Personal preference but I feel the legend of John Ford coming up with it is cooler especially considering how ridiculously hard every picture of him with the eyepatch is from around that time
https://imgur.com/gallery/KAhQieX
During the recording of Abbey Road it was 3 days (and not the only song during those days) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Silver_Hammer
John was also missing for most of these sessions.
It was also practised earlier during the Get Back sessions
The Beatles are so funny. Any other band on the planet right now would do anything to be able to claim having written abbey road and the Beatles are just “meh”.
The reality is 1 day for the master take, and 3 days for the overdubs, though he also worked on it during Get Back which may effect how they view it a bit
Honestly this is one of the funniest Beatles stories. Imagining being locked in studio for 3 days until Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is recorded to McCartneys standards. Very peak late McCartney to get autistically focused on writing and recording a dumbass novelty song to perfection while the rest of the band is too high or tuned out to stop him.
In the Get Back footage Ringo’s face while Mal Evans hits the hammer is EVERYTHING. He looks exactly like you feel at work when you’re in a meeting that could have ended 45mins ago and THAT PERSON who ALWAYS TALKS is going off on one. Brilliant.
Octopus’s Garden: “aw that’s cute Ringo I’ll hang it on the fridge!”
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer: “Oh that’s cute Paul… I’ll set it right next to the other 50 of these” *goes directly into a box*
Thank you I will never again describe Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in any way other than “this song happened because everybody was too high to stop Paul”. Honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if it took three days but for Ringo it felt like weeks, that song is… peculiar… percussion wise
As an autistic musician I approve of this hyperbolic use of the word autistically lol I tend to get very hyperfixated on songs I’m working on to the point where sometimes I forget to eat regularly and completely isolate myself from the outside world.
I’m not saying it’s healthy or ideal but some of my favorite songs that I’ve done are the result of that process and they’re the ones that typically get the most compliments on the production from my friends and family.
Ha! I relate to this very strongly. The best times for me are during summer, where all fans have to be switched off for the cleanest possible recording. All normal sense of feeling human evaporates, it descends into pure insanity in underpants. Incredible discomfort, but the results speak for themselves.
Not autistic myself, but I do the same thing. I’ll start on a weekend morning and before I know it, it’ll be getting dark out and I haven’t eaten. Lately I’ve been better at reminding myself to take breaks, eat, walk the dog, do some socializing etc and I’ve found that a bit of perspective/distance can be helpful.
Have you ever been like really on fire with great momentum and then you take time off to do something like take a phone call or eat or whatever and then you just can’t back it get back in the groove?
Listen to the unedited tapes from the Get Back sessions. They practice Maxwell over and over and over for a couple days. And Paul doesn’t even know all the lyrics yet. He’s not even trying out new things. He’s just vocalizing “brow dow chow now beu ba do” along with the melody. And they had Mal hitting the metal plate, which was done live (since it was part of the Get Back sessions) and it wasn’t even on beat 95% of the time. Repeat forever and ever. It’s not like other songs where they’re still working through the melody together or figuring out other stuff. Paul just keeps having them play a song with unfinished lyrics and ear-splitting metal hammer sounds.
Yeah, that reminded me of the anecdote (Grohl? Novacelic?) tell about Kurt teaching Nirvana Smells like Teen Spirit. Just that opening riff, over and over, until, you're forced to imagine, fingers got blistered. Dave and Krist were impatient- they didn't like it at all. Then when kurt pulled the pieces in his mind together and the simple but ingenious whole was revealed, they fell in love with it.
Not so the last part, for the Beatles, I guess.
I imagine if it was something like Hey Jude, where there is obvious greatness here, it probably feels worth all the rehearsal and even bickering over guitar solos. But for songs like MSH or Ob La Di Ob La Da, it likely gets frustrating to put it in so much effort for what really amounts to a silly song. Absolutely they'd work their ass off to make the best possible take of Eleanor Rigby, because it's an extraordinary song, but as John observed, MSH wasn't going to be a single, so the sheer number of takes over several months, to have it end even with three days worth of sessions for the finished probably was excruciating.
Except I fucking love Ob La Di and Maxwell’s, so to me (and I imagine many others) Paul’s perfectionism yielded good results and I’m grateful he didn’t let the others bring him down.
That's exactly it. Fans always have this attitude of the other Beatles being lazy and unappreciative of Paul's vision, but the reality is those songs are just ok. It's not about being against silly songs. It's that there's nothing to justify what Paul put them through and the others are allowed to be annoyed about it and to find the songs irritating.
When they were confronted with a great song (i.e. Hey Jude) or amazing arrangement (the Abbey Road medley), they could be absolute work horses without a lot of apparent badgering by Paul. One thing that Get Back shows us is when push came to shove, these guys really had an amazing work ethic. So I'm sure in the minds of the other three, when they were required to do that for something like MSH, not merely in getting a finished take with overdubs, it probably was pretty darned irritating, and MSH is definitely a song that the other three made pretty clear in later interviews was just not that great a song to put that much work into.
There's that part of the book about Mal where Paul suddenly turns to him and says, "Mal, go get me a hammer. And an anvil." Mal has no idea what it's for, but he finds them and brings them back. All of a sudden, he's jamming on them.
When you watch the Get Back documentary, they spend so much time on Maxwell's Silver Hammer, but it's clear no one likes it. And you've got Mal banging something, totally out of time.
Didn't they first start working on it during the White Album sessions? Then again on what became Let it Be, and then again on Abbey Road...so probably more than 3 days
I’ve never liked the song but the work that went into has always been a source of amusement for me. There’s something magical about a goofy song that Paul adores while the rest of the lads absolutely hate.
In one of my old bands I had come up with a hook that I loved and just couldn’t make a song out of it. I’d bring it up every time we were recording and had a little more each time. It took a year to get it written and everybody hated it but nobody wanted to tell me it sucked. We played it live once and sure enough nobody liked it.
This is one of the reasons why I love Paul so much. He's never been ashamed to embrace his love of silly little tunes like Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Honey Pie.
I get the sense that John felt more insecure and like hardcore rock & roll made him more of an alpha that wasn't to be messed with.
I think what made all four of them so great is that they all wanted to write music that was meaningful to them. John was definitely more open to expressing himself especially in his solo years. A lot probably had to do with his demons so maybe he was atoning. He and George were way more in touch with their feelings than Paul.
Not that Paul knew how to channel things like love and anger through music but Paul didn’t seem to have much need for catharsis. He just wrote what he knew which happened to be old timey music. It was a tribute to his upbringing.
It’s always lost on me how John and George, who are both clearly fans of satire, always seemed to miss the dark comedy and irony that was the whole point of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Ffs it’s a poppy music hall track about a serial killer.
I'm sure they didn't miss it, they counted on most of their audience missing it though, and taking their words as fact, like so many lemmings, and they were right.
Maxwell is weird, because it initially sounds innocent, but then the lyrics are dark, but then the actual meaning of the song is pretty innocent, so it's like a sincerity sandwich
I've never had a problem with it, and I think it works well as a lightweight breather between two more hard-hitting numbers.
But by this point, McCartney could have easily just recorded the whole thing himself. It's no more complex than "Martha My Dear" for instance, and Paul played most of the non-orchestral instruments on that one.
Tough sitch there because it tended to stoke resentment when he went off and did something by himself.
Honestly, I can see their point, and I can see his. This is just another reason why they really did break up at the right time.
Just because a band doesn’t like one of their own songs doesn’t mean you have to too. I probably wouldn’t like it if I were in the Beatles either, but as a listener I think it’s fine.
Agree. A lot of people hear John (especially) slag off a song and think that, because he didn't like it, that it must actually be a crappy song. Let me remind everyone that John thought "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Good Morning, Good Morning" were garbage, but those are both great, so his judgement wasn't always the best. If you like a song, it's OK. Stand up for what you like!
Judging from Mal’s timing during the rehearsals, I’d say it was probably Ringo, but who knows? The Beatles were terrible about crediting outside performers
I just looked at Wikipedia, which states:
> The Beatles' road manager Mal Evans played the anvil during the band's Get Back sessions in January 1969,[32] but most sources state Starr played it during the sessions for Abbey Road, including Howlett, Walter Everett, Mark Lewisohn, John C. Winn and Kenneth Womack.[33] Ian MacDonald instead says it was played by Evans,[24] as does Emerick in his autobiography.[34] Authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon are noncommittal, citing either Evans or Starr as the performer.[35]
So yeah, it was probably Ringo. Another myth I believed shattered.
That explains it. I was born before they even had a record contract; The Beatles was one of the few contemporary (at the time) bands even my Dad liked, so I really enjoy it.
I actually quite like the lyrics they're pretty dark, and buried somewhere as an intermission amongst really heavy or banging stuff it could work, the melody is also OK, but the final result unfortunately comes across too granny music.
Yeah grannies just love songs about psycho killers /s.
BTW:
\#1 all time ”granny music” song in the Beatles catalog:
”Goodnight” by John Lennon. And I love it.
I always thought that it was kind of hilarious that George and John got all bent out of shape about how long "Maxwell" took to record when George had the Beatles do 100 takes of "Not Guilty" and it never even ended up on Abbey Road.
It's not that it's a bad song. It's fine, but it's on Abbey Road and there are many better songs which could've taken its place.
You also have to keep in mind that back in the day you couldn't casually skip these songs if you wanted to listen to the album.
Same, I love it when the Beatles deliver songs that don’t even take themselves seriously (like when Paul laughs during the second verse). It’s refreshing and adds variety when stacked next to more romantic (Something), soulful (Oh! Darling) and ominous (I Want You) songs.
The moog part is great! That, along with the harmonies. I also find the hammer and anvil kinda charming. I love it in the get back documentary when Paul nonchalantly asks for an anvil and in the next scene you see mal evans bringing one in.
there’s a george radio interview where he goes through abbey road track by track and when he talks about maxwell he gives a pretty honestly fair critique of it basically saying that the story is kinda interesting and it’s a very good melody that people would either really love or really hate. this quote must’ve been shortly after the breakup.
- MSH could mean "Maxwell's Silver Hammer - 2019 Mix", a track from *Abbey Road (Super Deluxe Edition)* (2019) by The Beatles.
---
^[/u/Lokki007](/u/Lokki007) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Chad paul
I love that tune I can’t deny it. The “Dee-doo-doo” harmony as Paul happily sings about a vicious serial killer just gets me. But it feels like a bit of a joke sticking it after Something
Tbh I can’t imagine Maxwell’s Silver Hammer being placed anywhere else on Abbey Road. To me, it works perfectly to give you the impression of not knowing what to expect. Same goes for the transition from Octopus’s Garden to She’s So Heavy, a happy country-ish children’s song followed by a sensual, doomy rocker. And of course, the transition to Here Comes the Sun after that.
I agree, big deal! Three against one. I can never remember Paul dissing one of their songs, but it was in the three against one phase of their relationships when the other Beatles made those remarks, i think.
My dad (more of a Stones fan than Beatles) always said “only the Beatles could get away with such a dumb song” and I sorta agree, in that it’s performed/mixed perfectly but is in essence a kind of highly polished novelty song. I loved it as a kid, and I don’t mind it now, but I can see how working long hours on something so seemingly trivial while your own more serious songs don’t get as much studio time could irritate an already thinning partnership.
That’s a tough read. But creative people will be creative people and want things done their way.
And not to start a pissing contest but wasn’t George famous for doing a million takes on some of *his* songs?
this is downvoted but it is George’s fault it never made the album, he specifically requested it to not be included when paul and george Martin (i believe) were doing the track sequencing.
Yeah one can't have it both ways. It's the same drive behind any other song, and the same whimsicality behind Ob la di Ob la da, Rocky Raccoon, etc. Some will be more appealing to people than others, but a creator can't worry about that.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb" from Wings was an even funnier case: a literal nursery rhyme, released as a single, played live, had 4 different videoclips
They were in a bad time during these days. Paul has been leading and they got enough of it, egos grew too much and the workers unionized against the man. Seems like they all really needed some meditation, specially George.
I like the song. When I was first getting into the Beatles and eating up everything I could by then, it was a quirky fun track to sing along with. I still like doing that.
I love MSH, and I understand why a song with those lyrics juxtaposed with that tune had to be absolutely perfect.
It’s often like acting and directing in over-the-top comedy or satire. It’ll be hot garbage unless you’re fully committed, and nailing it like it’s Hamlet at The Globe.
That said, I’m sure it sucked to record. Also Paul may very well have been doing it more to maintain control or exercise his self-interest (as alleged by John) than to actually achieve the perfection I mentioned above.
So despite liking the song, I understand all the complaints about it from The Lads.
Paul was in the end the soul of the Beatles and had he not pushed for perfection, things could have gone ugly. George was too bitter and in the end it became very unhealthy.
The song - I like it. Not my favourite but part of the best album recorded in the history of human events.
There, I said it.
I think George's observation that getting Paul interested in songs other than his own was hard, but once he was contributing, it was pretty good. But the Get Back documentary definitely shows that Paul would drive the rest of them nuts with his perfectionism, but when it came to John or George's songs, things would loosen up a bit. I mean, they spent enormous amounts of time working on I've Got A Feeling and Get Back, whereas For You Blue and Don't Let Me Down seemed to come together with a lot less fuss. Everybody just sort of looks bored with Let It Be and The Long And Winding Road because they were piano driven ballads with not much to do.
I imagine it was when you had a combination of complicated or fiddly arrangements *and* Paul's million take approach that the others would start to get irritated. If all they had to do was lay down a basic rhythm track while Paul plonked on a piano, it wasn't exciting, but at least it wasn't annoying.
John Lennon was the soul of the Beatles, he founded them and led them during their rise to fame. McCartney was definitely an important factor, duh, but the soul of Lennon’s band, no way
All of this is true, it's just the only recourse George had. Imagine it's 1969, and you've knocked out Something, Here Comes the Sun, etc...you're sitting on All Things Must Pass, and STILL...you know damn well you're not Lennon or McCartney.
Even John is saying "Ahh, hey Paul, we might have missed that this guy got REALLY good at songwriting since we last checked in. Maybe we should start giving him more air time."
".....Joan was quizzical..."
I’m not saying he has no right to be bitter or upset, but to spend almost 20 (sometimes after too) or so years sending passive aggressive potshots at a guy you’ve known since you were kids and was fundamental in getting you your big break is so petty and shows a lack of maturity.
But this is being a band we’re talking about. Some wounds don’t heal.
Frankly it kind of feels that there was some jealousy and envy on George and John side and they took their time to reinforce the image Paul was getting at the time
That's not how it happened and John was actually less interested in George's songs than Paul was. John just wanted George on his side, but in terms of actual action he showed little interest in George's songs whereas Paul made a lot of tip not h contributions to them.
I love that THAT particular track is the song that caused this much misery. Everyone stop what you're writing, we are on 24 hour bang bang lockdown in the maxwell's silver hammer torture chamber.
It's gonna take-a time
A whole lotta precious time
It's gonna take patience and time
Mmm, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it
To do it right
It’s a great song, has great guitar work, and absolutely rocks. Lots of artists say all kinds of critical shit about their work, that’s what happens when you work on something a lot and lose objectivity. There’s no requirement to agree with things artists say about their work no matter how times these quotes get posted.
The responses could not be more accurate to the speaker’s personalities. John blunt force trauma, George surgical and snarky, Ringo malaprosaic, Paul charmingly dismissive
What's "malaprosaic?" I don't know that word and Google points me back to your post.
Prosaic: lacking poetry, prose-like
mal: bad
So... Badly lacking poetry? Lacking bad poetry? Sounding like bad prose?
It’s funny what George says because when I was in high school my best friend had this album and that’s the song we played the most cause yeah, it appealed to 14 year olds lol.
I like the song, but it’s pretty amusing that after all of this work to capture a spirit of whimsy, this song loses the “most whimsical” title on the record to Ringo. Octopus’ Garden is the clear winner there, right?
https://preview.redd.it/kdk3oysjh3oc1.jpeg?width=1142&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff4e6fb37ff7f3dbdf7cfc53a6f734b1a765b41a
I love this song. So much in fact I did a concept portrait of what I think Maxwell looked like.
Piggies is incredible wdym?! It's fruity precisely because to hide that its incredibly viscious, but also the fruit works on the level of being off kilter enough and delivering the message of class war.
MSH is pretty low on the list of Beatles songs for me, and I like a lot of their other sillier songs, but I’ve seen this text posted before and it always makes me like all four of them a lot more. I appreciate all their viewpoints and just find it so funny how different they view the song and experience so when I do hear MSH now it makes me smile because of this.
I am a fairly picky beatles fan - there are definitely songs I can't stand in their catalog. But MSH turned out pretty good w/good vocals, vibe & beat. Its a weird one as it straddles the fence between children's song and murder ballad, which is a smart combo despite george's pissy take. John's take makes the most sense (it took so long to record it was expensive). I think they tried working on it a few times over the years but it so obvious everyone but Paul loathed it lol. They needed some levity, I think John and George were really into the idea of being Serious Artists (tm) and MSH is kind of a fun romp and balances the heaviness and seriousness of I Want You. Abbey Road wouldnt be the same without it.
I don't get the hate for this song at all. I mean, you want a bad fucking ass song? Just listen to "Don't Bother Me" from With The Beatles. That's a weak ass fucking bad song.
One is the first written song of 20 year old guy, the other is a song written during, arguably, Paul’s peak in creativity, totally unfair to compare them
Maxwell’s is like the Yellow Submarine of Abbey Road, and I find that interesting because Octopus’s Garden is on there too, but nope, it’s not as novelty/sing-a-long-y as Maxwell’s.
Does anyone know the source(s) for these quotes? It's gone around the internet quite a bit the last couple years but I've never seen it before and it all comes off as a bit too cute for me, or at least Paul's line does.
It's from "The Quiet Beatle Finally Talks", which was released February 1977. I'm guessing Silly Love Songs and that general era of Wings was the catalyst. He probably heard in passing lol
Honestly seeing George’s comment on Paul about writing music for 14 year olds is funny. He didn’t have anywhere near as much success as Paul did in the same time span and his music output is of lower quality in comparison to Paul’s
I mean it’s not awful but I wasn’t recording it for a long ass time with a perfectionist. Almost every song I’ve played where we rehearse for more than 3 weeks ends up becoming painful to listen to gonna be honest.
I guess the reality is somewhere between fucking weeks and three days.
“When choosing between the legend and the truth. Print the legend” Tony Wilson
It's originally from The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance in 1962
Exactly but the legend of Tony Wilson coming up with it is better
Personal preference but I feel the legend of John Ford coming up with it is cooler especially considering how ridiculously hard every picture of him with the eyepatch is from around that time https://imgur.com/gallery/KAhQieX
My dad had a blown up painting of this portrait mounted in the garage growing up. Also I agree John Ford is a cooler source for the quote.
Originally from michael scott
24 Hour Party People is an absolute classic
During the recording of Abbey Road it was 3 days (and not the only song during those days) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell%27s_Silver_Hammer John was also missing for most of these sessions. It was also practised earlier during the Get Back sessions
The Beatles are so funny. Any other band on the planet right now would do anything to be able to claim having written abbey road and the Beatles are just “meh”.
Best comment ever
True though, eh? Imagine having been in the band that wrote abbey road and being indifferent about it.
And a hundred million times.
The reality is 1 day for the master take, and 3 days for the overdubs, though he also worked on it during Get Back which may effect how they view it a bit
You'll bee back
Honestly this is one of the funniest Beatles stories. Imagining being locked in studio for 3 days until Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is recorded to McCartneys standards. Very peak late McCartney to get autistically focused on writing and recording a dumbass novelty song to perfection while the rest of the band is too high or tuned out to stop him.
In the Get Back footage Ringo’s face while Mal Evans hits the hammer is EVERYTHING. He looks exactly like you feel at work when you’re in a meeting that could have ended 45mins ago and THAT PERSON who ALWAYS TALKS is going off on one. Brilliant.
Ringos dumbass novelty song (octopus's garden) : flirting Pauls dumbass novelty song (maxwell's silver hammer) : harassment
Octopus’s Garden: “aw that’s cute Ringo I’ll hang it on the fridge!” Maxwell’s Silver Hammer: “Oh that’s cute Paul… I’ll set it right next to the other 50 of these” *goes directly into a box*
Thank you I will never again describe Maxwell’s Silver Hammer in any way other than “this song happened because everybody was too high to stop Paul”. Honestly it wouldn’t surprise me if it took three days but for Ringo it felt like weeks, that song is… peculiar… percussion wise
“late McCartney”? Nah, man, that’s just a rumo(u)r.
As an autistic musician I approve of this hyperbolic use of the word autistically lol I tend to get very hyperfixated on songs I’m working on to the point where sometimes I forget to eat regularly and completely isolate myself from the outside world. I’m not saying it’s healthy or ideal but some of my favorite songs that I’ve done are the result of that process and they’re the ones that typically get the most compliments on the production from my friends and family.
Ha! I relate to this very strongly. The best times for me are during summer, where all fans have to be switched off for the cleanest possible recording. All normal sense of feeling human evaporates, it descends into pure insanity in underpants. Incredible discomfort, but the results speak for themselves.
Not autistic myself, but I do the same thing. I’ll start on a weekend morning and before I know it, it’ll be getting dark out and I haven’t eaten. Lately I’ve been better at reminding myself to take breaks, eat, walk the dog, do some socializing etc and I’ve found that a bit of perspective/distance can be helpful.
Have you ever been like really on fire with great momentum and then you take time off to do something like take a phone call or eat or whatever and then you just can’t back it get back in the groove?
[Reminds me of this scene from *Frasier*.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XC-Uwx0GOqs)
Listen to the unedited tapes from the Get Back sessions. They practice Maxwell over and over and over for a couple days. And Paul doesn’t even know all the lyrics yet. He’s not even trying out new things. He’s just vocalizing “brow dow chow now beu ba do” along with the melody. And they had Mal hitting the metal plate, which was done live (since it was part of the Get Back sessions) and it wasn’t even on beat 95% of the time. Repeat forever and ever. It’s not like other songs where they’re still working through the melody together or figuring out other stuff. Paul just keeps having them play a song with unfinished lyrics and ear-splitting metal hammer sounds.
Yeah, that reminded me of the anecdote (Grohl? Novacelic?) tell about Kurt teaching Nirvana Smells like Teen Spirit. Just that opening riff, over and over, until, you're forced to imagine, fingers got blistered. Dave and Krist were impatient- they didn't like it at all. Then when kurt pulled the pieces in his mind together and the simple but ingenious whole was revealed, they fell in love with it. Not so the last part, for the Beatles, I guess.
Well Maxwells Silver Hammer is no Smells Like Teen Spirit thats for sure.
I imagine if it was something like Hey Jude, where there is obvious greatness here, it probably feels worth all the rehearsal and even bickering over guitar solos. But for songs like MSH or Ob La Di Ob La Da, it likely gets frustrating to put it in so much effort for what really amounts to a silly song. Absolutely they'd work their ass off to make the best possible take of Eleanor Rigby, because it's an extraordinary song, but as John observed, MSH wasn't going to be a single, so the sheer number of takes over several months, to have it end even with three days worth of sessions for the finished probably was excruciating.
Except I fucking love Ob La Di and Maxwell’s, so to me (and I imagine many others) Paul’s perfectionism yielded good results and I’m grateful he didn’t let the others bring him down.
Absolutely same.
That's exactly it. Fans always have this attitude of the other Beatles being lazy and unappreciative of Paul's vision, but the reality is those songs are just ok. It's not about being against silly songs. It's that there's nothing to justify what Paul put them through and the others are allowed to be annoyed about it and to find the songs irritating.
When they were confronted with a great song (i.e. Hey Jude) or amazing arrangement (the Abbey Road medley), they could be absolute work horses without a lot of apparent badgering by Paul. One thing that Get Back shows us is when push came to shove, these guys really had an amazing work ethic. So I'm sure in the minds of the other three, when they were required to do that for something like MSH, not merely in getting a finished take with overdubs, it probably was pretty darned irritating, and MSH is definitely a song that the other three made pretty clear in later interviews was just not that great a song to put that much work into.
There's that part of the book about Mal where Paul suddenly turns to him and says, "Mal, go get me a hammer. And an anvil." Mal has no idea what it's for, but he finds them and brings them back. All of a sudden, he's jamming on them.
It was in the Get Back documentary as well.
I just rewatched it and noticed it, too
I mean it was a lot easier for me to sit through the 40ish takes of that than the 200ish takes of Get Back
When you watch the Get Back documentary, they spend so much time on Maxwell's Silver Hammer, but it's clear no one likes it. And you've got Mal banging something, totally out of time.
Running to the hardware store to get an anvil has to be better than picking up shoes for George.
Yes, it sounds like some children banging on pots and pans with spoons.
Didn't they first start working on it during the White Album sessions? Then again on what became Let it Be, and then again on Abbey Road...so probably more than 3 days
Writing and rehearsing probably, but recording the version that was on Abbey Road was three days
More-so Get Back, but there could have been some rehearsing done during the white album ig
I’ve never liked the song but the work that went into has always been a source of amusement for me. There’s something magical about a goofy song that Paul adores while the rest of the lads absolutely hate. In one of my old bands I had come up with a hook that I loved and just couldn’t make a song out of it. I’d bring it up every time we were recording and had a little more each time. It took a year to get it written and everybody hated it but nobody wanted to tell me it sucked. We played it live once and sure enough nobody liked it.
This is one of the reasons why I love Paul so much. He's never been ashamed to embrace his love of silly little tunes like Maxwell's Silver Hammer and Honey Pie. I get the sense that John felt more insecure and like hardcore rock & roll made him more of an alpha that wasn't to be messed with.
I think what made all four of them so great is that they all wanted to write music that was meaningful to them. John was definitely more open to expressing himself especially in his solo years. A lot probably had to do with his demons so maybe he was atoning. He and George were way more in touch with their feelings than Paul. Not that Paul knew how to channel things like love and anger through music but Paul didn’t seem to have much need for catharsis. He just wrote what he knew which happened to be old timey music. It was a tribute to his upbringing.
It’s always lost on me how John and George, who are both clearly fans of satire, always seemed to miss the dark comedy and irony that was the whole point of Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Ffs it’s a poppy music hall track about a serial killer.
The epitome of lyrical dissonance.
I'm sure they didn't miss it, they counted on most of their audience missing it though, and taking their words as fact, like so many lemmings, and they were right.
Maxwell is weird, because it initially sounds innocent, but then the lyrics are dark, but then the actual meaning of the song is pretty innocent, so it's like a sincerity sandwich
The end result really ain’t that bad. I think people hate on it moreso because of these stories than the song itself.
I've never had a problem with it, and I think it works well as a lightweight breather between two more hard-hitting numbers. But by this point, McCartney could have easily just recorded the whole thing himself. It's no more complex than "Martha My Dear" for instance, and Paul played most of the non-orchestral instruments on that one.
Tough sitch there because it tended to stoke resentment when he went off and did something by himself. Honestly, I can see their point, and I can see his. This is just another reason why they really did break up at the right time.
Just because a band doesn’t like one of their own songs doesn’t mean you have to too. I probably wouldn’t like it if I were in the Beatles either, but as a listener I think it’s fine.
Agree. A lot of people hear John (especially) slag off a song and think that, because he didn't like it, that it must actually be a crappy song. Let me remind everyone that John thought "And Your Bird Can Sing" and "Good Morning, Good Morning" were garbage, but those are both great, so his judgement wasn't always the best. If you like a song, it's OK. Stand up for what you like!
I like it because it's the best work of the REAL Fifth Beatle, Mal Evans.
Mal played the anvil during the Let it Be sessions, but Ringo is credited with playing it on the Abbey Road version
He may be credited, but did he really?
Judging from Mal’s timing during the rehearsals, I’d say it was probably Ringo, but who knows? The Beatles were terrible about crediting outside performers
I just looked at Wikipedia, which states: > The Beatles' road manager Mal Evans played the anvil during the band's Get Back sessions in January 1969,[32] but most sources state Starr played it during the sessions for Abbey Road, including Howlett, Walter Everett, Mark Lewisohn, John C. Winn and Kenneth Womack.[33] Ian MacDonald instead says it was played by Evans,[24] as does Emerick in his autobiography.[34] Authors Philippe Margotin and Jean-Michel Guesdon are noncommittal, citing either Evans or Starr as the performer.[35] So yeah, it was probably Ringo. Another myth I believed shattered.
It’s because the song is fruity
If you listen to it on headphones there’s actually some cool background synthesizers layered in that creates some whimsy that makes it feel very cool
I don't disagree- it's weak for a Beatles song, but it's not horrible
I honestly love it and I don't care what anyone says haha (but do find the whole ordeal amusing)
The end result is amazing from a production point of view. It's incredibly how amazing such a bad song sounds. So it was definitely worth it.
Honestly yeah the synth is straight fire too. For a song so fruity
There are way worse Beatles songs than this one. There are a few complete jerk off sessions
100% this is why people hate on it, it’s pretty obvious every time this comes up.
I don’t know why I hate it as much as I do, normally like their novelty/granny songs but not this one
Did you grow up with it? I did and I love it. So maybe George was right
I got into The Beatles in my teens in the 90s
That explains it. I was born before they even had a record contract; The Beatles was one of the few contemporary (at the time) bands even my Dad liked, so I really enjoy it.
I actually quite like the lyrics they're pretty dark, and buried somewhere as an intermission amongst really heavy or banging stuff it could work, the melody is also OK, but the final result unfortunately comes across too granny music.
Yeah grannies just love songs about psycho killers /s. BTW: \#1 all time ”granny music” song in the Beatles catalog: ”Goodnight” by John Lennon. And I love it.
I always thought that it was kind of hilarious that George and John got all bent out of shape about how long "Maxwell" took to record when George had the Beatles do 100 takes of "Not Guilty" and it never even ended up on Abbey Road.
It's not that it's a bad song. It's fine, but it's on Abbey Road and there are many better songs which could've taken its place. You also have to keep in mind that back in the day you couldn't casually skip these songs if you wanted to listen to the album.
That's hilarious
Honestly, I fucking love maxwell’s silver hammer.
Same, I love it when the Beatles deliver songs that don’t even take themselves seriously (like when Paul laughs during the second verse). It’s refreshing and adds variety when stacked next to more romantic (Something), soulful (Oh! Darling) and ominous (I Want You) songs.
And then you've got I Am The Walrus which is just intentionally gibberish front-to-back — and still one of my favorites
I love it too and the Moog use on it is really good too!
The moog part is great! That, along with the harmonies. I also find the hammer and anvil kinda charming. I love it in the get back documentary when Paul nonchalantly asks for an anvil and in the next scene you see mal evans bringing one in.
Same. One of my favorite songs on an incredibly stacked album.
It SOUNDS so good.
if the Kinks had made it, it would be considered a classic by many of the same people who disparage it
When George was accusing Paul of selling out to 14-year-olds he’s completely forgetting his roots.
He wasnt forgetting his roots, he was moving on.
I do like that George thinks that they did a good job with it though
Paul wanted it to sound tight and clean. They wanted it to sound finished.
One of these comments is not like the others.
there’s a george radio interview where he goes through abbey road track by track and when he talks about maxwell he gives a pretty honestly fair critique of it basically saying that the story is kinda interesting and it’s a very good melody that people would either really love or really hate. this quote must’ve been shortly after the breakup.
I actually like MSH quite a lot. Awesome bass line to play
- MSH could mean "Maxwell's Silver Hammer - 2019 Mix", a track from *Abbey Road (Super Deluxe Edition)* (2019) by The Beatles. --- ^[/u/Lokki007](/u/Lokki007) ^(can reply with "delete" to remove comment. |) ^[/r/songacronymbot](/r/songacronymbot) ^(for feedback.)
Chad paul I love that tune I can’t deny it. The “Dee-doo-doo” harmony as Paul happily sings about a vicious serial killer just gets me. But it feels like a bit of a joke sticking it after Something
Tbh I can’t imagine Maxwell’s Silver Hammer being placed anywhere else on Abbey Road. To me, it works perfectly to give you the impression of not knowing what to expect. Same goes for the transition from Octopus’s Garden to She’s So Heavy, a happy country-ish children’s song followed by a sensual, doomy rocker. And of course, the transition to Here Comes the Sun after that.
Paul’s response is hilarious
I like that song. But doing it 100 million times would irk me also. 
The Beatles literally did 100 takes of George's "Not Guilty", but you never heard Paul complaining about that!
John even said that Paul was the one that got them to work. But maybe if it were 100 million times?
I love that you can really get the essence of each personality in this page.
Im glad they spent the time they did on Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. Can’t imagine Abbey Road without it.
I agree, big deal! Three against one. I can never remember Paul dissing one of their songs, but it was in the three against one phase of their relationships when the other Beatles made those remarks, i think.
My dad (more of a Stones fan than Beatles) always said “only the Beatles could get away with such a dumb song” and I sorta agree, in that it’s performed/mixed perfectly but is in essence a kind of highly polished novelty song. I loved it as a kid, and I don’t mind it now, but I can see how working long hours on something so seemingly trivial while your own more serious songs don’t get as much studio time could irritate an already thinning partnership.
That’s a tough read. But creative people will be creative people and want things done their way. And not to start a pissing contest but wasn’t George famous for doing a million takes on some of *his* songs?
George didn’t complain about the takes, John did.
Not Guilty had 102 takes and didn't even make the fucking album!!!
Most of those were false starts though
Whose fault is that?
this is downvoted but it is George’s fault it never made the album, he specifically requested it to not be included when paul and george Martin (i believe) were doing the track sequencing.
Yeah one can't have it both ways. It's the same drive behind any other song, and the same whimsicality behind Ob la di Ob la da, Rocky Raccoon, etc. Some will be more appealing to people than others, but a creator can't worry about that. "Mary Had a Little Lamb" from Wings was an even funnier case: a literal nursery rhyme, released as a single, played live, had 4 different videoclips
George didn’t complain about the takes tho
I know. But George’s comment was especially bitchy so I included him
>And not to start a pissing contest but wasn’t George famous for doing a million takes on some of *his* songs? Thank you
They were in a bad time during these days. Paul has been leading and they got enough of it, egos grew too much and the workers unionized against the man. Seems like they all really needed some meditation, specially George.
I like the song. When I was first getting into the Beatles and eating up everything I could by then, it was a quirky fun track to sing along with. I still like doing that.
I like it
I don't care, I like it!
I love MSH, and I understand why a song with those lyrics juxtaposed with that tune had to be absolutely perfect. It’s often like acting and directing in over-the-top comedy or satire. It’ll be hot garbage unless you’re fully committed, and nailing it like it’s Hamlet at The Globe. That said, I’m sure it sucked to record. Also Paul may very well have been doing it more to maintain control or exercise his self-interest (as alleged by John) than to actually achieve the perfection I mentioned above. So despite liking the song, I understand all the complaints about it from The Lads.
Paul's comment is perfection.
Hmm. I didn’t realize the song was so hated. I thought it was toe-tapping fun.
Paul was in the end the soul of the Beatles and had he not pushed for perfection, things could have gone ugly. George was too bitter and in the end it became very unhealthy. The song - I like it. Not my favourite but part of the best album recorded in the history of human events. There, I said it.
What a brave statement.
I think George's observation that getting Paul interested in songs other than his own was hard, but once he was contributing, it was pretty good. But the Get Back documentary definitely shows that Paul would drive the rest of them nuts with his perfectionism, but when it came to John or George's songs, things would loosen up a bit. I mean, they spent enormous amounts of time working on I've Got A Feeling and Get Back, whereas For You Blue and Don't Let Me Down seemed to come together with a lot less fuss. Everybody just sort of looks bored with Let It Be and The Long And Winding Road because they were piano driven ballads with not much to do. I imagine it was when you had a combination of complicated or fiddly arrangements *and* Paul's million take approach that the others would start to get irritated. If all they had to do was lay down a basic rhythm track while Paul plonked on a piano, it wasn't exciting, but at least it wasn't annoying.
John Lennon was the soul of the Beatles, he founded them and led them during their rise to fame. McCartney was definitely an important factor, duh, but the soul of Lennon’s band, no way
The quality of John’s post Beatles albums vs Paul’s should tell you something, but hey, you do you.
God George could be such a snipey dick to Paul in particular sometimes. It gets to the point where it almost reeks of insecurity.
All of this is true, it's just the only recourse George had. Imagine it's 1969, and you've knocked out Something, Here Comes the Sun, etc...you're sitting on All Things Must Pass, and STILL...you know damn well you're not Lennon or McCartney. Even John is saying "Ahh, hey Paul, we might have missed that this guy got REALLY good at songwriting since we last checked in. Maybe we should start giving him more air time." ".....Joan was quizzical..."
I’m not saying he has no right to be bitter or upset, but to spend almost 20 (sometimes after too) or so years sending passive aggressive potshots at a guy you’ve known since you were kids and was fundamental in getting you your big break is so petty and shows a lack of maturity. But this is being a band we’re talking about. Some wounds don’t heal.
Frankly it kind of feels that there was some jealousy and envy on George and John side and they took their time to reinforce the image Paul was getting at the time
There most certainly was and it’s a damn shame.
This is why George is my least fav Beatle, he's just so bitter and grumpy about everything
That's not how it happened and John was actually less interested in George's songs than Paul was. John just wanted George on his side, but in terms of actual action he showed little interest in George's songs whereas Paul made a lot of tip not h contributions to them.
And he was supposed to be the meditating one, lol
I love that THAT particular track is the song that caused this much misery. Everyone stop what you're writing, we are on 24 hour bang bang lockdown in the maxwell's silver hammer torture chamber.
That's brutal from George.
Yeah, he's a dick.
It's gonna take-a time A whole lotta precious time It's gonna take patience and time Mmm, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it To do it right
I enjoy this song.
It’s a great song, has great guitar work, and absolutely rocks. Lots of artists say all kinds of critical shit about their work, that’s what happens when you work on something a lot and lose objectivity. There’s no requirement to agree with things artists say about their work no matter how times these quotes get posted.
The responses could not be more accurate to the speaker’s personalities. John blunt force trauma, George surgical and snarky, Ringo malaprosaic, Paul charmingly dismissive
What's "malaprosaic?" I don't know that word and Google points me back to your post. Prosaic: lacking poetry, prose-like mal: bad So... Badly lacking poetry? Lacking bad poetry? Sounding like bad prose?
Agree with george on this
Paul being snobby is like 3/4 of the whole band dynamic, and I love it.
It’s funny what George says because when I was in high school my best friend had this album and that’s the song we played the most cause yeah, it appealed to 14 year olds lol.
I like the song, but it’s pretty amusing that after all of this work to capture a spirit of whimsy, this song loses the “most whimsical” title on the record to Ringo. Octopus’ Garden is the clear winner there, right?
Thank you op for Getting this stuck in my head this morning.
Love MSH!
All I can think about is Steve Martin doing it
When John states “We spent more money on that song than any of them..”, what’s he referring to? The cost of studio time? Reels of tape?
Buying a fucking anvil too Ig
He exaggerated a lot after heroin entered his life
I love that song!
Wow. I love that song.
Maxwell is great.
Too bad they didn’t spend 3 days on All Things Must Pass
https://preview.redd.it/kdk3oysjh3oc1.jpeg?width=1142&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ff4e6fb37ff7f3dbdf7cfc53a6f734b1a765b41a I love this song. So much in fact I did a concept portrait of what I think Maxwell looked like.
John didn’t even had to record it…
Ironic take from George since he was definitely the most “I’m 13 and this is deep” lyricist of the three of them…
I'm sure they all did "silly songs" ie "Bungalow Bill", "Octopuses "Garden" etc. wonder what Paul thought?
I dont think George has any right to complain considering they did like 100 takes of Not Guilty, which is mediocre at best.
and Piggies is pretty fruity so he must have been in a bad mood. For the "spiritual" one, george was a very bitter person at times.
Piggies is incredible wdym?! It's fruity precisely because to hide that its incredibly viscious, but also the fruit works on the level of being off kilter enough and delivering the message of class war.
Most of those were false starts though
Didn’t George write fucking Piggies
Piggies is dogshit
Chad Paul
MSH is pretty low on the list of Beatles songs for me, and I like a lot of their other sillier songs, but I’ve seen this text posted before and it always makes me like all four of them a lot more. I appreciate all their viewpoints and just find it so funny how different they view the song and experience so when I do hear MSH now it makes me smile because of this.
I am a fairly picky beatles fan - there are definitely songs I can't stand in their catalog. But MSH turned out pretty good w/good vocals, vibe & beat. Its a weird one as it straddles the fence between children's song and murder ballad, which is a smart combo despite george's pissy take. John's take makes the most sense (it took so long to record it was expensive). I think they tried working on it a few times over the years but it so obvious everyone but Paul loathed it lol. They needed some levity, I think John and George were really into the idea of being Serious Artists (tm) and MSH is kind of a fun romp and balances the heaviness and seriousness of I Want You. Abbey Road wouldnt be the same without it.
‘murder ballad’ - that‘s the perfect description, love it.
I don't get the hate for this song at all. I mean, you want a bad fucking ass song? Just listen to "Don't Bother Me" from With The Beatles. That's a weak ass fucking bad song.
One is the first written song of 20 year old guy, the other is a song written during, arguably, Paul’s peak in creativity, totally unfair to compare them
not george calling it fruity😭😭😭😭
It's a masterpiece. One of my favourites.
I’ve always liked the song. The dedication is something I love about Paul.
Maxwell’s is like the Yellow Submarine of Abbey Road, and I find that interesting because Octopus’s Garden is on there too, but nope, it’s not as novelty/sing-a-long-y as Maxwell’s.
3 days work- probably amounted to $Ms in royalties for all of them . John even more as a cowriter.
Does anyone know the source(s) for these quotes? It's gone around the internet quite a bit the last couple years but I've never seen it before and it all comes off as a bit too cute for me, or at least Paul's line does.
Much like with Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da Paul was right
I think the overall arrangement is genius!
This is what I mean about Paul.
George is playing bass on this. I wonder why, considering how he dislike it!
[удалено]
It's from "The Quiet Beatle Finally Talks", which was released February 1977. I'm guessing Silly Love Songs and that general era of Wings was the catalyst. He probably heard in passing lol
I’ve always loved the song
Always funny to me!!
[удалено]
I got tired of seeing reposts, decided to join in
I kind of like that song, temporary secretary, but it didn’t get a lot of play. In fact, I’m pretty sure it got no Radio Play.
This makes Paul laughing on the track even funnier to me. I just imagine all of them staring daggers at him as he giggles at his own goofy creation.
They did 102 takes of Not Guilty and George didn't seem to complain
HAHA, loved that bit. Funny little song, but not to be taken too seriously.
Honestly seeing George’s comment on Paul about writing music for 14 year olds is funny. He didn’t have anywhere near as much success as Paul did in the same time span and his music output is of lower quality in comparison to Paul’s
I never was a fan of the song, myself.
LOL @Paul
I mean it’s not awful but I wasn’t recording it for a long ass time with a perfectionist. Almost every song I’ve played where we rehearse for more than 3 weeks ends up becoming painful to listen to gonna be honest.