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Maxwell's Silver Hammer

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"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
Song by The Beatles
Album Abbey Road
Released 26 September 1969
Recorded 9-11 July, 6 August 1969
Genre Pop rock
Length 3:27
Label Apple Records
Writer Lennon/McCartney
Producer George Martin
Abbey Road track listing


It's a typical McCartney sing-a-long, or whatever you call them. He did quite a lot of work on it. I was ill after the accident when they did most of that track, and it really ground George and Ringo into the ground recording it, you know. I wasn't on 'Maxwell,' but I think I was on everything else. I was just away for that.

—John Lennon, 1969

I hate it, 'cos all I remember is the track. He made us do it a hundred million times. He did everything to make it into a single and it never was and it never could've been, but he put guitar licks on it and he had somebody hitting iron pieces and we spent more money on that song than any of them in the whole album.

—John Lennon,Playboy Interviews, 1980


"Maxwell's Silver Hammer is just something of Paul's which we've been trying to record. We spent a hell of a lot of time on it. And it's one of those instant sort of whistle-along tunes, which some people will hate, and some people will really love it. It's more like Honey Pie, you know, a fun sort of song. But it's pretty sick as well though, 'cuz the guy keeps killing everybody. It's good because I have this synthesiser and 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' was one of the things I used the synthesiser on, which is pretty effective.

—George Harrison, 1969

'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.

—Paul McCartney, Many Years From Now, 1997

Paul would always help along when you had done his ten songs. Then, when he got round to doing one of my songs, he would help. It was silly. It was very selfish, actually. Sometimes, Paul would make us do these really fruity songs. I mean, my God, 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' was so fruity. After a while, we did a good job on it

—George Harrison, 1969


 

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