Original Artist: The Beatles
Cover Versions by Siouxies and the Banshees (and B for Bang)
Fierce and brutal guitar sound, pounding beat, rockin vocal and fill-ins…Helter Skelter is probably…No. Not probably, but surely (one of) the greatest hard-rock music ever created. So complete, visionary, and perfect of this masterpiece by Sir Paul McCartney, it blasts the world (then and now), praised by critics (except they who don’t even know how to enjoy music), covered by many, and…inspired a mass murder (something I couldn’t fathom. Actually how could that mindless cruelty have anything to do whatsoever with the song, but Charles Manson himself is a total deluded lunatic who unluckily listened to the song when that crazy murderous thought slip into his mind.)
The story behind the song is Paul once read an interview of Guitar Player Magazine with Pete Townshend about The Who’s I Can See for Miles, which was said to be one of the dirtiest and rawest rock song at that time. So, in reply (which maybe arose because of feeling challenged) Paul wrote Halter Skelter. The name helter skelter itself is a roller coaster in England. The recording of this number took place around July 1968 and in one of the sessions, they did a version that lasted 27 minutes and 11 seconds! It was a spirited (if not crazy) recording; George Harrison “set fire to an ashtray and was running around the studio with it above his head” and Ringo Starr described it “Helter Skelter' was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio” (as written in Wikipedia.org). This definitive rock song is part of The Beatles’ The White Album, released in 1968 and in 2005, Q Magazine listed Helter Skelter at number 5 in their 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
Helter Skelter is a (really close to) perfect song. How come? Because looks like it’s almost impossible to work out on and create a better version than the original, or at least as good as. There are so many bands and artists (mostly from rock genre) already made the attempts to cover this song, like U2, Oasis, Bon Jovi, Motley Crew, Dana Fuchs, Pat Benatar, Soundgarden, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith,…and still some others. However, most of them simply have to “give up” to the original style. All they can do is dressing up the song with more modern distortion or heavier bass sound or more sparkling recording quality. It’s like...what they do is only copy-paste the template of the song and fill it with colors of their liking. The spirit and the rawness are often missed out. Yes they might make better recording of the song, but not a better version.
Nevertheless, among the cover-version bunch, I found one version that I think deserves some appreciation. It is the version of Siouxies and the Banshees. This post-punk London group of the 70’s (motored by Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, Budgie) has a very unique music style and distinctive performance style; something a bit dark but not gothic, an amazing queerness. The vocalist of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Siouxsie Sioux (Susan Janet Ballion), is a truly remarkable total artist: great singer, awesome performer, and talented songwriter. And she is the main reason (among some others) why I pick their version, which appears in two of their albums: the studio version in The Scream (1978) and a live version in Nocturne (1983).
Besides the atmospheric music by the band, it is Siouxsie Sioux’s vocal that makes it really get into me. Her vocal is strong, bold, and sometimes unpredictable. I don’t know who actually did the concept of the music arrangement, but the way she explored the notes in the song is enjoyable and how she performed is simply marvelous. However, their version still lacks the essence of Helter Skelter: the spirited rawness…But, with the unique musical style they offer, it’s definitely worth some credits.
Another cover version I think worth noticing:
Cover Versions by Siouxies and the Banshees (and B for Bang)
Fierce and brutal guitar sound, pounding beat, rockin vocal and fill-ins…Helter Skelter is probably…No. Not probably, but surely (one of) the greatest hard-rock music ever created. So complete, visionary, and perfect of this masterpiece by Sir Paul McCartney, it blasts the world (then and now), praised by critics (except they who don’t even know how to enjoy music), covered by many, and…inspired a mass murder (something I couldn’t fathom. Actually how could that mindless cruelty have anything to do whatsoever with the song, but Charles Manson himself is a total deluded lunatic who unluckily listened to the song when that crazy murderous thought slip into his mind.)
The story behind the song is Paul once read an interview of Guitar Player Magazine with Pete Townshend about The Who’s I Can See for Miles, which was said to be one of the dirtiest and rawest rock song at that time. So, in reply (which maybe arose because of feeling challenged) Paul wrote Halter Skelter. The name helter skelter itself is a roller coaster in England. The recording of this number took place around July 1968 and in one of the sessions, they did a version that lasted 27 minutes and 11 seconds! It was a spirited (if not crazy) recording; George Harrison “set fire to an ashtray and was running around the studio with it above his head” and Ringo Starr described it “Helter Skelter' was a track we did in total madness and hysterics in the studio” (as written in Wikipedia.org). This definitive rock song is part of The Beatles’ The White Album, released in 1968 and in 2005, Q Magazine listed Helter Skelter at number 5 in their 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
The Beatles
Helter Skelter is a (really close to) perfect song. How come? Because looks like it’s almost impossible to work out on and create a better version than the original, or at least as good as. There are so many bands and artists (mostly from rock genre) already made the attempts to cover this song, like U2, Oasis, Bon Jovi, Motley Crew, Dana Fuchs, Pat Benatar, Soundgarden, Bon Jovi, Aerosmith,…and still some others. However, most of them simply have to “give up” to the original style. All they can do is dressing up the song with more modern distortion or heavier bass sound or more sparkling recording quality. It’s like...what they do is only copy-paste the template of the song and fill it with colors of their liking. The spirit and the rawness are often missed out. Yes they might make better recording of the song, but not a better version.
Nevertheless, among the cover-version bunch, I found one version that I think deserves some appreciation. It is the version of Siouxies and the Banshees. This post-punk London group of the 70’s (motored by Siouxsie Sioux, Steven Severin, Budgie) has a very unique music style and distinctive performance style; something a bit dark but not gothic, an amazing queerness. The vocalist of Siouxsie and the Banshees, Siouxsie Sioux (Susan Janet Ballion), is a truly remarkable total artist: great singer, awesome performer, and talented songwriter. And she is the main reason (among some others) why I pick their version, which appears in two of their albums: the studio version in The Scream (1978) and a live version in Nocturne (1983).Besides the atmospheric music by the band, it is Siouxsie Sioux’s vocal that makes it really get into me. Her vocal is strong, bold, and sometimes unpredictable. I don’t know who actually did the concept of the music arrangement, but the way she explored the notes in the song is enjoyable and how she performed is simply marvelous. However, their version still lacks the essence of Helter Skelter: the spirited rawness…But, with the unique musical style they offer, it’s definitely worth some credits.
Siouxies and the Banshees
Another cover version I think worth noticing:
B for Bang
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