[The Beatles] - Paul McCartney

Original working manuscript with corrections, additions and lyrical variants for “Maxwell's Silver Hammer,” 1 page comprising 20 lines of the essential recorded lyrics, on Apple Corp letterhead stationery.  [With:] 2 pp. of lyrics in Mal Evans' hand, one page in blue ink with variations to the released version corresponding to the page in McCartney's hand, incorporating McCartney's changes to the lyrics “Back in school again Maxwell is a fool again…”, the other with further additions in black ink in Mal Evans' hand, including: - “Whistling” next to the first line of the song and after the chorus - at the foot of the page, Evans has added “Whistling 2 verses Chorus Bang Whistling 2 Verses Chorus Bang Chorus (Whistling) Bang Solo 2 Verses Chorus Bang Chorus Bang End Bang Bang End BANG”  [Likely January, 1969]. Released on September, 1969 on the Abbey Road album.

Christies New York, 4 December 2006, lot 164, $192,000.

Variants from the recorded version as appearing on Abbey Road include:

- Second line of second verse: “Maxwell plays the ass again" has been scored out and substituted with “is an ass” which has been substituted with “a fool”
- Sixth line of Second verse: "You will wait behind ..." instead of the released version "So he waits behind."

 “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer was my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue, as it so often does, as I was beginning to find out at that time in my life. I wanted something symbolic of that, so to me it was some fictitious character called Maxwell with a silver hammer. I don’t know why it was silver, it just sounded better than Maxwell’s hammer. It was needed for scanning. We still use that expression even now when something unexpected happens." (McCartney, see Miles, Many Years from Now)

Linda McCartney reported (Linda McCartney’s Sixties, p. 153) that Paul had become interested in avant-garde theatre and had immersed himself in the writings of Alfred Jarry. This influence is reflected in the story and tone of the song, and also explains how Paul came across Jarry's word “pataphysical”, which occurs in the lyrics. "It's one of those instant, whistle-along tunes which some people will hate and others will love," George  told Rolling Stone in 1969. John described it as "more of Paul's granny music" (Emerick & Massey, Here There and Everywhere, p. 281).