10 Rock Songs That Were Written As A Joke

During the back half of the Beatles’ career, it was becoming pretty clear that Lennon and McCartney were starting to drift apart as songwriters a little bit. For as experimental as they were as a pair, John’s willingness to be experimental was always clashing with the prim and proper “granny music” that Paul would write every now and again. Just because it was old time-y didn’t mean it was dumb though, and Paul made his own dark comedy on Maxwell’s Silver Hammer.

When you go through the lyrics of this song, it starts off with this man named Maxwell casually asking his girlfriend out on a date before murdering her with a hammer. That’s not where it ends though, eventually going to school and killing the teacher for keeping him after school in detention and then killing the judge that oversees his trial when he’s eventually charged for his murders.

All while this mayhem is going on, you have this fruity backing track going on in the background, almost like an update of the old ‘50s girl groups if they were into the more macabre side of things. This was a little bit of a chore for the rest of the band though, originally dropped from the Get Back sessions and then being run dozens of times when it finally made Abbey Road. It’s far from the best thing Paul has ever done, but it’s not necessarily a song you forget either once you hear it.