The Beatles‘ reputation as purveyors of mostly joyous music allowed them to sneak nuances into their lyrics that could almost go unnoticed. When the sound of the song was bouncy and fun, they could get away with all kinds of innuendo and menace.
Perhaps this phenomenon was never more evident than with “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” which arrived in 1969 on Abbey Road, the last studio album recorded by the band. It’s a seemingly joyous number if you go by the music. But then you listen to the lyrics, and you realize you’re dealing with the story of a sociopath.
The “Hammer” Falls
No song in the history of The Beatles seemed to cause as much trouble as “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” Like so many Beatles songs, this one is credited to the writing team of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. But McCartney is the song’s sole writer.
And maybe that’s where the problems started. As opposed to their earlier years, where a collaborative spirit reigned, the band had splintered off into factions by the time they were recording Abbey Road. Since McCartney wrote this one, he also tried to dictate how “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” should sound, and he was a bit too fastidious about this for the others’ liking.
In subsequent interviews, the three other men in the group all pointed out “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” as a song of which they were not particularly fond. Maybe their recollections were colored by McCartney making them do umpteen takes of the track to get it right. Or maybe they just didn’t see the worth in a song about somebody who keeps offing everyone he sees with a blunt object.
McCartney has related in interviews that he likened the song to a fairy tale, as those stories told to children often contained somewhat violent sequences when you took them at face value. And we know Macca was a comics fan (see his Wings song “Magneto and Titanium Man” as evidence), so maybe the influence of the hammer of Thor came into play as well when he was writing the lyrics.
Exploring the Lyrics of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”
You have to accept that much of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” is drawn from McCartney’s love of lyrics, which sound great as they roll off the tongue. For example, there are the opening lines: Joan looked quizzical, studied Pataphysical / Science in the home. Pataphysical refers to a type of science featuring curious notions that have nothing much to do with actual theory or testing. But you don’t need to know any of that, because the sound of the word is the important thing here.
In any case, Joan is Maxwell’s first victim, because she has the nerve to turn down this medical student when he asks her for a date. In the second verse, Maxwell, having seemingly escaped judgment for his first crime, is at it again. He goofs around in class, and his teacher subjects him to that most tiresome of schoolboy punishment, writing on the blackboard.
Big mistake, teach! Maxwell dispenses with her as well. At some point, you’d think these people would know enough to not turn their back on this kid. In any case, we find out in the third verse the police have caught up with him, maybe not for murder but perhaps for some sort of lewd behavior: Said we caught a dirty one.
Maybe the guy is more charismatic than we’ve been told to this point, because we also find out here that Maxwell has a cheering section: Rose and Valerie, screaming from the gallery / Say he must go free. The judge isn’t having it, but, like the other doomed fools in this song, he leaves Max on his blind side. Well, you know the rest.
That’s three murders in three verses, all with a hammer, the last one in the middle of a packed courthouse. It’s not what you would expect from those lovable lads from Liverpool. With “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer,” The Beatles proved that they could make macabre music that sounds downright playful.
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