On a recent episode of the podcast ‘McCartney: A Life In Lyrics,’ Paul McCartney talked about the Beatles song ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.’ This song is about an insane medical student on a murder spree with a hammer, and it turns out not all the Beatles liked it.
Host Paul Muldoon mentioned that the other band members weren’t too happy with this track, with Ringo Starr even saying it was their worst song. Muldoon thought the dislike might have come from how long they spent recording the music to make it the way McCartney wanted. The bassist admitted:
“I was very keen on it. It took a little bit long to record. I remember the guys getting p—ed with me. Occasionally, I, in particular, would take too long ’cause I was trying to get what was in my head.”
Their Time In The Studio Was Still Good
Despite these differences, McCartney said they still enjoyed making music together. He shared:
“Recording sessions were always good because no matter what our personal troubles were, no matter what was sort of going down, the minute we sat down to make a song, we were good.”
The ‘Pipes Of Peace’ singer explained:
“Our sort of skills came out. And so, I think we all enjoyed being in this little skillful company, where Ringo would do that, and George [Harrison] would play that, and John [Lennon] would do that, which was slightly more eccentric, and I would do that on bass or piano or whatever. So there was a great joy in that.”
The Track’s Inspiration Came From The 19th Century
‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ appeared on The Beatles’ 1969 album, ‘Abbey Road.’ McCartney said he got the idea for the song from a play by Alfred Jarry called ‘Ubu Cocu.’ He made it clear that the song’s dark theme was not to be taken seriously:
“You know it’s tongue in cheek. You know that it’s not a real story. This is not ‘Dateline.’ You know, this is made up. And I think that’s the sort of joy of it. It’s like a children’s nursery rhyme.”
His words went on:
“You know, nursery rhymes are always chopping off people’s heads, or Humpty Dumpty’s always dropping and cracking. So there is this thing where we kind of like it, ’cause we can place it in a safe place, and we can enjoy the macabre aspect because we know it’s not real, it’s not a news story.”
You can listen to the song below.
