The Beatles Once Called This Paul McCartney Song ‘the Worst Track’ Ever
The Beatles have an extensive catalog of songs. While many of them are some of the greatest songs ever written, there are a few flops that snuck their way in there. Fans may not remember most of them, but the band does. One song written by Paul McCartney was considered “the worst track” by the other The Beatles members. Even McCartney isn’t too keen on this one song.
‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ required four separate recording sessions
In 1969, The Beatles were recording their album Abbey Road while also on the verge of breaking up. Still, the band wanted to ensure everything went smoothly while recording this album. One song that broke this flow was “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” The song, written by Paul McCartney, was about a student named Maxwell Edison who killed people with a hammer.
While the lyrics were quite dark, they were disguised with upbeat instrumentation. McCartney felt attached to this song and wanted to ensure it was played perfectly. This required four separate recording sessions that took hours to complete. At one point, McCartney even requested a blacksmith’s anvil be brought in as part of the track, but even then, he wasn’t satisfied.
The Beatles said this Paul McCartney was ‘the worst track’ ever
While John Lennon was known for expressing his displeasure with certain songs, George Harrison and Ringo Starr were not fans of “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.” Mainly due to the rigorous recording sessions that Paul McCartney put The Beatles through to make sure the track was perfect.
“I hated it,” Lennon said in a 1980 Playboy interview. “All I remember is the track – he made us do it a hundred million times.” He was quick to take aim at the track’s quality as well, adding: “He did everything to make it into a single and it never was and it never could’ve been. But [Paul] 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.”
According to Far Out Magazine, Ringo Starr told Rolling Stone that it was “the worst session ever” and called it “the worst track we ever had to record.” Harrison was slightly less harsh about the track but expressed his annoyance with its production. He said McCartney would often make them record “fruity songs,” and used “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” as the prime example.
Paul McCartney later admitted the song had missed the mark
In the novel Many Years From Now by Barry Miles, McCartney initially spoke about “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” positively. He appeared to disagree with his fellow bandmates about the production process and was satisfied with how the song turned out.
“It was the best radio play I had ever heard in my life, and the best production, and Ubu was so brilliantly played,” McCartney said. “It was just a sensation. That was one of the big things of the period for me,”
However, in later years, he changed his tune slightly and said the song wasn’t ultimately what he wanted it to be. He said it was symbolic of how things in his life were coming apart at that time.
“‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ was my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life,” he later shared. “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.”
Fortunately, The Beatles have so many hits that their misses are barely noticeable.
