(Answered by Ely Matawaran)
A very interesting question. Because this song had two meanings:
The first was the meaning according to Paul McCartney which we could consider its true meaning since he was the one wrote the song.
And second was the meaning that Charles Manson found in the song that we could consider its twisted meaning since it made him and his group to kill people.
First of all, the title:
‘Helter Skelter’ referred to a fairground ride mainly popular in Britain, in which people could climb the inside of a wooden tower and slide down a spiral ride on the outside.
Paul McCartney about the song:
“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.
Charles Manson:
“Helter Skelter means confusion. Literally, it doesn’t mean war with anyone. It doesn’t mean that those people are going to kill other people. It only means what it means.
“Helter Skelter is confusion. Confusion is coming down fast. If you don’t see confusion coming down fast, you can call it what you wish.
“It’s not my conspiracy. It is not my music. I hear what it relates. It says, ‘Rise!’. It says, ’Kill!’.
“ Why blame it on me? I didn’t write the music. I am not the person who projected it into social consciousness! “
John Lennon commented:
“I don’t know what Helter Skelter has to do with knifing anyone. I’ve never listened to it properly, it was just noise.”
Yes, John Lennon said ‘Helter Skelter’ was just noise, and you’d wonder why the melodic Paul wrote this raunchy track which had been described as a prototype for 1970s Heavy Metal Sound.
Paul McCartney:
“I was in Scotland and I read in Melody Maker that Pete Townshend had said: ‘We’ve just made the raunchiest, loudest, most ridiculous rock ‘n’ roll record you’ve ever heard’. I never actually found out what track that was that The Who had made, but that got me going; just hearing him talk about it.
“So I said to the guys,’I think we should do a song like that; something really wild’. And I wrote ‘Helter Skelter’.
“You can hear the voice cracking, and we played it so long and loud and so often that by the end of it you can hear Ringo saying, ‘I’ve got blisters on my fingers!’”
As John Lennon once said about himself and Paul, “Whatever they can do, we can do it better.” And in the case of Helter Skelter, louder and wilder.
They made it so loud and wild that unfortunately, other people like Charles Manson heard it differently.
Every Moment Has A Song 