Helter Skelter, Revisited

The Beatles’s White Album, a double album which some say was their epitome and others say revealed the beginning of their end, was released in 1968. In 2003 Rolling Stone ranked it number 10 on their list of all time greatest albums. The sixth song on side three was called Helter Skelter, which psychopathic madman Charles Manson insanely interpreted as a call to anarchic revolution.

For a time the Manson family lived on Sunset Boulevard with Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys who was initially impressed with Manson's songwriting skills. They also took enormous quantities of LSD. Later, in 1969, members of the Manson Family broke into the home of Roman Polanski and brutally killed Polanski’s eight months pregnant young wife Sharon Tate and several others in what later became known as the Tate-Bianca murders.

Director Roman Polanski’s film Chinatown (1973) starred Jack Nicholson, in whose home a 1977 event took place which led to Polanski's arrest and subsequent flight from the country .

Marlon Brando at one time lived next door to Jack Nicholson. Sometimes Brando would walk over to Nicholson’s house for milk and if Jack was not home, Brando would leave his underwear in the fridge where the milk had been.

In February 1968 the Beatles and Mike Love of the Beach Boys went to India to learn more about Eastern religion and Transcendental Meditation under the guidance of Mahareshi Mahesh Yogi. The Beatlles would write a biting song about the Mahareshi, but concealing the direct connection to avoid a lawsuit. The song was called Sexy Sadie, on side three of The White Album on the track precedig Helter Skelter.

In the spring of 1973 during a Beach Boys concert at Ohio University I walked to the stage before the concert began and handed Mike Love a pen-and-ink drawing which I had made, tearing it from my sketch book. He seemed to like the drawing and thanked me for it.

Conclusion: Based on the theory of six degrees of separation, anyone who knows me is within six degrees of Jack Nicholson, Roman Polanski, the Beach Boys, Beatles, Marlon Brando and Charles Manson.

Think about it.

Trivia: At the very end of Helter Skelter there is a scream, "I've got blisters on my fingers," which most people attributed to John. It was actually Ringo's voice here. This song, written by Paul McCartney, gives evidence that he was not simply a sweet ballad-writing type of guy. I believe he did it, if I recall correctly, simply to show that he could.