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This is about a medical student who kills people. The lyrics are dark comedy.
Paul McCartney said of this song: "It epitomizes the downfalls in life. Just when everything is going smoothly, Bang! Bang! Down comes Maxwell's Silver Hammer and ruins everything."
George Harrison played a Moog synthesizer, but there is a much more unusual instrument on this song as well: an anvil. It's a blacksmith's tool that showed up in a lot of those wonderfully violent Looney Tunes cartoons when a heavy object was needed for comic effect. Ringo is the one who banged on the anvil, which was rented from a company that supplied stage props.
John Lennon was not at the sessions for this because he was recovering from a car accident.
McCartney wrote this. He would often make up characters for his songs, while Lennon would base his on real people and events.
The recording sessions went on for 3 days as McCartney tried to get it just right. This strained the already tense Beatles, who broke up soon after recording Abbey Road. In a 2008 interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Ringo Starr 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--king weeks. I thought it was mad." (thanks, VinnyVegas - Durham, NC)
The Beatles performed this in their movie Let It Be.
The cover of the album fueled rumors that Paul McCartney was dead. The cover shows all four Beatles walking in a crosswalk of Abbey Road. John is leading, followed by Ringo, Paul, and finally George. According to the rumor, what they were wearing signified a funeral procession. John was dressed in white as if he was God, Ringo was dressed in a black suit as if he was a Preacher, and George was wearing grungy clothing, as if he was the grave digger. Paul was dressed in a dark-gray suit, was carrying a cigarette, and has his eyes closed. Also, he is the only one walking barefoot. (thanks, Patrick - Conyers, GA)
This originally opened with a brief instrumental intro that was edited out. It was the same chords as the ending of the song. (thanks, Barry Kesten - Bellmore, United States)
McCartney's handwritten lyrics for this song were sold at auction for $192,000. (thanks, Bertrand - Paris, France)
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As suggested above, Ringo did not play the anvil, roadie and assistant Mal Evans did!
Although i love that this song had a happy, cheerful tone, but is about death... always made me laugh.
While the two bands were not exactly "friends"(Paul even disguised himself to attend one of PF concerts)I am sure they influenced each other since PF was recording at Abbey Road during this time too.
"Lemme tell you a story about Maxwell's silver hammer. he got it from Hefty [or F. D.] Cohen, the poor boy from [I can't make out the word.] Maxwell was a boy just like any other boy, and he might've had a life just like any other young boy had it not been for some certain unforseen circumstances." THE BEATLES ROCK!!!!! [That's not part of the song FYI they just do.}
Science in the home
Late nights all alone with a test tube
Ohh-oh-oh-oh...Sounds like Joanie didn't need Maxwell or anyone else to entertain herself!
http://www.knowhere.co.uk/3229_heroes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pataphysics
ppl look way toooo closely at album covers. like forreal.
Robert Fraiser
and designed by Peter Blake
There is know way you know the "lady" who designed it.
I was hanging out at my friends house and we were thinking about the beatle death thing. It just so happened that my friend knew the lady who designed the cover for Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. We called her and she said that is was pure coincedence. She also said she had a conversation with the fab four and paul made many jokes about him being dead.
Sound familiar?
1. There just happened to be a Beatles look alike wondering around the country who not only was a replica but had the same voice too. It's been scientifically proven that no 2 people look exactly alike unless they are a twin or have been cloned.
2. They were cloned. The technology for this wasn't around then, and they would have had to cloned the Beatles at birth for them to be the same age as the Beatles. Who would have known back then that these guys would group up to be famous and die?
3. All of them (depended on which theory you believe, all but Paul is dead or Paul is dead) just happened to have twins that no one ever knew about. They have no birth, school, or government records.
When this whole thing started, the Beatles thought it was funny. They kept throwing in clues to see what people would say. It was one big joke to them.
"Paul would make us play some real fruity songs. And, oh my God, this one was really really fruity!!"
John :
"I Hated this song. It costed us as much as the whole album!"
The whole Paul is dead rumour is just stupid asnyway. The Beatles wrote over 200 songs and did hundreds of Photos if you look hard enough you can find the clues to fuel any rumour you want no matter how stupid.
How come John has his hands in his pockets and the others don't? how come George is the only one not wearing a suit?
Oh and by the way the volkswagon doesn't say LMW 28 IF it's LMW 281 F and the reason they couldn't have it moved was because the owner was on holiday.