Maxwell's Silver Hammer

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"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

Song by The Beatles
From the album Abbey Road
Album released September 26 1969
Recorded July 9-11, August 6, 1968
Genre Rock
Song Length 03:27
Record label Apple Records
Producer George Martin
Abbey Road Album Listing
Something (Track 2) Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Track 3) Oh! Darling (Track 4)

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

Song by The Beatles
From the album Abbey Road
Album released	September 26 1969
Recorded	July 9-11, August 6, 1968
Genre	Rock
Song Length	03:27
Record label	Apple Records
Producer	George Martin
Abbey Road Album Listing
Something (Track 2)	Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Track 3)	Oh! Darling (Track 4)

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is a song performed by The Beatles, with Paul McCartney singing the lead, and is included on their album Abbey Road. It was written by McCartney, though the songwriting credit is Lennon-McCartney.

George Harrison described it in 1969 as "one of those instant whistle-along tunes which some people hate, and other people really like. It's a fun song, but it's kind of a drag because Maxwell keeps on killing everyone like his girlfriend then the school teacher, and then, finally, the judge." (In 1977, Harrison would be less charitable, [saying] of the song, "I mean, my god, 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' was so fruity.")

The vaudevillian-style song is about medical student Maxwell Edison, who uses his silver hammer to murder his girlfriend, then his teacher, and finally the judge during his murder trial. Despite the grim subject matter, the song is bouncy and upbeat. Although thought by many fans to be a thinly-veiled allegory on the Charles Manson scandals, McCartney says it merely epitomizes the downfalls of life. He said in 1994:

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer" is my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don't know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell's hammer. It was needed for scanning. We still use that expression now when something unexpected happens."

The song took three days of overdubbing because McCartney imagined that it could be a future single. John Lennon later recalled, "he did everything to make it into a single, and it never was and it never could have been." According to Lennon, the band spent more money on that song than any other on Abbey Road.

McCartney referred to the song when talking about his 2005 album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard:

"In the past I may have written tongue-in-cheek, like `Maxwell's Silver Hammer,' and dealt with matters of fate in a kind of comical, parody manner. It just so happens in this batch of songs I would look at these subjects and thought it was good for writing. If it's good enough to take to your psychiatrist, it's good enough to make a song of."

Trivia

In the film Let It Be, some of the unhappiest scenes are those of McCartney attempting to teach the song to the rest of the band, who are clearly less than enthusiastic.

You can actually hear McCartney snickering as he sings the line "... writing fifty times I must not be so ..." on the studio recording. This is rumored to be because after the line "so he waits behind," Lennon flashed his rear-end to Paul on the word "behind." [link]

A homicidal cult is believed to have used this name in the 1970's, claiming the lives of five campers in Santa Barbara, California. Mentioned by the Manson Family.The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, Michael Newton, ISBN 0816039798

The character of Maxwell Edison was played by comic Steve Martin in the 1978 movie Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

Comedian Patton Oswalt refers to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" as a euphemism for a hypodermic needle used for injecting heroin. ^{[[Citing sources citation needed]]}

References

[The Beatles Ultimate Experience Database]
Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song, Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 006095065X
Lewisohn, Mark. The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Hamlyn, 1988. ISBN 0681031891.

External links

[Lyrics]
[Animated video on newgrounds.com]
[Fake News Report], claiming that Maxwell was recently released from a New Zealand prison.

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