Today, Sunday June 18, 2023, marks the 81st birthday of the legendary Paul McCartney.
While he is known for being one of the primary songwriters and singers in The Beatles, he was not always the band’s favourite person.
In 1969, while the Fab Four were writing and recording their 11th album Abbey Road, McCartney pushed the band into experimenting with one peculiar song: Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.
The fun and exciting track was very different to the rest of the band’s music. It involved a lot of new styles of production and sounds, including a real hammer hitting an anvil.
The rest of the band simply hated the song – and they couldn’t stand working on it. John Lennon in particular didn’t hold back in 1980 when he said: “I hated it. All I remember is the track – he made us do it a hundred million times.”
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Lennon added: “[McCartney] did everything to make it into a single and it never was and it never could’ve been. But [McCartney] put guitar licks on it and he had somebody hitting iron pieces and we spent more money on that song than any of them in the whole album.”
At the time, The Beatles were in a state of disarray. They were arguing frequently, and in the months that followed, they would become involved in various lawsuits before eventually splitting up.
McCartney’s infuriating track didn’t help things. And even the mild-mannered George Harrison lashed out at the now-infamous song.
Harrison said: “Sometimes Paul would make us do these really fruity songs. I mean, my God, Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was so fruity.”
Ringo Starr hit out at McCartney and Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, as well.
The drummer 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****ng weeks.”
McCartney did go on to defend his work, however.
“Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue,” he explained. “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. It was needed for scanning. We still use that expression even now when something unexpected happens.”
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