Artist - Bruisercharles
Original version recorded July 9-11, 1969.
Ukulele version recorded April 4, 2009
Charles Driscoll: Lead Vocals, Guitar, Bass.
Bruce Driscoll: Guitar, Monty Python backing vocals.
Roger Greenawalt: Zombie Ukulele.
Produced by Roger Greenawalt at Shabby Road Studio, Brooklyn.
For maximum enjoyment play the ukulele version while you read the essay.
ABOUT THE SONG
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is a failure, an unnatural disaster, and an international disgrace.
While it may not be the very worst Beatle song ever, it is the worst one ever written by Paul.
The other three Beatles hated it as well. They were right to do so. John called it the “corny number” while they rehearsed it during the Let It Be/Get Back Sessions. To make matters worse, Paul used ridiculous amounts of studio time to try to polish this turd, annoying George Martin and the other Beatles in the process. To no avail.
The production is technically proficient, but not at all believable. It is bright, shiny, sterile, and self-conscious. It sounds overworked. The lyric, while not quite infantile, is at best sophomoric. Narratively, we’re at the 13-year old boy level of giggling over “Watch out where the huskies go, don’t you eat that yellow snow”. But what is most striking about Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, is it’s total failure of mood coherence. The hard earned knowledge/taste that The Beatles had gleaned from thousands of hours on stage, is here wholly lacking.
Paul had lapsed before. On the White Album, from the previous year, there is the unfortunate example of Why Don’t We Do It In The Road. WDWDITR is a banal, one note joke. You want to avert your gaze. Bad enough.
But Oblidi-Oblida, from the same album, is the nadir, it is absolutely indefensible. Roger and Dave are cheerfully looking forward to giving Oblidi-Oblida the nihilistic, existential, ukulele treatment it deserves.
Paul had his blind spots.
So did John.
Arguably, John Lennon released the two worst albums by a major artist in the 20th Century. These are The Wedding Album and Two Virgins. Mind-blowingly hideous. Between these two albums we get John in one speaker yelling “Yoko” and Yoko on the other speaker yelling “John” in her joke Japanese accent. This goes on for YEARS. Oh, and there’s the cheerful number where they record their fetus’ heartbeat gradually weakening and eventually ceasing. Sick and bizarre. This is the sort of thing that happens when rich famous people on drugs have psychotic de-compensations in public.
I can’t help but be fascinated by Maxwell’s Silver Hammer. It makes me think, what is the worst painting by Picasso?
The worst song by Bob Dylan?
The worst Led Zeppelin album? (That’s easy, Coda.)
The worst living artist? (Roger says Beyonce, Dave says Sting).
World’s worst country? (Rog says Saudi Arabia, Dave says it’s a tie between Burma and The DPRK).
It’s like studying Hitler in the bunker. What kind of birthday cake did he eat down there?
My favorite person is my Dad. What’s the worst thing he ever did to me? Interesting.
Our first murder victim is a student named Joan. “Joan was quizzical, studied pataphysical, science in the hall”. I like the fact that there is no such thing as pataphysics. Our Joan is curious and interested in things that don’t exist. Like Yoko.
This song is Paul’s Ono Murder Fantasy. Disguising this, he copped out and put pretty music to it.
A hammer is a very personal and brutal tool of dispatch. A Silver Hammer is a another way of saying Silver Spoon. Shows a lot of hate in the detail, a feeling that Paul is much less experienced at than John. Ultimately, It is hard to respect hate speech from a wussy.
Verse 2, Maxwell murders his teacher.
Verse 3, the judge gets the hammer.
Yet Max is still popular, he has fans, like the Menendez Brothers,
“Joan and Valerie, screaming from the gallery, say he must go free!”
Is Paul implying he would be found innocent like OJ if he killed Yoko? Hmmmmm.....Troubling.
Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is in time. It’s in tune. Very bright and major. The piano part and bass line are the most cheerful, cliché parts imaginable. Every sound and part is wincingly uncool. Three murders. This is the highest casualty rate of any Beatle song. Only one character dies in A Day In The Life, by comparison.
Whatever possible connection there is between this insipid music and a perp committing multiple killings eludes me. The story could be scary, but it is not. Neither is the lyric funny. The music is a stiff cartoon. And so Maxwell’s Silver Hammer is a failure. A badly told joke. Fast forward. Skip.
Music and humor is tricky. With the exception of our hero Tom Lehrer, they don't usually work together. The Beatle’s were genuinely funny people, something we at Roger And Dave always associate with higher intelligence. But music hits you on a primitive, pre-prefrontal lobe level.
Music and horniness? Yes!
Music and sadness? Yes!
Music and anger? Yes!
Music and comedy?…No.
Music is too sacred and serious for that, which is another reason that Maxwell’s does not compute. So we got serious.
Our version, by the globe trotting troubadours Charles and Bruce Driscoll, alleviates this central flaw. The tempo is narcotic, the harmony changed to minor. The aspect is dark,the circumstance spooky. People are dead, murder most foul. The atmosphere is one of Tim Burtonish dread. Maxwell’s Silver Hammer, now rises from the dead, via Zombie Ukulele.
Enjoy!
ABOUT THE ARTIST
The cousin duo Bruisercharles (Charles Driscoll and Bruce Driscoll) are quite simply "modern day minstrels" reinventing ways to make contact with all peoples of the world.
Having toured England, Poland, Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Norway, they now look to relate to people in the USA! They are involved in a variety of music and film projects including the 09 release of the self-titled E.P. BruiserCharles. You can keep track of their mischief at
www.myspace.com/bruisercharles
as well as individual projects
Posts
7 comments:
I like Maxwell's. It's twisted, but fits with the other happy children's songs like Yellow Sub and Octopus. The kids love it. And Piggies. And I'm always happy to sing the twisted numbers with the third graders. I would never have guessed Maxwell has cliché music; I just don't have anything else in my library like it. I also love WDWDIITR, especially as it's queued right before the sublime I Will ("Who knows how long I've loved you?"). Plastic Ono is disgusting tripe. Maxwell is loony, and may be a turd, but I like it.
Sorry, edited:
I don't like Maxwell's, but it isn't true that music and comedy can't go together. It's interesting that you seem to think that music should be expected to inspire feelings of anything BUT humor.
I try not to listen to artists that don't make me grin a little bit, in at least one song. It's fine for you to say that YOU don't like humor in your songs, but to say that NO artists can blend music and comedy is silly. :-)
While there might not be such a thing as pataphysics, there is definitely such a thing as 'pataphysics :-)
All these years I thought he was saying "metaphysical." Which makes sense.
Anyway, thanks for these great tunes. My ten-year-old son is now learning several Beatle tunes on ukulele (which he has been playing for two years now). "I Am the Walrus" is his favorite. He's available for recording sessions this summer, if you need him ;~}
“Joan and Valerie, screaming from the gallery, say he must go free!”
Joan is already dead - this should be "Rose and Valerie..."
LOVE YOU AND YOUR UKES!
We apologize unreservedly for not giving Rose her due. However as our friend from Stratford E11 said " A Rose is a June by any other name"
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