Well, in my opinion this song is about being a young & maybe a little naive &/or introverted girl and finding yourself loving a man who is at first very charming, carefree & outgoing, and seems at first to be without limits, as in
"There was a time
you opened up every doorway
you didn't mind if everything
wasn't your way"
then that man starts to gradually become more introverted & shows their more possessive/obsessive side to you as the relationship progresses, even while they keep up the appearance of being carefree & outgoing to everyone else,
"Don't pull away
that goes against what you told me
I look in your eyes
I realize what you've sold me
is love in a vacuum"
so you confront them about the way they're acting and of course they deny it,
"I think you've changed
but you insist that
that's not true"
quite possibly they are an addict of some sort, my guess would be cocaine, &/or showing very obsessive behavior towards you (early on in the video for this song we see the man hanging a picture up, it is a very large portrait of Aimee & it is prominently displayed in his/their apartment for the duration of the song), thus their "love in a vacuum",
"You look so strange, so distant
that you're hardly you
Now I can see
how you have been acting different
You say it's me
but I know
that it isn't
it's love in a vacuum"
but still you are in love with them and don't want to leave them and you know that they are truly in love with you and they don't want you to leave them either, maybe they are convinced you can save them from themself, maybe they are so broken that the possibility of an overdose &/or suicide attempt is very real and you want to get through to them that their behavior not only dangerous but it is also just pissing you off and if they don't wise up they run the risk of loosing you, as in the lines
"You will be lonely
if you leave me alone", so you want to save them but can't get through to them due to the addiction &/or emotional problems they have,
"Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
love in a vacuum
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
You will be lonely
if you leave me alone
You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough"
you want them to understand that the love they are giving you is not enough when it is filtered through the vacuum of their drug addiction &/or emotional impairment,
"You will be lonely
you'll be the only one who feels this way
it's just not enough
and just wait
you will be lonely
Love in a vacuum
Love in a vacuum
and that's not enough
Love in a vacuum".
'Love In A Vacuum' for me is a hauntingly truthful acute argument on the loneliness of obsession and almost inevitable loss of love that follows people who are broken in some way or another; the obsessives, the coke heads, the drunks, addicts or the just-plain-old emotionally broken; a razor sharp, lyrically driven, deceptively poppy, yet ultimately-depressing-in-the-best-way song.
Quintessential Aimee Mann.
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again
Do, don't you want me to love you
I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you
Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answer
Well, you may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Helter skelter, helter skelter
Helter skelter
Will you, won't you want me to make you
I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Look out
Helter skelter, helter skelter
Helter skelter
Look out, 'cause here she comes
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
And I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
And I get to the bottom and I see you again, yeah, yeah
Well do you, don't you want me to make you
I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you
Tell me, tell me, tell me your answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Look out
Helter skelter, helter skelter
Helter skelter
Look out, helter skelter
She's coming down fast
Yes, she is
Yes, she is
Coming down fast
(I've got blisters on my fingers)
Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
Till I get to the bottom and I see you again
Do, don't you want me to love you
I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you
Tell me, tell me, tell me, come on tell me the answer
Well, you may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Helter skelter, helter skelter
Helter skelter
Will you, won't you want me to make you
I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you
Tell me, tell me, tell me the answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Look out
Helter skelter, helter skelter
Helter skelter
Look out, 'cause here she comes
When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide
And I stop and I turn and I go for a ride
And I get to the bottom and I see you again, yeah, yeah
Well do you, don't you want me to make you
I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you
Tell me, tell me, tell me your answer
You may be a lover but you ain't no dancer
Look out
Helter skelter, helter skelter
Helter skelter
Look out, helter skelter
She's coming down fast
Yes, she is
Yes, she is
Coming down fast
(I've got blisters on my fingers)
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I think your first comment is closer to being accurate. The singer/song writers state "Millions of eyes can see, yet why am i so blind!? When the someone else is me, its unkind its unkind". I believe hes referring to the girl toying with him and using him. He wants something deeper with her, thats why he allows himself to be as a puppet (even though for her fun and games) as long as it makes her happy. But he knows deep down that she doesnt really want to be serious with him and thats what makes him.
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I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
It's a slide. The kind that you find in any kiddy park. The song was written BEFORE the Tate murders. Peace.
You're the only one who got it right. everyone else is way off base. No sex, no drugs, no manson.
@FritzT It was actually written AFTER the Tate/LaBianca killings in '69. The Beatles thought such a gruesome event needed a 'song for posterity'
@Exobscura<br /> <br /> The White Album was released in 1968. Pretty good trick having a song on it that hadn't been written yet. Was there anything the Beatles couldn't do?!
i just checked out "helter skelter" and i didn´t like, what i read, so i decided to sign up and place a comment to put things right...
now read - all who are interested in how this song is related to the manson family:
it is not true, that the beatles got inspiered by the murders - FACT!!!
charles manson believed that the beatles were sending him messages through their songs. he saw a race-war coming up between blacks and whites - of which he preached to his disciples, the so called "manson family". he gave this war the name "helter-skelter" named after the song. in the song he heard machineguns and pigs. when he realized, that his "helter-skelter-war" wouldn´t start, he decided to start it by himself. he went out with the family to commit the murders. the murderers stole a wallet in the polanski´s house and it was dropped in a toilet in a petrol-station in a "black area". then - so he thought -the war would start. he believed, that the blacks would win the war and kill all the white population. he and his family would escape and hide under the earth surface in the "bottomless pit" (described in the bible) which he saw located in death valley. after a long period of time the children of the family would arise out of the bottomless pit, kill all the blacks and then rule the world.
there is a lot more to this story but this version is enough for you to know.
all the beatles wanted to do with this song is to outrock pete townsend - THAT´S ALL
peace!!!!!!, fnord
Actually, he didn't plan to kill the blacks. After the war was over, he felt the blacks wouldn't know how to lead or run the country. He said that "darkie" would come to him and ask him to lead and he would pat "darkie" on the head and tell him to go work in the fields like a good n****er. Hia plan was to make the blacks slaves again.
dude that whole outline of the manson murders was completely wrong! first of all charles manson never went out and did the actual killing himself secondly he thought black people would take over and he would rise up on them after the race war was over thirdly he only ordered the murders on the tate's because he wanted to kill this record producer that didnt like his music and had rejected him a record contract it just happen to b shitty luck that he had moved out and roman and sharron moved in after they killed sharron and all the guests there then they made it all look like black people had done it calling the race war 'helter skelter' then he just sent them to kill randomly which didnt get them very far because they got caught shortly after. I guess thats what lsd and baby eatin' getcha a lifetime in prison dun dun DUN.
ok point taken but...what the person was basically saying was manson was inspired by the white album in many ways. that is the point... not the beatles by manson. manson thought of the white album like a f*in bible. and that is a FACT. the song its self is about what this person said ... paul thought .... we can out rock "the wh"o and all these "rock bands" better than anyone else. and this is his middle finger back at the people that thought they couldnt. paul wrote the lyrics after a ride in england. the bealtes where totally high out of their minds locked themselves in the recording room and did this song all night. the song was super long and they cut it to the version we hear today. amazing song.
@SNAFU - Fnord The Beatles wrote the song Helter Skelter because of the message left on the Tate house murder scene --- FACT
very simply, this song blew my mind. it's like a four minute trip. and i love the end when john (or whoever it is..it sounds like john) screams "I've got blisters on my fingers!"
That's Ringo. He had done so many takes of the song that there were, well, blisters on his fingers.
its ringo starr who screams
I think this song is about having sex while you're high. Paul McCartney most likely wrote this song in a girl's POV.
"When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide, Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride Till I get to the bottom and I see you again."
Basically, Paul (still in a girl's POV) is describing the different sex positions and how she's so high she's comparing the experience to a slide.
Both: "I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you." - refers to how she's about to cum but she's still higher than he is. "I'm coming down fast but don't let me break you" - refers to how she's about to cum (again) but doesn't want him to yet.
Which is also why the song laters says "She's coming down fast, yes she is." in the guy's POV (or Paul's)
The chorus "Helter Skelter" is just another reference to their sex experience or a possible orgasm.
The entire song is just one correlation for a crazy sexual exp.
@mayqueen94 The song is named after a slide at a British amusement park. The first line is a joke about this: "When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide, where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride."
@mayqueen94 You're obviously enjoying your mind living in the gutter, so I won't bother saying [nor educating you] any more
I can't believe that the same guy who wrote this song wrote "Blackbird". Paul McCartney is something else...
@theeman0000 Paul didn't write this because he died in a car accident in 1966
when i was young (this was the 80s...) helter skelter came on the radio in the car. my mother said to me 'this song started all the punk music' and i didn't forget it. i must say, this song really proves the beatles' strength as innovators.
While I don't disagree, surely The Rolling Stones had a bigger say in the punk area at that time..?
I'm taking a college course on the beatles - and this is true. Everything we hear on the radio - modern forms, ect. we can thank The Beatles for.
but beatles helped influence the stones in many ways. john and paul influenced the stones to write their own songs and helped pave the way to america for the stones. so although the stones may have appeared to be more rock n roll the beatles are the stronger innovators.
@slushie this is the first time I've heard the 'punk' moniker being assigned to this song - I've only ever heard the repetitive 'heavy metal' used
It was not about the Manson murders, Charles Manson believed in some Beatles songs they were sending him messages. Take George's song, "Piggies". Manson spelled this out on walls in blood in some of the murders, if I'm not mistaken?
i think it was 'pigs' written in blood, Trent reznor of nine inch nails bought the house in with the murders happened and he recorded all his music under the wall where pig was written.<br /> <br />
@MaggieBeatles I wasn't aware of Manson ever being there to write anything with anything. Are you perhaps Linda Kasabian
Did the come up with this title from Zora Neale Hurston's quote? "Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more or less."
@farrah0fawcett Helter Skelter means 'mass confusion' in English and also the name of a large slide in England that the 'sentimental' Beatle harks back to - a bit like that Penny Lane fiasco
i think this song is about a relationship. it makes me think of my last relationship...
"When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide Where I stop and I turn and I go for a ride Till I get to the bottom and I see you again."
she/he is going bottomwards and tries to bring him/herself back up, but wants to stay with that person so he/she goes back to the bottom.
"Do you, don't you want me to love you."
asking the other person if they want to be loved by the speaker.
"I'm coming down fast but I'm miles above you."
the other person is bringing the speaker down, but the speaker is still - mentally? maturity wise? - above the other person.
@butterfleXxXbee It's not <br /> and you need some kind of therapy
Jesus christ everyone SHUT THE FUCK UP about manson. It's not written about him and you're not special for knowing he was inspired by this song. For fucks sake.
Anyway, I believe this song is about straight up, raw, hard, crazy sex. The chick he's fucking may be a 'lover' but she lacks the finesse and elegance of a 'dancer' and can't keep up (i.e. dead fish, wooden board)
The song Helter Skelter by the Beatles was a about a water slide. Manson thought it was about a race war and had nothing to do with murder. He murdered because he was a very sick man who could control young girls to do his bidding. Manson never killed anyone but was jailed because of the control of the because he was a coward.
@PobodysNerfect youshould take your own advice which you give to 'everyone'<br /> <br /> it's NOT about sex at all - just because it sounds deranged and forceful doesn't mean it's about that. <br /> It's really about what most of the comments say: the Tate/LaBianca murders