When most people think of The Beatles, they likely think of songs like “I Want To Hold Your Hand” or “Here Comes The Sun”. While these are great songs, The Beatles experimented with lots of different sounds in their day. Here are a few Beatles songs that might surprise you.
“Helter Skelter”
“Helter Skelter”, which appears on the White Album, is a lot more rock ‘n roll than most Beatles’ songs. When Paul McCartney wrote this one, he was referring to a helter-skelter carnival slide, and not so much Charles Manson.
Videos by American Songwriter
He told Barry Miles: “I was using the symbol of a helter skelter as a ride from the top to the bottom – the rise and fall of the Roman Empire – and this was the fall, the demise, the going down. You could have thought of it as a rather cute title but it’s since taken on all sorts of ominous overtones because Manson picked it up as an anthem, and since then quite a few punk bands have done it because it is a raunchy rocker.”
“Within You Without You”
This is actually one of many Beatles songs that have a lot of Indian musical influence. George Harrison wrote his first song in this style when he wrote “Love You To”, which appears on The Beatles’ Revolver album. “Within You Without You” was his only composition on Sgt. Pepper.
“‘Within You Without You’ came about after I had spent a bit of time in India and fallen under the spell of the country and its music,” he once shared. “I had brought back a lot of instruments. It was written at Klaus Voormann’s house in Hampstead after dinner one night. The song came to me when I was playing a pedal harmonium.”
“Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”
This is a quirky one. In “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”, McCartney compares the sexual relations of animals to humans. This one was written after he witnessed two monkeys literally doing it in the road while in India.
Speaking with Barry Miles, McCartney answered the very question the song asks. Why don’t we do it in the road?
“Well, the answer is we’re civilized, and we don’t. But the song was just to pose that question,” he shared. “‘Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?’ was a primitive statement to do with sex or to do with freedom, really. I like it, it’s just so outrageous that I like it.”
Photo by: Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Mirrorpix via Getty Images