Mean Mr. Mustard (song)

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Album This song officially appears on the Abbey Road Official album.

Timeline This song has been officially released in 1969

Related sessions

This song has been recorded during the following studio sessions

The Esher recordings

Late May 1968

Recording and mixing "Come And Get It", "Sun King", "Mean Mr Mustard"

Jul 24, 1969

Recording "Sun King", "Mean Mr. Mustard", "Come Together", "Polythene Pam", "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window"

Jul 25, 1969

Recording "Come Together", "Sun King", "Mean Mr. Mustard"

Jul 29, 1969

Recording and mixing "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Come Together", "Polythene Pam"...

Jul 30, 1969

Other Beatles songs referencing Queen Elizabeth II

Penny Lane

Officially appears on Penny Lane / Strawberry Fields Forever

Her Majesty

Officially appears on Abbey Road

Maybellene

Mean Woman Blues

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Song facts

From Wikipedia:

“Mean Mr. Mustard” is a song written by John Lennon (credited to Lennon–McCartney) and performed by the Beatles on their album Abbey Road. The Abbey Road version was recorded with “Sun King” in one continuous piece.

Composition

The song was written in India; Lennon said that it was inspired by a newspaper story about a miser who concealed his cash wherever he could in order to prevent people from forcing him to spend it. On reflection, Lennon did not think highly of the composition, dismissing it in Anthology as “a bit of crap I wrote in India.”

A demo version of the song was recorded in May 1968 at Kinfauns, George Harrison’s home in Esher. It appears on Anthology 3. In this version, Mustard’s sister is named Shirley. Lennon changed it to Pam when he saw the opportunity to ease the segue into the song “Polythene Pam“, which follows “Mean Mr. Mustard” on the album. According to Lennon, “In ‘Mean Mr. Mustard’, I said ‘his sister Pam’—originally it was ‘his sister Shirley’ in the lyric. I changed it to Pam to make it sound like it had something to do with it.”

As eventually recorded, “Mustard” originally was to end in the chord of D major—this would have led into the next track in the climactic medley, “Her Majesty“. However, since the latter song was moved to the end of the album, “Mustard” instead hard-edits into “Polythene Pam“, and thus the final note of “Mustard” would open “Her Majesty” as a stand-alone track at the album’s conclusion. The complete version of “Mustard” (with its original clean ending) can be heard on The Beatles: Rock Band video game.

From The Usenet Guide to Beatles Recording Variations:

[a] stereo 14 Aug 1969. crossfaded 14,21 Aug 1969.
UK: Apple PCS 7088 Abbey Road 1969.
US: Apple SO-383 Abbey Road 1969.
CD: EMI CDP 7 46446 2 Abbey Road 1987.

[Sun King / Mean Mr. Mustard] were recorded straight through. The first crossfade joined this to the following item, Polythene Pam / She Came in through the Bathroom Window. The second joined that combined tape to You Never Give Me Your Money.

Last updated on November 29, 2016

Lyrics

Mean Mr. Mustard sleeps in the park
Shaves in the dark, trying to save paper

Sleeps in a hole in the road
Saving up to buy some clothes
Keeps a ten-bob note up his nose

Such a mean old man
Such a mean old man

His sister Pam works in a shop
She never stops, she's a go-getter

Takes him out to look at the Queen
Only place that he's ever been
Always shouts out something obscene

Such a dirty old man
Dirty old man