Maxwell's Silver Hammer

The most divisive song in the entire Beatles catalog has to be Maxwell's Silver Hammer, not just among the group's fans, but even among the members of the group itself.  As early as 1965, Bob Dylan accused the Beatles of writing what he called granny music, referring specifically to Michelle and Yesterday, both McCartney compositions.  By 1969, John was using the same terminology to describe this song, and complaining about how much time was taken up working on the track.  George and Ringo made similar statements concerning the number of sessions spent specifically on this song.  The biggest argument, however, was over the fact that Paul wanted Maxwell's Silver Hammer to be the group's next single, while the other three were steadfastly against it.

The lyrics of the first verse appear in the notebook of songs that Paul had with him in Rishikesh, India, in the spring of 1968, yet the song was never considered for inclusion on the "White Album" recorded later that same year.  It first surfaced at Twickenham Film Studios in January of 1969 at the Get Back sessions.  The band ran through the song many times over four separate days (including after George quit on the 10th), but did not revive it when the sessions resumed at the Apple Studios in Savile Row a few weeks later.  Paul actually had the group's assistant Mal Evans bring an anvil to Twickenham and learn to hit it on cue, as can be seen in the film Let it Be.

The next time the group attempted the song was on July 9th during the sessions for the album Abbey Road, and Paul's timing could not have been much worse.  This was the day that John and Yoko first attended these sessions after their automobile accident in Scotland, and a bed was moved into the studio to accommodate the still-ailing Yoko.  John stayed by Yoko's side and declined to participate as Paul on piano, George on bass and Ringo on his drum kit ran through sixteen takes of the basic track.  Anthology 3 allows us to hear take 5 from this day's work, with George's tuba-like bass part already in place.  I do not own the 50th anniversary deluxe version of Abbey Road, but it reportedly contains take 12, which is preceded by some instructions from Paul to both Ringo and George on how to play their parts more to his liking.

Paul and George then switched over to electric guitars and overdubbed simultaneous country-flavored lines an octave apart onto take 21 (there were somehow no takes 6 through 10).  The Threetles continued adding overdubs on the following day, July 10th, with John and Yoko still merely observing.  An anvil was once again located and brought to the studio, though reports differ as to whether Mal Evans or Ringo played it on this occasion.  Paul added some piano arpeggios, more vocals, and he and George provided some backing vocals.

An uncomfortable incident then occurred as Paul, George and Ringo gathered around a microphone to record the phrase "silver hammer man" for the end of the song.  In his book Here, There and Everywhere, engineer Geoff Emerick relates that Paul walked over to John and invited him to join them.  John simply replied, "No, I don't think so," ending any chance of his participation in the recording.

At the end of this day's session, the song was considered complete and thirteen stereo mixes were made.  Yet, on the very next day, July 11th, Paul double-tracked his vocal in places and added acoustic guitar before moving on to work on other songs.  

The recording may then have been deemed complete once again, until George Harrison moved his Moog synthesizer into Room 43 of Abbey Road Studios.  After seeing and hearing the Moog used on Lennon's number Because, Paul could not resist finding a way to add it to Maxwell's Silver Hammer.  On August 6th, he added multiple overdubs, not by the conventional method of the synthesizer's keyboard, but rather by playing the very tricky ribbon with his finger.  According to young tape operator Alan Parsons (later to front his own band the Alan Parsons Project), Paul quickly mastered the technique necessary to find the right notes.

More remixes were then required, numbered 14 through 26.  Yet more remixes were done on both August 12th and 14th, bringing the total to 37.  And on August 25th, Paul finally decided to edit out the introduction of the song (this intro is heard on takes 5 and 12).  Perhaps when John , George and Ringo thought back on the endless work on this song, they may have been recalling the many remixing sessions, as well as the numerous rehearsals at Twickenham back in January, more than just the few days of actual recording that took place.  At any rate, this gleeful tale of a twisted killer always left a bad taste in their mouths.