...and Woodstock too!
This week was/is a bzZzZy as a bee week for commemorating key cultural
events than largely affected the American PoP scene, and still continues
to this day, this century, and probably for ages to come.
Betty Boop, Beatles, Helter Skelter and Woodstock- tried to (but failed) to somehow sustain the 'B' motif in this entry in a vain attempt as it turns out well not quite alliterative but certainly alphabetical -2 out of 4 isn't at all bad.
Okay, okay, nix Helter Skelter, definite bad vibes and bummer for sure, and even though tomorrow commemorates the 40th Anniversary of the infamous events, I'm not gonna cover it or mention it as you'll probably read/hear plenty about the Tate/LaBianca murders and Charlie 'X' and the unfortunate dumb bitches who fell for his small-time picayune mind-control techniques, some would say
he himself was a Frankensteinian creation of various societal forces - essentially a 'guinea pig' -that made him believe he was in charge while recruiting other lesser gullable brain-dead accolytes- more 'guinea pigs', more fun - to do irreparable damage to the experimental 'counter-culture'.
Hippies no damn good, see I toldya so...or so went the refrain at the time spearheaded by that fine upstanding solid citizen, well none other than (gasp), can it be- Richard Nixon -Yow!
2 out of 3 ain't bad.
Instead, I'll give you satirist Jonathan Swift's original tome from which McCartney took the title from (as well as a playground ride), which should help at least a lil' bit to undue some of the unfortunate negative connotations and associations with 'helter skelter':
HELTER SKELTER
OR,
THE HUE AND CRY AFTER THE ATTORNEYS UPON THEIR RIDING THE CIRCUIT
Now the active young attorneys
Briskly travel on their journeys,
Looking big as any giants,
On the horses of their clients;
Like so many little Marses
With their tilters at their arses,
Brazen-hilted, lately burnish'd,
And with harness-buckles furnish'd,
And with whips and spurs so neat,
And with jockey-coats complete,
And with boots so very greasy,
And with saddles eke so easy,
And with bridles fine and gay,
Bridles borrow'd for a day,
Bridles destined far to roam,
Ah! never, never to come home.
And with hats so very big, sir,
And with powder'd caps and wigs, sir,
And with ruffles to be shown,
Cambric ruffles not their own;
And with Holland shirts so white,
Shirts becoming to the sight,
Shirts bewrought with different letters,
As belonging to their betters.
With their pretty tinsel'd boxes,
Gotten from their dainty doxies,
And with rings so very trim,
Lately taken out of lim--[1]
And with very little pence,
And as very little sense;
With some law, but little justice,
Having stolen from my hostess,
From the barber and the cutler,
Like the soldier from the sutler;
From the vintner and the tailor,
Like the felon from the jailor;
Into this and t'other county,
Living on the public bounty;
Thorough town and thorough village,
All to plunder, all to pillage:
Thorough mountains, thorough valleys,
Thorough stinking lanes and alleys,
Some to--kiss with farmers' spouses,
And make merry in their houses;
Some to tumble country wenches
On their rushy beds and benches;
And if they begin a fray,
Draw their swords, and----run away;
All to murder equity,
And to take a double fee;
Till the people are all quiet,
And forget to broil and riot,
Low in pocket, cow'd in courage,
Safely glad to sup their porridge,
And vacation's over--then,
Hey, for London town again.
[Footnote 1: Limbo, any place of misery and restraint.
"For he no sooner was at large,
But Trulla straight brought on the charge,
And in the selfsame Limbo put
The knight and squire where he was shut."--Hudibras, Part i, canto iii, 1,000.
Here abbreviated by Swift as a cant term for a pawn shop.--W. E. B.]
