The song received a very mixed reception from critics
The iconic cover of The Beatles’ 1969 album ‘Abbey Road'(Image: Daily Record / Handout)
As The Beatles’ sound evolved in the second half of the 1960s, their music became increasingly experimental. This often had incredibly successful results – 1967’s ‘Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’ captured the mood of the so-called ‘summer of love’ and changed popular music forever, before the avant-garde ‘White Album’ was widely praised by critics.
However, not all of their innovations and urges to push the boundaries paid off. The ECHO has recently looked at the difficulties the band had in putting their final album ‘Let it Be’ together and the critical hammering it received when it was released.
From 1968 and the recording of ‘The White Album’ onward, creative differences began to emerge as each member of the band wanted to put their own stamps on The Beatles’ sound and express themselves fully. This led to rows over certain songs, including ‘Back in the USSR’, which led to Ringo Starr leaving the band temporarily.
The 1969 album ‘Abbey Road’ also led to disagreements among the band. It was recorded after the ‘Get Back’ sessions (which became the album ‘Let it Be’) and one song on it was very unpopular.
Paul McCartney started writing ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ in early 1968 when The Beatles were in India. About writing the unconventional song, which follows a character called Maxwell Edison who murders people with a hammer, Paul said it 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.”
The Beatles perform on the rooftop of the Apple offices at Savile Row, London in 1969(Image: Handout)
It was originally intended to feature on ‘The White Album’ but it was not recorded during those sessions. The Beatles rehearsed the track at Twickenham Studios but did not record it until later in 1969 as they worked on ‘Abbey Road’.
The rest of the band were deeply unimpressed with the track and the recording process. In a 2008 Rolling Stone interview, Ringo said: “The worst session ever was ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.’ It was the worst track we ever had to record. It went on for f***ing weeks. I thought it was mad.”
John Lennon missed much of it as he was recovering from a car crash. About that, he said: “I was ill after the accident when they did most of that track, and it really ground George (Harrison) and Ringo into the ground recording it.”
Paul said the band clashed over the length of time it took to record. He later recalled: “The only arguments were about things like me spending three days on ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.’ I remember George saying, ‘You’ve taken three days, it’s only a song.’ – ‘Yeah, but I want to get it right. I’ve got some thoughts on this one’.”
Critical reception was mixed. Rolling Stone critic John Mendelsohn said: “Paul McCartney and Ray Davies are the only two writers in rock and roll who could have written ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’, a jaunty vaudevillian/music-hallish celebration wherein Paul, in a rare naughty mood, celebrates the joys of being able to bash in the heads of anyone threatening to bring you down. Paul puts it across perfectly with the coyest imaginable choir-boy innocence.” However, the Sunday Times review slammed the inclusion of the track on ‘Abbey Road’, saying the song represented: “cod-1920s jokes”.
Looking back at the song, music writer Ian MacDonald said: “If any single recording shows why The Beatles broke up, it’s ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’.” He added: “This ghastly miscalculation – of which there are countless equivalents on (Paul’s) garrulous sequence of solo albums – represents by far his worst lapse of taste under the auspices of The Beatles”.
It featured at the top of PopMatters’ 2009 list of the worst Beatles songs. Editor John Bergstrom said it was: “the single Beatles song out of nearly 200 that is basically unlistenable”.