‘When Paul got an idea or an arrangement in his head…’<subtitle>Inspiration, imagination, experimentation and transitions in ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’</subtitle>

Abstract

For a song that is so mercilessly maligned, Paul McCartney’s ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ contains attractive musical features that demonstrate his effortless flow of ideas. The rehearsals captured on tape reveal genuine compositional collaboration and experimentation between the Beatles that belies the harsh criticism of McCartney in particular. Cast as an absurd story about an assassin with a silver hammer, the song displays some of McCartney’s best attributes such as total command of pop musical language, whimsy, avant-garde inspiration and memorable melodies. In addition, this article examines documented and potential sources of inspiration for the song, which can be viewed more richly in context as a type of murder ballad. Analysis of extant rehearsal recordings focuses attention on McCartney’s search for the most effective transition between the verse and chorus of the song, reinforcing his attention to detail through experimentation in the studio. The article closes by suggesting that McCartney’s musical imagination was so fertile during this period that it was inevitable that his often uninterested and uninspired bandmates would clash over the numerous sessions devoted to this song. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0.

Keywords

• Abbey Road
• the Beatles
• Paul McCartney
• Surrealism
• music theory and analysis
• Get Back sessions