Monday’s Theme Music

You ever get on the telephone, listen to ads, or generally engage with sales people, and get the feeling that they have music going through their head, and that music is some variation of “Money (That’s What I Want)”? Seems like a large proportion of the world’s population is has this theme song going.

It ended up streaming into my head this morning after reading the news (I read the news today, oh, boy). After a little thought, I went with the Beatle’s version because I’m most familiar with it.

Look back on a little Beatlemania in this clip, or, if you’re too young to know what I’m talking about, view it for the first time.

Today’s Theme Music

“This is a song Charles Manson stole from the Beatles. We’re stealing it back.”

I was thirteen in 1969. The Tate-LaBianca murders exploded over the news. I remember newspaper headlines, photographs and television news coverage of the Manson Family actions and the subsequent investigations as clearly as I remember the assassinations of RFK, JFK and MLK, the Watts riots, or the Apollo moon landing. Helter Skelter became the symbol of the murders because the words were written in blood at the scene. The murders became books and movies under the name ‘Helter Skelter’.  It wasn’t an accident. Charles Manson believed and taught the Beatles’ ‘White Album’, including ‘Helter Kelter’, contained coded messages for him and his followers.

If you can escape the murderous connection, the lyrics are good to sing as you’re walking around:

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

The song, written by Paul McCartney, would never be heard the same for many of us. Here is U2, trying to change it back for us in 1988.

 

 

 

 

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