Mean Mr. Mustard

"Mean Mr. Mustard" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album Abbey Road. Written by John Lennon[1] and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it is the third track of the album's B-side medley. It was recorded with "Sun King" in one continuous piece.[1]

"Mean Mr. Mustard"
Cover of the song's sheet music
Song by the Beatles
from the album Abbey Road
Released26 September 1969
Recorded24–29 July 1969
StudioEMI, London
GenreRock
Length1:06
LabelApple
Songwriter(s)Lennon–McCartney
Producer(s)George Martin

Composition

The song was written during the Beatles' stay 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."[2]

A demo version of the song was recorded in May 1968 at Kinfauns, George Harrison's home in Esher. It appears on Anthology 3.[3] In this version, Mustard's sister is named Shirley.[4] 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."[4]

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, as well as Abbey Road's 2019 Super Deluxe Edition.

Origin

A newspaper article from the 1960s with the headline "Scotsman's Meanness was Legendary" has been retrieved which features a man called John Mustard, who lived in Enfield, Middlesex. It has been suggested that Lennon based the song on this.[5]

Personnel

Cover versions
  • Booker T. & the MGs on their 1970 album McLemore Avenue.
  • Lazlo Bane's added it as the Japanese exclusive bonus track to the 11 Transistor album.
  • When Mojo released Abbey Road Now! in 2009, part of a continuing series of CDs of Beatles albums covered track-by-track by modern artists, "Mean Mr. Mustard" was covered by Cornershop alongside "Polythene Pam".[6]
  • Beatallica did a version that was originally titled "Mean Mr. Mustaine" in reference to former Metallica guitarist and Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine, before their label forced them to use the original lyrics.[7] The music is based on "The Four Horsemen", a track Mustaine helped write under the title "Mechanix" and recorded the way he had composed with Megadeth.[8]

Notes
  1. Lewisohn 1988, p. 182.
  2. Turner 2005, p. 195.
  3. Lewisohn 1996, p. 7.
  4. The Beatles 2000, p. 337.
  5. "Beatle Stories". Retrieved 8 October 2019 – via YouTube.
  6. "Abbey Road Now – Track Listing – Mojo Cover CDs – The Definitive List". Archived from the original on 23 August 2014.
  7. "» Beatallica Guitarist Discusses 'Abbey Load' – Metal Assault: Interviews".
  8. "Beatallica – Ok some of you have already figured this one... – Facebook".
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References
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