a 1966 Fender Jazz or it could be John playing a Fender Six, which by the way, go back to our cure episode. That is a guitar bass essentially, which Robert's missed sometimes plays. So that's distorted. It's growly again from the ground up.

This is kind of reminding me of the Aussie episode where like, if what we're landing is some idea that this might be the first metal song, we're certainly getting a lot of that sound in the rhythm section. The drums, as we just discussed in the rockists and the crash symbol and even the heaviness. And now with the bass, the distortedness,

and just the aggro, aggressive style of playing, it's all really contributing to something that to my modern ears. It's like, oh, yeah, if I'm hearing this, it's kind of a stone or rock song. That could be a chius song. It could be Queens of the Stone Age, something like that.

Got it. So I'll play a little more, and then I'll bring some other instruments in,

because that's always fun.

So here's where we go to the low G, lover, but ain't no dancer part, then into the chorus. (upbeat music) I don't have that so much. It sounds so tough.

It's so tough. It's like proto. It is proto-heavy metal. It is proto-heavy music, I should say. We've been talking about how this song was influential

in the development of metal. It should be said that plenty of people, myself included, have frequently thought of songs by the King's, like, you really got me. All day and all of the night, like, these really feel like early heavy metal songs. But this song does feel like it has something to do with the development of the genre.

I mean, I hear it as you do in this bass part. How can you help us draw some parallels here? So I would make the case as we often do on the show that genre is the strangest word.

It's almost always apples and apples with genre.

Because when you talk about classical music, you're often talking about instrumentation and time period. Right? We're thinking about violins. We're thinking about the lack of distorted guitars.

Sure. Et cetera, et cetera. And then when we get to blues, we're often talking about kind of a scale and a structure that finds its way into, if not every other genre, most other genres from jazz to R&B.

And this is no exception. When we say is this metal, you really have to break it down to the sound.

“You have to break it down to who's making it and who the audience is.”

What the context is essentially vibes. And also the vibe. What is the vibe? Yeah, the overall vibe is song. So as I thought about this question of whether it's metal,

it's not literally metal. But it is what I would call proto Sabbath. And Sabbath is itself proto metal. Sabbath is heavy rock. It leads the way to what our modern ears think of as metal.

But to me, metal really is about that characteristic guitar sound and sheen that we kind of start to hear more in the late 70s with like Judas Priest. To me, that's where metal starts to be metal that to our modern ears still sounds like metal.

If you wanted to start a metal band, I wouldn't go halftime grooves. That's more stoner rock to our modern ears like in this song in the healthier sculptor. A lot of the sounds we've been hearing so far.

Two today's ears are really more like either dume rock or stoner rock. More like chius queens of the stonage. That kind of thing. But there is clearly historically an importance to having distortion in 1968 to having these really big rockists sounds

and the crash symbol. A lot of sonic things, even the dissonance,

the opening notes of the song, which is like a second.

That's dissonance. So the loudness, the dissonance, the rockness of it all.

“I think it's why we consider this in 1968 to be such an important song”

to the development of what is later splintered in many directions as heavy music from heavy rock to heavy metal and beyond. I'm glad you bring up the dissonance because that guitar brings in dissonance from the very beginning. It doesn't go down and it goes

down and it goes like wrong from the beginning. It wakes you up and you're like, oh snap, if you guys saw, we first started playing the song in the studio, we both went crazy. So there's something about just that slide into the...

Sure. Into the battery. The dissonance connects it almost more to sonic youth, I would say then Metallica. I'd say this is less of a Metallica song than it.

Because of the dissonance and the avant-garde nature of the crazy sounds and atoneness, right with the mouthpiece, the sax mouthpiece. We're getting a lot of atonal and avant-garde sounds. Absolutely.

And even the structure of the fading in and out, so I would say that there are some proto-heavy music characteristics in Helter's Skeletor. It does not directly tie. There's not necessarily direct through line from this song, though,

to the works of Megadath and Slayer and Anthrax and Metallica, the big four. Or the best Motley crew song. Or even the best Motley crew song. I will say that also the riffiness is another part of the song's connection

to all of those genres, because we do have in the chorus. That's like not necessarily on par with Dunn-n-n-n-n-n, of the Zeppelin into everything Sabbath. A huge part of Heavy Rock into Metal, though, is riffiness, is having an instrumental melodic hook or motif that is just like,

equal if not more important than a vocal in the song, to maybe your takeaway of what's so cool about that song. So this also has that. So just to summarize, I would say it's maybe heavy but not quite metal. It's closer to Stoner Rock than it is to, like, modern metal to our ears.

But there's definitely a connection with the loudness, with the noise, and with the dissonance that even has an avant-garde side to it. We are talking about that iconic intro. With no further delay, let's hear that iconic intro. Now listen to the guitar here.

Do you notice that? Yeah. There's a bit of a sort of a journey, almost like a citar, like, microtonal.

It might be this song's in E major, basically, E7, E major.

That might be an F, but it might be just under an F. But listen again, and you'll hear what we think is a very unusual guitar. That's playing that. Lift right there. You can really hear it right there.

Well, we think that.

“I assume that was just the same guitar, but what is that?”

Well, there's probably two maybe more guitars in the mix there. But one of them, we're pretty sure that's George Harrison's Barthel fretless guitar, which we know he has.

But to my ears, that sounds like a very unusual instrument, a fretless guitar.

“It's acting in a similar way to a slide might do.”

It goes in between the notes. But it has this, and by the way, it's George. So it's got kind of an Indian flavor to it, right? It's got that very, like S. Because it's microtonal.

It's going between the notes. And you're hearing this. It's a little wobbling, so your sense of where the tonality is is shifting. Kind of like the humming at the end of Painted Black. We talked about how they're going to.

It sort of in between the notes and it gives it more of an eastern flavor. It also has a little bit of a my Bloody Valentine flavor to it. 25 years ahead of the case. The drone sound. No, it's the fact.

You're the droniness in the sound. The note itself really moving just just a little bit, just wobbling a little bit above the tone center above that E. I want to hear the guitarids at the chorus, because that's really good shredding by my definition. Let's listen to that.

There's also an over-depth snare that you'll hear here. Man, that part is so good. That's Paul, right? I think that might be George. Oh, really?

And/or Paul. Not sure. Not sure who's going to be. We don't know because it seems like we know everything about the Beatles sessions. We don't know.

That's a mystery. There is speculation that that might be the George Overdub on 10th of September, because it does give credit lead guitar part by Harrison. I would argue that sounds like a lead guitar part. Yeah, but we're not 100% sure.

I just want to know because that it sounds so good. I just want him to get his flowers. You know, he might be somewhere nagging in the flowers. I say that part too. I'm noticing how that is a that's a blues trope. Done, done, done, done, done.

So it takes us back to the origin of the song, the slower version. Yeah. We had heard from just a few weeks earlier. Yeah, that's just done, done, done, done, done, done, done, done. You play the fifth to the sixth, done, done, done.

But then he turns it into the riff again. Proto heavy music with it. Done, done, done, done, done. That's such a hokey part of the song. That little riff right there.

Yeah.

“And then we have these little turps that I think might be Harrison”

that come right after that. Yeah, you need those. That one. That's very Harrison. I love that one.

That's so Harrison. I love that one that you just played.

That one always jumps out to me too.

Yeah. I feel like you hear that on, you know, my favorite ear, like the paperback writers and stuff like that. The back writer. That sort of like real twangy thing.

It could also be, you know, what though as a fan of the Beatles, like Lenin also has a guitar playing style, which is not dissimilar to that. So it might have been Lenin. So we're not sure about a lot of the guitar work on this song. There's a lot of documentation that comes from the Lewis and book.

Yeah. And then there's scholarship that goes far beyond that. And there is a definitive, for example, a liner note. That points out this part played by this individual from the Beatles. So we do have to speculate a little bit.

“But it is, I think, informed speculation that we,”

we likely heard Harrison in the parts we've just been listening to. It's amazing that as well documented as the Beatles are, we don't have every answer, but five you get is that they were running around. Like I said earlier about the kindergarteners. They were just running around picking stuff up,

trying something and then putting the instrument down. Trying is the name of the game of this one. They're just having their experimenting. They're enjoying. It's about sound more than it is aiming for a pop hit.

And they're possibly exchanging instruments and just trying whatever works on this most recent take to make it better than the take they just did a moment earlier. Well, there's one role on the song that we do know who did it. And that's Paul on vocals. And I think it's one of my favorite, not just Paul vocals,

but one of my favorite rock vocals of all time. First off, I like it when Paul goes loud. He famously went loud on long-tall Sally. ♪ I'm gonna tell it made my own good job ♪ ♪ 'Cause I had to miss anybody ♪

♪ Gonna pull my baby ♪ ♪ Yeah, I'll baby ♪ Woo! He let's this little Richard. Yeah, he's definitely going for a little Richard there,

but again, I love Paul's voice when he goes loud and rock-ass. And this song has a lot of that. And just playing that snippet from the early days is reminding me that they learned in the early days that the girls would go freakin' crazy when they would go, woo! When they would make unusual kind of like upboring on inhuman sounds.

So clearly that was part of the experience of making this song is like remembering like, "Oh, when we do crazy stuff, people love it."

Let's hear his amazing performance at the top of this song.

♪ We're a stop and a done ♪ ♪ I'm gonna go through a ride ♪ ♪ Till I get to the bottom of this here again ♪ ♪ Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

I love him bringing back, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the earliest Beatles songs. One of the first ones I ever felt was-- He loves you. Let's hear it a little bit as she loves you, yeah, yeah.

♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah ♪ ♪ She loves you, yeah, yeah ♪ But he's brought it back. He brought back the A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A, A.

And like now it's like interpolating this wild crazy way. It's so obvious, and there's an answer out there, but are the Ya Ya Ya's named after the Beatles, Ya Ya Ya, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I'm-- That is so cool. I'm all going to entold that. Is that right?

“Garen, if you want to correct the record, come on once on.”

I know, that's the only way for me to find out for sure. You must come on the show now. But we are under the same impression that the A is after the-- After the-- That is a cool last band named based on that story.

I love that. Let's keep going with the vocals. One of my favorite parts is the Oz that come here. That's right. There are these background vocals that are coming from George and John.

And let's listen. ♪ But do you don't you want me to love you ♪ ♪ I'm coming out fast for reals above you ♪ I love those eyes. ♪ Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me ♪

It's so sophisticated, too, that like the backing. That's like some beach boys, or even... I don't know, yeah, you do. It's like they do up. It's like they do up there.

♪ I don't know, I don't know, I don't know ♪ ♪ I don't know how to scale the-- ♪ ♪ I don't know how to scale the-- ♪ ♪ I don't know how to scale the-- ♪ Whoo!

I hear some metallic sounds in there. I wonder if that's the chaos of... I wonder if that's the ash tray.

“Sounds like Paul is smiling, which is wild.”

Like, you know, they say that there are some substances in the studio there.

I never heard even on this song,

which Sally sounds wild and chaotic, to me. Yeah. It sounds like he's got a grin on his face while he's smiling. He's at the top of everything. The peak energy, the peak, the nose, everything.

He's covered up the top. These miles above you, because he's so high. I just want to hear that metal again. Wait, listen. Listen, do you think this is George running around with the ash tray?

Yeah! Yeah! What is that? Or is that a bottle of beer? I mean, is that a snifter?

Okay. This is-- I have no idea what that sound is. Yeah, it sounds like there's a lot going on in the studio. I have a Christmas. I mean, I slated--

All right, here, let's listen. ♪ I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you ♪ ♪ I don't think that I realized that the ash changed that much. I heard the first tracers. Yeah, I didn't hear that.

I didn't hear that third eye. What would you call that? Modulation or something? What's cool is that it's sophisticated, like, in the song--

“That's what I thought you were talking about with the beach boys.”

I hear it on the depth of that. But I hear even more on just the eyes. Like it sounds like they really hit the nose. It's a sophisticated harmony stock. I mean, this is, like, more church than it is, like,

you know, early prodobsavis. Samut doesn't have harmony sacks like this. So everything in the underside of the song is, like, heavy and raucous. And then by the middle, we have these crazy, like guitar chirps and chaotic sacks sounds. But at the top, it's not sophisticated.

But like, those harmonies definitely give it, like, we're still in the Beatles. Like, we're still doing something beatily to pop sensibility to it.

A hundred percent. Those are some amazing eyes.

Yeah. The Oz might be an unsung hero of this song. I can't take you think away from Christmas. It's something to know. We are both fans of this song. What do you think by, you may be a lover, but you ain't no dancer?

How does that lyric hit you? This song's lyrics have been analyzed to death. And so I won't necessarily try to add my contribution to the canon of analyses. I think most of them are pretty good out there. I do think it's meant to be a play-on words between

"Helter Skeltor," which the etymology of "Helter Skeltor" goes back to the 1590s. It's speculated that it might be from, quote, to hasten or scatter hurriedly. And it's also at a music park in England. It's a fair run ride. It's a slide, exactly.

So my guess is that he's enjoying the double enthundra, perhaps, of it being these things and these, you know, this expression that's existed since the Middle Ages, but also there's a little sexual and maybe a little druggy. And all of those things are probably wonderfully true.

They're all coming true. He also said it's just a bit about the rise and fall of Western civilization. That I have not heard. [laughter] That sounds like a smart ass answer when you say "Helter Skeltor."

Well, okay, so now we get to the part about how these lyrics were infamously misinterpreted by Manson. And, you know, he thought that this song and some others on the White Album were subtle and, you know, subtle references to a race war between the whites and the blacks.

I always laughed at that because I'm like, "Where were the Latinos?"

We were our Asian brothers and sisters, but in Manson's warped and twisted mine, this was about blacks and dumb whites fighting against, you know, the good whites of which Manson counted himself. And it got all this kind of stuff twisted up in it. And Paul sort of in response to that has said, "Helter Skeltor is really

just the idea of an amusement park ride. It was a metaphor also for the fall and rise of civilization,

And if I learned anything from the whole Manson episode,

it was not to reach too much meaning into songs because that can get fairly freaky. You can kind of find any meaning you want. And if you're a psychopath, you're going to find that meaning as Manson. And what's interesting is for a while, at least.

I thought the whole part, you know, tell me, tell me, tell me the answer was about, you know, the answer to life. So the idea that you, you may be a lever but you ain't no dancer, was about like, Jesus is love, but he might not be like, you know, the most rebellious AKA dancer.

Like that was how I entered. Or he just had written the line that ended with answer, and he needed a rhyme. And it's a really cool answer. It happens a lot in songwriting,

if not in all kinds of writing. Sometimes you find the end of the phrase comes from the previous line

“as opposed to a grand plan for the entire outlet, right?”

No one of my favorite lines of all time from hip-hop is a lost boy. So I where he says, me and the crew will remain raw, chopping through y'all like a chainsaw. And I was like, hmm, when the rich, what are those phrases he came up with first? Chainsaw or remain raw?

[laughter] But he flipped them so you wouldn't notice. Probably backed into the remain raw is that your thesis, I think, you're right. Well, listen, for his part, John said, quote,

I've never listened to the words, it was just noise.

[laughter] Even when he was recording it, he was in a different place. But don't forget, I mean, look, Paul and John was already kind of more of the borrows tradition that cut up. They use, like lyrics are just sound.

And meaning is secondary, if at all. So I would imagine there's those other variations. I love the ironic John lyrics. Yeah. Those are always my favorites.

So maybe Paul's taking a cue from that and not worrying too hard about this, having a single meaning that he wants to make sure everybody gets clearly. But enjoying the ambiguity, I think he's enjoying the ambiguity. All right, luxury now that we've heard the song, how the splits break down.

Well, as in so many Beatles songs, as George and Ringo will tell you, it is a 50/50 split between John Winston, Lenin 50% and Paul James McCartney with the other 50% for the publishing on this song. And in the 1980 interview, John, and this was their way, even when they would have songs that won individual would write with some contributions from the other,

which was their writing styles. Well, note, we will be talking in a big way about that on the next episode. This one, however, was very different. In the 1980 interview right before his untimely death, John Lenin did say, quote, "That song is Paul completely."

Paul completely. Yeah, exactly right. So, yeah. But in spite of it being Paul completely, it is, of course, the entire band. But only half the band got the publishing on it.

Yeah. This is a surprise me that I held your sculpture as clearly a Paul song. But I've got to say, I've spent exactly zero time exploring his post Beatles work with the band wings.

“I think you know wings a lot more than me.”

So, do you think you can convince me on wings in three songs? That's quite the challenge, John. Let me see what I can do. I would start with, let's see. My favorite wings record is band on the run.

Okay. Let's listen to it. I've heard of it. I know the title track. Okay.

That's great song. You like that one, okay? Yeah. We're on the next episode. Three non-band on the run song.

Okay. I'll go back and I'll try and dive into it.

And try and hear it as I've never heard of this.

Listen, don't overthink it. Silly love songs is a jam. Enjoy the bassline. You know what? That one note that don't.

It screams Paul McCartney. It has a big grain on its face. It's a little bit smug.

“Silly love songs these both sound very, very Paul.”

Maybe I should have prefested by saying not band on the run and not silly love songs. Do you know Arrow through me? No, I don't. Okay. Well, you're going to like this one.

Let's hear it. You're going to like this one. Let's hear it. You're going to like this one. Let's hear it.

You're going to like this one. Let's hear it. You're going to like this one. Let's hear it. You're going to like this one.

Let's hear it. You're going to like this one. Let's hear it. You're going to like this one. Let's hear it.

You're going to like this one. Let's hear it. You're going to like this one. Let's hear it. You're going to like this one.

Let's hear it. You're going to like this one. found his way into me liking it. - Okay. - Do you know the song, Old Siamser?

- It sounds familiar, but what about that play? Is that from back to the... - This though, yes, from back to the egg. - This is Old Siamser. I really do like this song.

(upbeat music) - And now, I tell you how you came across that song because it was sampled in 2000 by a LA artist named an octurnal for his song, Music. It was one of the few times that Paul has ever

like personally signed off on a song like that. And I had to know what the sample is. Here is music by an octurnal. (upbeat music) Yeah, when I heard that song, I was like,

I always say, clear your songs for samples

because you might turn on a listener who has not known all of your catalogs. - So if you come around, now you are a McCartney fan. - Oh, I've said I like that one song. I'm so struggling with wings.

- Listen, as long as you can, can you expand the parameters of this exercise to include solo, Paul McCartney?

“- I think solo, Paul McCartney, I sort of am more cool with.”

- Yeah. - And also like he was putting out music in the... He put out one of my favorite Michael Jackson. Say, say, say, yes, an amazing song. - Okay.

- As we've said on the show, if you replace the girl is mine on Thriller, with say, say, say, somehow Thriller is an even better album. - I agree. - Like solo, Paul. - Listen, if only the parameters for this exercise

are so like very porously drawn, it's possible, this would be my number one thing to play for you. If we can include solo, Paul, and you may already know it, but if you don't, and if the listeners out there don't, this might be my favorite Paul McCartney track.

It's definitely the coolest, it's got the most cred, temporary secretary from McCartney to. - Do you not know the song? - No, thanks, sir. ♪ What I need for you to do the job I need ♪

♪ I'm a temporary secretary ♪ - Ah, come on, wait for it. - Look, I was actually on board. I was like so ready to like this song. - They went, they went, they went on the chorus.

- Like that, I'm like, come on. This is what Paul needs a John, he needs somebody to pull it back. Pull him back a little. - That's a very popular sentiment. You're not a, you're not feeling when you think that way.

- Paul's got so many good ideas, but I need needs. - You're not gonna DJ this censorship. - You're not gonna, you're not gonna, you're not gonna call up that you might be and say come on, I gotta get a DJ gig tonight 'cause I'm starting.

- No, I need my second one, I haven't gone this far in life

and I've never, what year is that?

- It's like 79. - 80, it's 80. - Very cool, interesting. - From McCartney. - He lost me when he got to the chorus.

I don't know who told him, hey, Paul, see. I think this was in those paintings. - No one tells him anything. - And as you can tell, Paul, it's part of the problem. - Hey, you can come here and produce Paul,

or you can just fuck off. - That much is clear. - Well, that's held your sculpture and before we move on to part two next week, what would you say is the legacy of this song specifically

in the well-traveled, beetle cannon of songs? - I think the beetles are underrated for their contributions to heaviness and avant-gardeness in music that came after. I think their pop songwriting is unparalleled on.

Potentially planet Earth, one might say, a lot of people might make that case. And I think it's interesting. I'm glad we broke it down and kind of got to what is it about this song that is proto,

if not metal itself, proto heavy music.

“So I think that's an important part of the legacy”

of shelter, sculpture in the cannon. And just to like be really clear on what that is, it's the heaviness, it's the use of dissonance, it's the loudness and rockessness of all things vocal, all things crash symbol, all things guitar.

Every instrument is doing something that borders on abrasive. And there are moments that are literally what the definition of the term is, dissonance. Like there's sounds that are

harsher to the ears of a 1968 listener. Yes. So maybe a modern listener. So that's important to bear in mind that contextually, in 1968, this song, if not the whole record,

was really adventure song, risky and avant-garde. You can imagine that mom and Missouri, like, cut that off, what is that noise? Yes, this is the Beatles. What?

You mean those guys with the nice haircuts? Yes, I think it's easy to look back on their career now and say, wow, they took chances and they won. You got to believe that there were some people at the record they were like, can we just please sing about?

I want to hold your hand again. No singles from this record. No singles.

“And I think that's another reason why it took a little while”

for, you know, young Diallo, too. Discover it because this was not easily accessible music. I agree. This was, it took longer for a young luxury as well. But now it is the record, one of my top three

as I was saying before. There's a lot more depth to the music in a lot of ways. I think maybe, and it comes through what we know about the personalities and we know about the band's dissolution, which was barely a year away when they recorded health risk culture.

And they're thirst for adventure and adventure some sounds and just to be eclectic and to sort of branch out into, leave the fab for model behind them and the mop tops behind them and move forage new territory. That was only four years before this, which is crazy.

The whole mop top revolution. The song could have been a pop record in a later time, but in the Beatles time, it was very much an experimental record. All right, that was health risk culture. Stay tuned for part two,

but we do a very different song. (laughs) A day in the life from Sergeant Peppers. Lily Hart's love it.

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“Also, be sure to check out the one song Spotify playlist”

for all the songs we discuss in our episodes. You can find the link in our episode description. And if you've made it this far, you're officially part of the one song nation.

So show us a love, give us five stars,

leave a review, and please send this episode to 25 of your friends. It really helps keep the show thriving. But not that 26. We know he lies around.

He lies about. Lecturey helped me in this thing.

“I'm producer DJ, Songwriter, Musicologist,”

and every Friday night from 10 PM till midnight. KCRWDJ, luxury. And I'm actor, writer, director, and sometimes DJ. DialloRoll. And this is one song we will see in next time.

This episode is produced by KC Simonson, mixing and engineering by Eric Hicks.

“You've been working on the show for the first time.”

You've been working on the show for the first time.

No, it's not. This show is like my safe space. Hmm, you've been working on it for the first time? Yeah, exactly. This show is like the show that you're just standing up.

The show is like a job or a dream. The show is like a dream. It's not like a dream. The show is like a dream. Save.

With this show.