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Joan was quizzical; studied pataphysical
Science in the home.
Late nights all alone with a test tube.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine,
Calls her on the phone.
"Can I take you out to the pictures,
Joa, oa, oa, oan?"
But as she's getting ready to go,
A knock comes on the door.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.
Back in school again Maxwell plays the fool again.
Teacher gets annoyed.
Wishing to avoid and unpleasant
Sce, e, e, ene,
She tells Max to stay when the class has gone away,
So he waits behind
Writing fifty times "I must not be
So, o, o, o"
But when she turns her back on the boy,
He creeps up from behind.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.
P. C. Thirty-one said, "We caught a dirty one."
Maxwell stands alone
Painting testimonial pictures.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Rose and Valerie, screaming from the gallery
Say he must go free
(Maxwell must go free)
The judge does not agree and he tells them
So, o, o, o.
But as the words are leaving his lips,
A noise comes from behind.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon his head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that he was dead.
Whoa, oh, oh, oh.
Silver hammer man
Science in the home.
Late nights all alone with a test tube.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Maxwell Edison, majoring in medicine,
Calls her on the phone.
"Can I take you out to the pictures,
Joa, oa, oa, oan?"
But as she's getting ready to go,
A knock comes on the door.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.
Back in school again Maxwell plays the fool again.
Teacher gets annoyed.
Wishing to avoid and unpleasant
Sce, e, e, ene,
She tells Max to stay when the class has gone away,
So he waits behind
Writing fifty times "I must not be
So, o, o, o"
But when she turns her back on the boy,
He creeps up from behind.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon her head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that she was dead.
P. C. Thirty-one said, "We caught a dirty one."
Maxwell stands alone
Painting testimonial pictures.
Oh, oh, oh, oh.
Rose and Valerie, screaming from the gallery
Say he must go free
(Maxwell must go free)
The judge does not agree and he tells them
So, o, o, o.
But as the words are leaving his lips,
A noise comes from behind.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Came down upon his head.
Bang! Bang! Maxwell's silver hammer
Made sure that he was dead.
Whoa, oh, oh, oh.
Silver hammer man
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After that, it's a sort of banal defensive business; Maxwell uses murder to avoid answerability for classroom hijinks, then uses his little hammer to evade judgement.
I'm suddenly remembering the effect these lyrics had on my when I first heard them as a kid. The "silver" of the hammer seemed really interesting. Why a *silver* hammer?; why not just a plain old steel ball peen or something? At the time I sensed something banally sinister, and connected it to American foreign policy, which had, at the time, been nothing if not banally sinister. Americans spent US$400B to kill 2.5M Vietnamese--quite the expensive hammer, wot?--and then got their panties in a bunch when anyone dared to question the morality of this state of affairs. Who's to say that Robt Kennedy and MLK--for that matter, JFK!--weren't killed by that very same silver hammer?
Now I know that at this point people will remonstrate, "Hey! It's just a nice song! Back off!" But I think McCartney was a tremendous songwriter with that rare gift for channeling his subconscious, but doing so with awareness, artistry, and flair. There had to be a reason his subconscious was feeding him this bizarre image--a "nice" young man bashing in people's heads by expensive means and with a happy-go-lucky absence of compunction. Actually, that last bit--the lack of awareness of the wrongness of doing this--is key. So the first question is: Is McCartney trying to tell us something we need to know? If Maxwell is unaware that what he is doing is wrong, could someone else be? Who might that person be?
Whoever that person may be, one thing is for certain: As long as that person is Someone Else, then nothing will ever change. It's when that person becomes Us that the possibility of moral awakening emerges from slumber.
Edison, Tomas: invented the light-bulb.
Maxwell Edison is the science institution amongst many other things.
'Pataphysics is described to be "the science of imaginary solutions"
Joans is masturbating, my interpretation, with a test tube when Max's calls. Oh oh oh oh.
Max's comes and has sex with her rather than going to the pictures. Alternately kills her for studding 'pataphysics rather than a more institutionalized science.Alternately Maxwell kill's her because he is a chauvinist and can't stand her masturbating and in deep post-metaphysical thought.Alternately the institution of science is chauvinistic and closed to new ways of thought.
Max plays the fool for he has had sex with the teacher before and is now playing as though he is clueless. Alternately the institution of Pedagogy is always being played the fool by science as one cannot keep up with the other.Alternately Max is a n ass and is distracting the class.
The teacher tells Max to stay behind so the may engage in sex since well this a normal occurrence.50 times so oh oh oh. The institution of science kills the institution of education as the first constantly makes the second irrelevant. Alternately Max's kills his teacher because he feels ashamed at being disciplined by a female.
The cops capture max for killing, raping, or being perverse in some other manner. Alternately the law and ethics judge the institute of science for being dirty , amoral, rather than chauvinistic and closed minded.
Finally max kills the judge to prevent being disciplined again. Or science is not bound by the same laws as regular men and therefore can kill a judge an act that would considerably be impossible for a man in court.
Anywho I believe that all interpretations are valid so long as they take into account time, place and context. Finally verse exist to have multiple interpretation verse gives words the freedom to mean may things. Verse is NEVER to be taken on face value it just doesn't work that way and an artist may say one facet of his work and not say many other I believe in one interview Beyonce upon being asked for the meaning behind buttylicious she answered it was about female self empowerment or some such. While I would suspect that a "deeper" meaning would be that it is about women with voluminous behinds being capable of manipulating certain circumstances.