9 July 1969: Recording: Maxwell's Silver Hammer

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Phil McDonald

The Beatles began the recording of the Abbey Road song ‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ during this 2.30-10.15pm session.

On 1 July 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono had been involved in a car crash in Scotland. Ono was still recuperating, and a double bed was brought into the studio for her to be near to her husband.

We were setting up the microphones for the session and this huge double-bed arrived. An ambulance brought Yoko in and she was lowered down onto the bed, we set up a microphone over her in case she wanted to participate and then we all carried on as before! We were saying, ‘Now we’ve seen it all, folks!’

Martin Benge, studio technician
The Complete Beatles Recording Sessions, Mark Lewisohn

Yoko Ono in Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road, 1969

This was one of the things that put a strain on the sessions. From their point of view, it was just that she had been ordered by a doctor to lie down and that John needed her to be with him. The three of us, we didn’t quite get it. It was completely unusual for the Beatles to work in that way and it put a strain on it. Yoko has since told me that if for any reason she ever sat remotely nearer to me than to John, then he would give her hell when he got her home. ‘You were sitting nearer to Paul than to me!’ John was very paranoid in that way. One of the things most people don’t know about John is that a lot of his genius was a cover-up for his paranoia.

‘Maxwell’s Silver Hammer’ had previously been performed on 3, 7, 8 and 10 January 1969 during the Get Back/Let It Be sessions. Paul McCartney was convinced it was a potential single, but the rest of the group were less enthusiastic.

Aside from a Moog overdub in August, the song was completed in three consecutive sessions in July 1969. On this first day 16 takes of the backing track were recorded, with McCartney on piano and guide vocals, George Harrison playing bass guitar, and Ringo Starr on drums.

The takes were numbered 1-21, although there were no takes 6-10. Towards the end of the session acoustic guitars were overdubbed onto the last two choruses of take 21.

The 21 takes had George Harrison’s bass guitar recorded onto track one; Ringo Starr’s drums on track two; McCartney’s piano on track three, and his vocals on track eight.

Take five, recorded on that day, was preserved on the Anthology 3 album, revealing how the song sounded at this early stage. McCartney sings and plays piano, with Harrison on bass guitar and Starr on drums. Take 12, meanwhile, was included on some formats of the 50th anniversary reissue of Abbey Road.

The idea that John showed no interest in songs other than his own during the “Abbey Road” sessions is untrue. You mustn’t take Geoff Emerick’s book too seriously, because Geoff himself admitted in a 1979 interview and subsequent occasions that he couldn’t remember much about his work on Beatles sessions, and it was obviously ghostwritten by his coauthor Howard Massey.

Geoff didn’t even work at the session in any capacity, so how could he be privy to what went down that day? John never confirmed or denied the unproven claim that he refused to play on the song out of personal dislike, but he did say that he was ill after the accident, so all I can say is that it implies that he was probably following doctor’s orders to rest after being released from hospital in Scotland, where he had spent six days after his serious car crash.

His recovery from the car crash was the reason why he didn’t perform on “Here Comes the Sun” and he was involved with “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”, “Carry That Weight” and “The End” plus his own songs obviously.

GeorgeTSimpson

Tuesday 17 July 2012 at 10.33am

If john was at this session why doesn’t he play on maxwell’s silver hammer?

Joe
Wednesday 18 July 2012 at 7.38pm
I don’t know. Although he was present there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of him being on the recording. He complained that the sessions went on forever, which a) might be a reference to when they played it during the Let It Be sessions in January 1969, and/or b) waiting around made it seem like even longer than it was if he wasn’t involved.
David Harvey
Friday 24 June 2022 at 8.13pm
He probably was following doctor’s orders to rest and he had just returned to London from Scotland, where he had been hospitalized after a serious car crash.

Paul D

Tuesday 5 July 2016 at 4.13am

I was just reading in Geoff Emerick’s book that John turned up on this day showed no enthusiasm for getting involved on any songs apart from his own which was some days later. I do wonder if this song was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

David Harvey
Monday 8 March 2021 at 5.37am
The idea that John showed no interest in songs other than his own during the “Abbey Road” sessions is untrue. You mustn’t take Geoff Emerick’s book too seriously, because Geoff himself admitted in a 1979 interview and subsequent occasions that he couldn’t remember much about his work on Beatles sessions, and it was obviously ghostwritten by his coauthor Howard Massey.
Geoff didn’t even work at the session in any capacity, so how could he be privy to what went down that day? John never confirmed or denied the unproven claim that he refused to play on the song out of personal dislike, but he did say that he was ill after the accident, so all I can say is that it implies that he was probably following doctor’s orders to rest after being released from hospital in Scotland, where he had spent six days after his serious car crash.
His recovery from the car crash was the reason why he didn’t perform on “Here Comes the Sun” and he was involved with “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window”, “Carry That Weight” and “The End” plus his own songs obviously.

Dan L

Monday 9 July 2018 at 1.43pm

John must have come to hate July 9 recording sessions with the Fabs. The previous year, that date’s session was devoted to Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, which he famously despised. And this time around, another Paul production — the equally detestable (for John) Maxwell’s Silver Hammer!

Bob Y

Tuesday 16 November 2021 at 11.04pm

I must say I have an extremely difficult time believing that was Harrison on bass, Paul has said it was he himself on bass and it has his style all over the track.

David Harvey
Sunday 10 July 2022 at 2.57am
The basic track to “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” has piano, bass, drums and guide vocals, as heard on “Anthology 3” and even if Paul redid the bass part, like you suggest, I don’t think George would’ve cared, as the bass was not his instrument of choice.