Help me make peace with "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"

It’s intended to be a dark comedy song like Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the Bright Side of Life’. And Bungalow Bill set the precedent, I think. It’s about how disaster manifests itself in our lives almost by chance, personified by Maxwell. So the idea behind it is good and solid.

Unfortunately the lyrics to MSH come across as tacky, and it’s unseemly for the Avatars of Love to have a singalong about anything making sure anything is dead.

 

Yeah, I seem to remember Lennon bashing this in the famous Rolling Stone interview, didn't he?

I'm not a big Beatles fan. I mean, the Beatles were one of the greatest, and I was obsessed with them from 4 to about 14, but I burned out on them and still haven't come all the way back. So I think I can be pretty objective about this.

It seems to me that it's not a masterpiece, but it's far from bad. It is not that outlandish next to a lot of the whimsical 60s psychedelic-type songs that were flying around, and it's a good bit more ingenious than most of them. If Strawberry Alarm Clock did it, it would probably be remembered as a minor classic of the 60s. The lyrics are clever, it's just a piece of whimsy and it's not bad, although it's not earth-shattering and can be slightly irritating if you hear it too many times in one year.

Best I can do.

 

Great answer.

 

I guess that's why we have so much violence today - everyone thinks it's a cartoon, or more appropriately, a video game

 

Interestingly, I've always disliked Rocky Raccoon but love Maxwell. It just plain oozes with melody!

 

"A good example of masking, or veiling, contained within the premise of “Maxwell's Silver Hammer” is found within its very first line, a reference to “Pataphisics.” This was a word invented by Alfred Jarry, the French pioneer of absurd theater from the turn of the century, to describe a branch of metaphysics. "Paul became interested in the works of Alfred Jarry in January of 1966 when, while driving to Liverpool, he heard a production of one of his plays, “Ubu Cocu,” on BBC radio. “It was the best radio play I had ever heard in my life,” Paul relates in “Many Years From Now,” “and the best production, and Ubu was so brilliantly played. It was just a sensation. That was one of the big things of the period for me.” (As a sidenote, Paul incorporated the name of this play to a 90's radio show of his own which he called “Oobu Joobu.”)"

"Then a few months later, in July of 1966, the Royal Court Theatre in London put on a production of a related Alfred Jarry play entitled “Ubu Roi,” which Paul attended. The lead actor cast for this play was Max Wall, a veteran vaudevillian who Jane Asher, Paul's girlfriend, particularly liked in this role. Paul continued to immerse himself in the writings of Alfred Jarry, especially the “science” created by him that Jarry termed “pataphysics,” which some describe as the science of imaginary solutions."

"Could actor Max Wall playing the lead role of King Ubu in the Alfred Jarry play that Paul attended in July of 1966 influenced the main character in his song being named “Maxwell,” maybe only subconsciously?" BeatlesBooks

 

I read somewhere where Paul said it was a metaphor for those times when everything in your life is perfect and something comes out of nowhere and screws it up. So perhaps karma

 

I've always liked this song.

I think it's very clever.

 

Keep in mind that John & Yoko were in a very serious car accident (17 stitches) just days before a bed was delivered to the studio while recording Maxwell's Silver Hammer.

"Former Apple employee Tony King expands on the song's meaning a little further in Steve Turner's book “A Hard Day's Write,” by relating a conversation he had with John concerning his song “Instant Karma.” “John told me that 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' was about the law of karma. We were talking one day about 'Instant Karma' because something had happened where he's been clobbered and he'd said that this was an example of instant karma. I asked him whether he believed that theory. He said that he did and that 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' was the first song that they'd made about that. He said that the idea behind the song was that the minute you do something that's not right, Maxwell's silver hammer will come down on your head.” BeatleBooks

 

Ringo murders every LP except Pepper with his awful, obligatory vocal tracks, don't get me started on what he did to The Beatles Channel on XM all summer.

 

Look at it this way, it's Paul's "granny music" track for Abbey Road. Pepper had "When I'm 64", MMT had "Your Mother Should Know", White Album had "Honey Pie".

Listen to the instrumental version and check out the arrangement and performance. The bass line could almost be a tuba.

 

Rocky Raccoon sounds like a toss-off, and is just 4 chords repeated. MSH is a much more complex arrangement.

Besides, I think it's the only Beatles song about murder.

 

People will listen to She Loves You and sing its praises all day long but prevailing wisdom is to bash Maxwell as simplistic and child-like? Gosh.

 

MSH has a great melody, superb playing, an interesting story and is very original. It sounds like nothing else yet belongs on Abbey Road.
I think that it enhances the album. I have never had an issue with it.

 

It’s the music that makes it sound childish to many. Again, it’s the contrast of form vs. content.

 

Abbey Road is a well paced LP, with plenty of light and shade, and Maxwell is a masterfully perverse change of pace between ‘Something’ and ‘Oh Darling’.

I never understand people who ‘wish that McCartney had ‘written ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ earlier’ and used that instead’ .. to me that would be a much duller and unBeatlesesque album. Is some people’s idea of a good Beatles LP getting hit over the head with an intense love ballad 12 times in a row? I’d just find it wearing, you need detours.

Btw, love those King-Cat comics!

 

Bang Bang!

 

I like it. Great musically, with a whimsical, if not dark, fully developed narrative.

 

It's not awful but would everyone agree it's the worst song on the album? Or do we have a photo finish w octopus garden?

 

"There was a good deal of discussion about Paul wanting the bass on 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' to sound like a tuba, to make the recording sound old-fashioned. We accomplished that by having him articulate the bass like a tuba by sliding into the notes instead of hitting them spot on." Geoff Emerick

 

‘I want you’ is nearly objectively the worst ‘song’ on the album imo. (Although It’s a GREAT performance and recording and I love it).

 

Octopus' Garden might be the worst song in the catalog. As far as worst songs on Abbey Road after Octopus, it depends if we're breaking up medley songs. I've got little use for Sun King.

 

Well, I like it and who wouldn't want to think exactly as I do?

 

I like it, but this and Octopus' Garden being so close together on the album doesn't work for me.

I prefer Maxwell to Rocky Raccoon.

 

ooooh.... Lennon's best contribution to the album and one of his top 20 overall imo.