Maxwell’s Silver Hammer: Introduction

“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is a Beatles song on their 1969 album, Abbey Road. The song is about a fictitious medical student (Maxwell Edison), who is also a murderer and uses a hammer as a weapon. However, the song disguises this with a rather upbeat tune in a music hall style.

In Detail

Release Date: September 26, 1969
Recorded: July 9th–11th and August 6, 1969
Genre: Pop, pop rock, music hall
Track Duration: 3:27
Record Label: Apple
Songwriter: Lennon-McCartney
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Phil McDonald

Performers And Instruments

Paul McCartney: lead and backing vocals, piano, electric guitars, Moog synthesizer
George Harrison: backing vocals, acoustic and lead guitar, and a six-string bass
Ringo Starr: backing vocals, drums, and an anvil
George Martin: organ

Where To Find “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”

There’s nothing stopping you from buying both albums, but the original song is on Abbey Road.

Maxwell’s Silver Hammer: Background

Paul McCartney wrote the song (the first verse while in India), but the credit obviously goes to Lennon-McCartney. Lennon, not surprisingly, calls it “more of Paul’s granny music.” Be that as it may, the song has dark lyrics about murder.

“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was 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 even now when something unexpected happens.”
Paul McCartney
Many Years From Now, Barry Miles

Although the song is not as bad as some make out, Author Ian MacDonald claims, “If any single recording shows why The Beatles broke up, it is Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”.

Band Discord

This was in the late 1960s, when the band was just not seeing eye-to-eye. Paul McCartney was a workaholic and would often press his bandmates to work at length on some songs. However, John Lennon doesn’t actually play on it at all.

“That’s Paul’s. I hate it. ‘Cuz 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, I think.”
John Lennon
All We Are Saying, David Sheff

Perhaps the band members were just sick of each other at this point; either way, the niggles clearly set in:

“The worst session ever was Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. It was the worst track we ever had to record. It went on for fucking weeks. I thought it was mad.”
Ringo Starr
Rolling Stone, January (2008)

“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, but when Paul got an idea or an arrangement in his head…”
George Harrison
Crawdaddy magazine (1977)

“They got annoyed because Maxwell’s Silver Hammer took three days to record. Big deal.”
Paul McCartney
Anthology

Recording Studio

The Beatles began recording the song on July 9, 1969, in Studio Two of the EMI Studios, London, during the 2.30 p.m.–10.15 p.m. sessions. They recorded takes 1–21 on that day, and track 5 is now on their 1996 album, “Anthology 3.”

Take 21 was suitable for overdubbing, which took place on the 10th and 11th of July. They also rented a real blacksmith’s anvil from a theatrical agency for Ringo Starr to bang on.

Finally, on the 6th of August, overdubbing of Paul McCartney’s Moog synthesiser solo took place and the song was now complete.