.png)
.png)
How The Beatles invented heavy metal
- 19 hours ago
- 6 min read
Here’s a sentence that might annoy you… The Beatles invented heavy metal. Okay - might not be strictly true - but there’s a pretty strong argument to say they at least paved the way…
Of course we’re looking at Helter Skelter in this video, possibly the most chaotic recording process the Beatles, or indeed anyone, ever went through.
This is a song that was born purely of a need to ‘out heavy’ The Who. McCartney had read an article where Pete Townshend had claimed The Who had made a proper dirty, heavy track for their new album. Jealous, McCartney set out to outdo them.
For those of you who aren’t huge Beatles fans and don’t know what all the fuss is about, Helter Skelter sounds like this:
That’s an intro a post-hardcore band would be proud of. But it’s the Beatles, in 1968.
In fact, if you’re not familiar you should really pause now and just have a listen to the whole thing, because the song speaks for itself.
It’s the classic heavy metal blueprint. A big build and drop intro, distorted guitars playing catchy riffs and little licks, and Paul McCartney practically screaming. I’m sure you were the same as me - the first time you heard it - you didn’t believe it was the Beatles, right?
And that bass riff, I'm obviously going to talk about that later.
But I'm getting ahead of myself - how was this thing written? Well as I said earlier, Paul McCartney just wanted to outdo the Who.
McCartney told Radio Luxembourg in 1968:
“I’d read a review of a record which said, ‘And this group really got us wild, there’s echo on everything, they’re screaming their heads off.’ And I just remember thinking, ‘Oh, it’d be great to do one. Pity they’ve done it. It must be great– a really screaming record.’
In later interviews he specified it was The Who’s album he was talking about. He felt that The Who’s screamy effort wasn’t screamy or heavy enough, and that The Beatles could do better. So they dug out a song they’d had knocking around for a while.
They’d done a few versions of it and never found a place for it.
I love this one story that claims he actually warmed up to record Blackbird with an early version of Helter Skelter. How different can two songs get?
Anyway, they kept working on it, recording a series of takes in July 1968 but it still just wasn’t loud enough for them. Early versions were nowhere near as heavy.
One of those early versions ended up turning into a 27 minute-long massive jam session. They revisited it again in September at Abbey Road studios, and just threw everything at it - It’s known now as one of their most chaotic recordings ever. One of the recording assistants would later claim the whole band were off their heads.
Stories claim that George Harrison somehow set fire to an ashtray during Paul's vocal takes and ran around waving it over his head.
Ringo Starr called it in the Beatles Anthology:
“A track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio.”
And Paul McCartney described the chaos in his memoir, Many Years From Now:
“We got the engineers and [the producer] to hike up the drum sound and really get it as loud and horrible as it could and we played it and said, ‘No, it still sounds too safe, it’s got to get louder and dirtier.’ We tried everything we could to dirty it up and in the end you can hear Ringo say, ‘I’ve got blisters on my fingers!’”
And that wasn’t just a joke earlier. He really did have blisters on his fingers from beating the kit so hard for so long during these insane takes. That's heavy metal! And speaking of the drumming, it’s definitely the heaviest thing the Beatles did, and it drives the song.
And then there's the tempo - around 140 BPM. He’s just spamming that kick drum. And it makes sense when you remember Ringo was trying to out-drum Keith Moon - who was famous for his loud and aggressive style.
I think this is a good time to talk about that bassline. Some people call it the first heavy metal bassline, and it’s easy to see why.
Unusually for a Beatles song, it’s John Lennon who plays the bass on this one. The sound is chunky and dirty and Lennon hits the strings hard.
Instead of adding melody to the song, It’s relentless and locked to the drums - or at least it’s attempting to lock with the drums - Lennon plays this bass very messily and out of time - but that’s exactly what was needed for this song.
Anyway, this approach to playing would go on to become a blueprint in heavy metal… there’s even a section that sounds eerily similar to Paranoid by Black Sabbath.
Another thing that really makes this song heavy metal is obviously the vocals. Heavy metal vocalists, especially in the 70’s and 80’s, were incredible - and often very weird. They’d sing right at the edge of what could be called singing. And that’s exactly what Paul does here. His voice is raw and wild. But also fun.
Honestly he could have made a career singing in heavy metal bands - who knew he had it in him! And I think this really inspired so many after him - listen to anything by Sweet, one of the best glam metal bands of the 70’s. Their vocals are very similar, if maybe even more powerful. Axl Rose took it to new heights with his trademark high pitch scream. AC/DC of course. I could go on.
And then the lyrics as well - they're not really about anything, they're just provocative. Up the slide, down the slide, go for a ride, go again. That’s about the gist of it. And obviously Helter Skelter is one of those fairground rides with a big slide. He’s not saying anything of note really, just making noise.
And then the last piece of this heavy metal puzzle is the guitars - that intro became the playbook for so many bands throughout the years. In fact the first thing it made me think of is the way the Foo Fighters build up and drop their songs.
Make a catchy riff, build in the rest of the band, and then drop into the noise. Think of any heavy metal band in the 70’s and 80’s, and that’s how they did it. It’s still how they do it. Because it's awesome. It clearly works.
And then you’ve got the call and response between vocals and guitars in the chorus with that nice little bluesy lick. Future metal bands would take that and run with it, and do some brilliant stuff. It’s even got almost an anti solo in there, it's basically noise.
The reason I'm breaking it down like this is to make it really clear: If you left out the name Helter Skelter and the Beatles and just described the format of this song to someone;
Exciting intro, big loud rhythm section, catchy riffs, high tempo and screamy vocals;
They’d say oh, that sounds like a hard rock or even metal band. Wouldn’t you? I would.
For me, that really proves it on the musical side. But there’s more to it than that - it’s all about who they influenced and what they started.
Remember, this was before the mighty Black Sabbath, most often credited with inventing metal. It was also five years before the godfather of rock’n’roll left Hawkwind and started Motorhead.
And both of them - and just about anybody who's picked up an instrument - directly credit the Beatles as a main influence. Even if the band in question doesn't sound anything like the Beatles, they were inspired by them. Honestly it would be easier to list who hasn’t been quoted crediting the Beatles.
Here’s what Lemmy had to say about them in his book, White Line Fever:
“The Beatles were hard men too. Brian Epstein cleaned them up for mass consumption, but they were anything but sissies. They were from Liverpool, which is like Hamburg or Norfolk, Virginia — a hard, sea‑farin’ town… Fair enough, the Stones made great records, but they were always shit on stage, whereas the Beatles were the gear.”
Geezer Butler and Tony Iommi have both credited the Beatles as a major influence, with Geezer telling NME in 2024:
“They were a massive influence, because there was nobody else like them at the time.”
See, nobody like them at the time.
Because the Beatles helped make guitar driven music popular. I mean look at Beatlemania. All of a sudden half the women in the world were screaming and fainting over a bunch of guys with funny hair playing guitars.
It’s easy to forget now, but back then the Beatles were seen as rebellious. Teenagers listened to them in their rooms to annoy their parents.
That’s pretty much the point of heavy metal - apart from the brilliant music.
Without the Beatles, and especially tracks like Helter Skelter, there’d likely be no heavy metal…. Or is that complete nonsense? Let me know in the comments.
If you would rather watch these stories than read them, check out my YouTube Channel!
Comments