Maxwell's Silver Hammer
August 13, 2005 7:02 AM   Subscribe

Maxwell's Silver Hammer (Flash)
posted by boo_radley (31 comments total)
 
I chose to illustrate the literal meaning of the lyrics in my animation instead of what it could symbolically stand for, simply because whenever I closed my eyes while listening to it, that's exactly what I saw.

This is exactly what I saw, too. Well done, HotDiggedyDemon!

By the way, the guy who made this has a gallery on deviantART.
posted by CrunchyFrog at 7:13 AM on August 13, 2005


wow. BANG BANG
posted by leotrotsky at 7:14 AM on August 13, 2005


my expectations dropped as soon as I saw the Newgrounds loader.

they were back up after about two seconds once it started playing. that was awesome.
posted by tumult at 7:14 AM on August 13, 2005


awesome ain't what it used to be.
posted by jikel_morten at 7:36 AM on August 13, 2005


"Itchy and Scratchy" with a Beatles soundtrack.
posted by Jatayu das at 8:03 AM on August 13, 2005


"what it used to be" ain't what it used to be. that was a great little animation. quality stuff and lots of fun.
posted by ab3 at 8:04 AM on August 13, 2005


I wouldn't have expected a literal interpretation to be so cute and funny. Yay!
posted by carmen at 8:17 AM on August 13, 2005


Such a great song. That old-school synth in the first bridge always thrills me. Great link, thanks!
posted by schoolgirl report at 8:27 AM on August 13, 2005


It never occurred to me that the lyrics of this song actually meant anything. What a bizarre thing. The Wikipedia entry quotes Paul as saying the song "is my analogy for when something goes wrong out of the blue".
posted by Nelson at 8:31 AM on August 13, 2005


Never has murderous intent been so funny.
posted by geekhorde at 9:02 AM on August 13, 2005


Wow, very cool. I guess I never really paid attention to the lyrics previously, what a deviant little song!
posted by jonson at 9:10 AM on August 13, 2005


Rose and Valerie got away!
posted by fingers_of_fire at 9:20 AM on August 13, 2005


Rose and Valerie got away!

I don't think so-o-o-o...
posted by kamylyon at 9:27 AM on August 13, 2005


that works for me ... i've always thought it strange that mr "silly love songs" came up with something so morbid and nasty

maybe john thought it was about him and that's why he hated it

i'd like to see this guy do "octopus' garden"
posted by pyramid termite at 9:33 AM on August 13, 2005


I always thought McCartney's contributions to Abbey Road were strangley bitter and unhinged for him - clearly the struggle to keep the Beatles together was getting to him. Golden Slumbers is another example - I encountered it as sheet music before I heard it, and the last thing I expected was Macca to be screaming at the top of his lungs. It's meant to be a lullaby! Oh Darling sounds similarly out of sorts and then you have You Never Give Me Your Money about Apple's breakdown. Clearly Macca was a very unhappy man.

I love Maxwell's Silver Hammer and I put it next to the dark children's stories of Roald Dahl's or even Edward Gorey's accident prone children. Cool animation too.
posted by dodgygeezer at 9:53 AM on August 13, 2005


That was great.

I've never been a Beatles fan and never paid much attention to the song -- it's one of those tunes that is embedded in my brain and I know all the words -- but I never listened to it before.

Thanks.
posted by cedar at 10:04 AM on August 13, 2005


Oh man, I always loved how fucked up the lyrics were in contrast to the happy little tune of it. That animation caught that perfectly.
posted by piratebowling at 10:18 AM on August 13, 2005


Excellent. I <3 McCartney.
posted by ludwig_van at 10:24 AM on August 13, 2005


A+++++ would definitely see again!!!!!11!!!

Ahem.. seriously... good freakin' stuff... Especially for Newgrounds... I think with the exception of the Ye Olde All Your Base montage, this is one of the very few quality animations I've seen from their site. But, it is a community, and as such, the diamonds will be few and far between in the rough. Great post!
posted by Debaser626 at 10:26 AM on August 13, 2005


Interesting -- but nowhere near as great as Miss Peggy Lee tackling this number on "The Ed Sullivan Show," on a program where she, Dionne Warwick, and Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme sing "The Beatles Songbook." You haven't lived until you've seen Steve and Eydie belt out "Fool on the Hill," and Peggy Lee, dressed in a silver gown as men dressed as silver hammers dance around the very '60s set, lilting her eyebrow with every "bang bang" is pure surrealism.
posted by mrkinla at 11:43 AM on August 13, 2005


Good point dodgygeezer.
But isn't that always the case: it's only when McCartney is pissed off that we get good music.
posted by wendell at 11:53 AM on August 13, 2005


mrkinla, would've liked to have seen it...

Interesting blend of cute and horrific, just like the song that inspired it.
posted by alumshubby at 12:23 PM on August 13, 2005


I always pictured a hammer rather than a mallet. I also sort of imagined it with a sort of 1930s Britain look rather than contemporary U.S.
posted by George_Spiggott at 1:43 PM on August 13, 2005


Yeah, but a claw hammer is not an appropriate cute cartoon weapon. But just think what you could sell a silver mallet for on ebay!
posted by wendell at 2:18 PM on August 13, 2005


Remarkably good animation for something on Newgrounds. When I first saw the logo I expected to be ranting about what a shit post this was, but the video was just so damn cute! I first heard Maxwell's Silver Hammer on the radio, and I had no idea that it was a Beatles' song, I just knew I had to download it. It's one of the cutest songs in the English language.
posted by Citizen Premier at 3:51 PM on August 13, 2005


That was great. Was a big Beatles nerd as a kid.

As a side note, when John Paul II passed away, did anyone else take note of the traditional method of confirming the pope's death? They tap the forehead with, yes, a silver hammer dedicated to that purpose.
posted by Toecutter at 4:48 PM on August 13, 2005


Toecutter, I read about that tradition last year in an article questioning how the Vatican would handle a situation in which John Paul II lies in a vegitative state for a long period of time. I immediately thought of this song.
posted by [expletive deleted] at 6:33 PM on August 13, 2005


As a Beatle's fan that plays that imagery in my head every time I hear that song, I loved it. I like their nice music/nasty lyrics songs. "Run For Your Life" is another good one.
posted by Idiot Mittens at 8:34 PM on August 13, 2005


That's always been one of my favorite Beatles' songs, and it always freaked me out a bit (as much as a song can freak you out). You've got these dark lyrics coupled with a happy, playful, poppy melody and somehow they match up perfectly.

Great animation. I usually avoid all flash animations because most of them really, really suck, but I'm glad I made an exception this time.
posted by zardoz at 10:14 PM on August 13, 2005


i read somewhere that 'pataphysical' was the 'study of drinking beer' or something similar to that -- and that mccartney just picked it up somewheres while reading as well
posted by Satapher at 3:37 AM on August 14, 2005


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pataphysics

But in this animation... the clocks are wrong... and I can't quite figure out Joan's phone number... :P
posted by mhh5 at 4:38 AM on August 14, 2005


« Older xoc - SMW   |   Them dukes! Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments