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

People are dissing she's so heavy and sun king?!!?!

say it ain't so!!

 

?

 

Totally disagree. The song works because he puts everything into the vocal. He's totally invested in the lyrics and sings his ass off in this song. It's not tongue in cheek at all.

 

People, stop the Mr. Moonlight insanity already. Mr. Moonlight is great. It's always been great.

 

Mr. Moonlight was a staple of their live show almost as soon as it was released and was covered by numerous other groups prior to Beatles for Sale. Definitely not "tongue in cheek." It was beloved not only by the Beatles but also by other British groups (inexplicably IMO, but facts are facts).

 

Although in the Star Club recording they sing "Here I am on my NOSE".

 

Nose in cheek is another matter entirely!

 

I love it too, but you have to admit there’s almost nothing there as a composition. It’s all in the performance and recording. ‘Oh Darling’ isn’t much more sophisticated.

As others have intimated above, it’s somewhat ironic that the one song on the LP that could stand muster as a lyrical composition alongside the likes of Cole Porter gets continually dumped on, while the basic repetitive tunes that in terms of songwriting, are even simpler than ‘Love Me Do’ usually get straight passes into heaven.

 

Oh now you've done it.

 

I don't hear any contrived snort/laugh in this song. I seriously doubt he was going for that. If there's any laughter on a Beatles record, my guess is it was herbally induced as opposed to contrived. They were never cheap in that way.

It sounds like some people are taking this way too seriously. Personally, I just hear a clever nursery rhyme about karma.

Listen to some Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, they were brilliant satirists and they would've KILLED to have written "Maxwell" IMO.

 

Duuuuude!

The chords and kicks are off the chain and the infinite psych vamp is the perfect side-ender. The best!!

 

Ok I can't help myself. Vinyl Kings' Bang Bang is a takeoff on so many song, yet, the "bang bang" in question is a guy pushing numerous radio buttons looking for quality songs in frustration.

 

Doesn't the story go that Lennon mooned McCartney when he sang the word "behind" and it made Paul chuckle on the take?

 

That's new to me, but I'm not one of the expert historians that are resident around here. I hope that's true -- a courtesy laugh just makes me sad and disappointed.

 

Are you kidding?

 

‘Cos we love you, Mr Moonlight’.

 

He is also praising the track, the point is that there's not much to it as a composition. This seems clearly true to me, I don't know. I love it too, in fact it may be the best track they ever did according to my current sensibilities. But it's not a track that's memorable for the songwriting per se.

 

But...but...but...he wants her so baaaaaaaaad!

Yeah, you're right. Great listen, though, as long as you experience it rather than analyze it.

Excellent track to use in convincing someone that McCartney is an elite bass player.

 

At 1:21 in, right at the start of the line "writing fifty times I must not be so..." I can hear it (a snort) clearly on a digital dub of my UK ~1 mat.

I suppose herbally induced make sense and would a be a possibility were it not for the mention someone made about Ringo Starr saying that they didn't record high very often because the results were subpar -- this was in a thread that was discussing 12-Bar Blues, which is pretty boring IMO. Someone like Lennon trying to make him laugh and FU -- as someone just posted -- sounds very plausible.

I like it and Octopus's Garden both. British popsike was full of childhood whimsy for the brief period it was around before morphing into serious progressive rock.

 

When you say composition and songwriting do you mean lyrics? If so I agree about the lyrics. If you mean chords and melody etc then I deeply disagree.

 

I haven't listened to this song in years, to be honest, but I can hear it in my head. Maybe you're right about the chords, it doesn't seem like King Crimson but I guess it's not underwritten either, it's just a reasonably put-together rock progression I guess. The lyrics aren't much.

As everyone here seems to agree on, the overall package is tremendous, though.

 

Flush both of them down the S-bend, crap is crap ..... it needn't be over-analyzed.
Accepting the fact that they weren't immune from producing a couple of duds is much simpler.
Abbey Road is a better record without them.

 

that is sooooo not peace and love

 

‘Max’ is a children's song ... about a serial killer ... who gets the last laugh on the criminal justice system. It's an Ealing black comedy for kids, and if you have any reason to forget how bold & audacious that is as a piece of songwriting you only have to reflect that half a century on many people profess not to understand it.

 

I'm not sure if it's true or not, but I like to think it is. Classic Lennon hijinks. From what I have read, he is said to have been present for some of the sessions even though he didn't play on the track.