The Beatles - Maxwell's Silver Hammer Lyrics

The Beatles Lyrics

"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
("Anthology 3" Version)

Joan was quizzical,
Studied pataphysical
Science in the home
Late nights all alone with a test-tube oh oh oh oh

Maxwell Edison
Majoring in medicine
Calls her on the phone
Can I take you out to the pictures, Joan?

But as she's getting ready to go
A knock comes on the door

Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head
Clang, clang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead

Back in school again
Maxwell plays the fool again
Teacher gets annoyed
Wishing to avoid
An unpleasant scene

She tells Max to stay
When the class has gone away
So he waits behind
Writing 50 lines
"I must not be so..." oh oh oh

But when she turns her back on the boy
He creeps up from behind

Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head
Do do do do do
Clang, clang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead

Painting testimonial pictures oh oh oh oh
Bean and Valerie screaming from the gallery
Say he must go free

And he tells them so oh oh oh

But as the words are leaving his lips
A noise comes from behind

Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon his head
Clang, clang, Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that he was dead

One more.
It was good. It had a nice beat in it, but it'd be nice to have a nice beat at the end of it.

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Thanks to Stavros Stylianou, Tao, Calico, Alex, Agni for correcting these lyrics.

Writer(s): Paul McCartney, John Lennon

Maxwell Edison, the protagonist of this song, was made up by Paul McCartney as a medical student who kills people. McCartney's songwriting was a bit influenced by his family custom to create dark fantasy tales.

Paul McCartney explained, "'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' was my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does. ...I wanted something symbolic of that."

The characteristic clanging sound was produced by banging on an actual anvil: Ringo Starr did it for the studio recording, and Mal Evans did it in the film "Let It Be".

John Lennon said that he hated the song because—in his opinion—Paul had dedicated too much time and efforts to record it, whilst Paul recalled that he just wanted to get the song right.

Ringo Starr said in an interview (Rolling Stone magazine, 2008), "The worst session ever was 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer.' It was the worst track we ever had to record."

The handwritten lyrics for this song were sold at auction for $192,000.