Maxwell’s Silver Hammer

WRITERS

Paul McCartney and John Lennon

ARTIST

The Beatles

RECORDED

Abbey Road Studios, London

RELEASED

Abbey Road, 1969

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 fifty times 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

Clang clang Maxwell’s silver hammer

Made sure that she was dead

PC Thirty-One said, we’ve caught a dirty one

Maxwell stands alone

Painting testimonial pictures

Oh oh oh oh

Rose and Valerie screaming from the gallery

Say he must go free

The judge does not agree 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

Silver hammer man