{"id":328005,"date":"2025-08-08T13:46:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328005\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T13:46:14","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T13:46:14","slug":"the-paul-mccartney-penned-beatles-song-ringo-starr-truly-despised","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/328005\/","title":{"rendered":"The Paul McCartney penned Beatles song Ringo Starr truly despised"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ringo<\/p>\n

(Credits: Bent Rej)<\/p>\n

Fri 8 August 2025 9:43, UK <\/p>\n

There are a few simple facts that permeate the image of Ringo Starr.<\/a> One, is that he is one of the most sorely underrated drummers of all time, and the other is that he is perhaps the most affable man on the planet. <\/p>\n

In a world where The Beatles had every right to become arrogant artistes with a penchant for the particularly pernickety, Starr remained a constant grounding for the band. He was simply Ringo, and no amount of fame or fortune would change that. <\/p>\n

As the group grew and their fame grew with it, the necessity to work quickly and effectively grew with it. By the time The Beatles started work on Abbey Road in February 1969, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr had developed a meticulous approach to studio recording. With pioneering albums such as Magical Mystery Tour and Sgt Pepper behind them, they had pushed the available technology to its very limits. <\/p>\n

Their use of sound collage, synthesisers<\/a>, and stereo put them at the very cutting edge of recorded music and has cemented their status as one of the world\u2019s most innovative groups. That being said, they didn\u2019t half make things difficult for themselves. <\/p>\n

The Beatles were one of the first bands to treat the recording studio as an instrument in and of itself, paving the way for the likes of Pink Floyd and My Bloody Valentine, both of whom became famous for spending insane amounts of time in the studio. But, even though The Beatles tried and tested method of finely honing their recordings for weeks on end had proved successful many times in the past, it didn\u2019t stop Ringo Starr from exploding with rage during the recording of \u2018Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer.<\/a>\u2018 <\/p>\n

\"Paul<\/a>The Beatles (Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Indeed, the experience of producing Paul McCartney\u2019s song \u2014 written about a student murder called Maxwell Edison who (surprise surprise) killed his victims with a hammer \u2014 proved to be so infuriating that Starr ended up absolutely despising it. In relation to just how easy-going a chap he was, it is quite something that McCartney managed to elicit such a devastating response from the drummer.<\/p>\n

From the beginning, the track proved to be more hassle than it was worth. John Lennon arrived late to the studio after he and Yoko were recovering from a serious car accident. During the early days of the Abbey Road session, all Lennon could do was watch as Paul, Ringo, and George attempted to lay down the complex backing vocals for \u2018Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer.; Lennon looked on with disgust. He, too, hated \u2018Maxwell\u2019 and wanted nothing to do with it despite Paul\u2019s encouragement. <\/p>\n

When it was Ringo\u2019s turn to lay down the percussion tracks, he was subjected to failed take after failed take. At one point, McCartney convinced one of the studio\u2019s employees to get hold of a blacksmith\u2019s anvil and start hammering away in front of the microphone. It didn\u2019t go well. Paul was clearly becoming desperate and Ringo had lost all interest. As the drummer once recalled: \u201cThe worst session ever was \u2018Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the worst track we ever had to record. It went on for f**king weeks.\u201d <\/p>\n

Lennon, too, held nothing back when describing his hatred of Paul\u2019s song: In an interview with Playboy in 1980, Lennon said, \u201cHe made us do it a hundred million times. He did everything to make it into a single, and it never was, and it never could\u2019ve been. But [Paul] put guitar licks on it and he had somebody hitting iron pieces and we spent more money on that song than any of them in the whole album.\u201d <\/p>\n

Unfortunately, Paul\u2019s track never amounted to more than filler. Indeed, if there is any song that proves why The Beatles needed to disband, then surely it is \u2018Maxwell\u2019s Silver Hammer.\u2019 <\/p>\n

The Beatles\u2019 inability to work together on the record revealed their desires to pursue their own solo work, to have complete control over their creative output. It was their unity as a group of musicians that allowed them to create such an astounding body of work. But, by 1969, the cracks were beginning to show and, soon, there would be no turning back. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n

The Far Out Beatles Newsletter<\/p>\n

All the latest stories about The Beatles from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Bent Rej) Fri 8 August 2025 9:43, UK There are a few simple facts that permeate the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":328006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,8345,269,11693,20686,4162,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-328005","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-john-lennon","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-paul-mccartney","12":"tag-ringo-starr","13":"tag-the-beatles","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114993456711814725","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=328005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/328005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/328006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=328005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=328005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=328005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}