Maxwell's silver hammer
 

does anyone else find this song a little disturbing? don't get me wrong, i love this song, it's one of my favorites, but it's just a little strange how they sing it in such a happy cheery tone when the song is about beating people to death with a hammer. kinda creepy. George is great.

the beatles could put anything to a tune. it's pretty odd, but i've been listenin to this stuff for some time, it doesn't really shock me
but the song if about what they do whenever the pope is thought to be dead. they tap him on the head with a hammer and then say his name 3 times or somthin like that, to see if he's alive

the song doesn't shock me cause it can be expected from them cause they were so fucked up themselves i guess. it just kinda creepy when you think about it.

getting into the beatles was one of the best things that ever happend to me. i think im gonna listen to revolver

No, I don't.

Isn't it a McCartney song?

I could be wrong, I got tired of abbey road and stopped listening to it. Although I love "She's So Heavy"

yes it is a mcCartney song...

Beatles are amazing...Revolver, Abbey Road, the White Album...so many classics. And I love them all.

Whatever Laila is writing, I'm sure she'll love to hate this.




It's a Swiftian tongue-in-cheek picture from the cover that The Beatles wanted for their Yesterday & Today compilation album (that they were forced to put out due to contractural obligations, no doubt); it had a very limited pressing. Capitol made them change it.




I found perhaps a more precise history of the cover here:
http://www.friktech.com/btls/covers.htm

oh yeah i've seen that.

i found a record store in georagia that had the original 'yesterday and today' :P

burn yr beatles records !!!

haha

http://www.newsoftheodd.com/article1012.html







The Evening Standard published a long, rambling interview with John Lennon in which he proclaimed that the Beatles were "more popular than Jesus." Although there was little reaction to his statement in England, Christians elsewhere embarked upon a massive campaign to destroy Beatles albums and other paraphenalia. Lennon apologized for the remark later, and the Archbishop of Boston admitted that he was probably right, but many still refused to forgive him.
In its original context, the remark was part of a rather harmless lifestyle pieceby Evening Standard reporter Maureen Cleave. She had spent the day Lennon, whom she described as "imperious, ... unpredictable, indolent, disorganised, childish, vague, charming and quick-witted." He took her on a tour of his mansion, talking about books and fame, and the gorilla suit he bought so he could drive around wearing it. When they reached the subject of religion, Lennon said, "Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. ... We're more popular than Jesus now; I don't know which will go first-rock 'n' roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."




The British public took the comment as what is was: An opinion voiced by an artist known as much for his hummingbird mind as for his considerable talent. In July, however, an American teen magazine called Datebook quoted the infamous Jesus statement without reprinting the original article. It appeared as part of a cover story called "The Ten Adults You Dig/Hate the Most." The American reaction was instantaneous. Radio stations across the country, but especially in the South and in the Midwest, stopped playing Beatles records. Death threats began pouring in, directed against not only John, but the other Beatles as well. Bonfires appeared, with Beatles pictures and albums providing the fuel. Maureen Cleave tried to explain that "John was certainly not comparing the Beatles with Christ. He was simply observing that so weak was the state of Christianity that the Beatles were, to many people, better known. He was deploring, rather than approving, this," but to no avail. In Cleveland, the Reverend Thurman H. Babbs threatened to excommunicate any member of his congregation who listened to the Beatles. In the South, the Ku Klux Klan burned the Beatles in effigy and nailed Beatles albums to burning crosses. Finally, on August 11, with a scheduled American tour fast approaching, Lennon held a press conference in Chicago, at which he attempted to make amends. "I'm not saying that we're better or greater," he said, "or comparing us with Jesus Christ as a person or God as a thing or whatever it is. ... I wasn't saying whatever they're saying I was saying. I'm sorry I said it really. I never meant it to be a lousy anti-religious thing. I apologize if that will make you happy. I still don't know quite what I've done. I've tried to tell you what I did do but if you want me to apologize, if that will make you happy, then OK, I'm sorry."
For most people, this was enough, but not for all. The KKK tried, unsuccessfully, to stop their show in Memphis. On August 13, KLUE, a radio station in Texas, organized another Beatles bonfire. (That same night, the station was struck bylightning, which damaged their equipment and knocked the station manager unconscious. Sometimes, justice really is poetic.) And the international reaction was just beginning. Beatles albums were banned from the airwaves in Spain and Holland. The Vatican, while recognizing that the remarks were made "off-handedly and not impiously," also said that "[T]he protest the remark raised showed that some subjects must not be dealt with lightly and in a profane way, not even in the world of beatniks." In South Africa, Piet Myer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation justified his decision to bar Beatles albums by saying, "The Beatles' arrogance has passed the ultimate limit of decency. It is clowning no longer." Even years later, after the group had broken up, John Lennon's albums were still banned from South African radio, although Paul McCartney's and George Harrison's music could be broadcast.




John Lennon returned to the subject in December, when he told LOOK magazine that "I believe Jesus was right, Buddha was right, and all of those people like that are right. They're all saying the same thing--and I believe it. I believe what Jesus actually said--the basic things he laid down about love and goodness--and not what people say he said.... If Jesus being more popular means ... more control, I don't want that. I'd sooner they'd all follow us even if it's just to dance and sing for the rest of their lives. If they took more interest in what Jesus--or any of them--said, if they did that, we'd all be there with them."
Although the Beatles would remain together for 4 more years, the American tour that followed the Jesus incident would be their last.

---

that's such a great part in Imagine: John Lennon when they show the footage of the police officers preparing to provide security at a The Beatles concert...

uh huh. i don't see any of this as necessary.

You know when George Harrison lost his virginity, John and Paul were in the room pretending to be asleep but really listening?

Edit: big fu**up. didn't know that pic would end up being so huge.
sorry folks

That picture should not be that big...

and your point?

Shut up.

If you think the original version of MSH is disturbing, try listening to Steve Martin do a cover of it. Creepy. (love Steve Martin though)

Everytime I hear this song, I think of the Charles Manson trials.

Anyway, I have a copy of the re-printed "Yesterday & Today".

There's a history of pop songs or nursery rhymes or kids songs that have morbid overtones. Just recite "Rock a Bye Baby" to realize how morbid that is: "...and down will come baby, cradle and all." Or, "Ring Around the Rosie" when you learn that Posies are the flower of choice to place on the casket of a loved one.

Or "Bungalow Bill" Hey, Bungalow Bill, What Did you Kill...

I think its a joke that the writer is playing on the listener. Let's see what morbid words I can get my listener to sing while humming this happy tune.