Indeed! Must have been a strange feeling for the Beatles when this song with the silly text became part of ritual mass psychogenic hysteria and murder. Actually I didn't know the meaning of the word, Helter Skelter, until I was doing research for this page and I read that the crazy Californian hippies around Mason probably didn't either. So to me the word and the lyrics always had a strange and ominous feel to it. After realising that it is just a slide from an amusement park it all makes much better sense.
Out of context lines like, I'm coming down fast, but don't let me break you - I'm coming down fast, but I'm miles above you are pretty mysterious and not really like the typical soft The Beatles love song.
I rode those slides as a kid. It is a powerful song that is open to interpretation. The Beatles really were ahead of their time