Mean Mr. Mustard

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

Composition
Written in India, Lennon said that the song 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, he didn't think highly of the composition, describing 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, and appears on Anthology 3. In that 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." Additionally, the original version of the song was a quieter acoustic rendition and was over 4 minutes in length.

Lyrics
[Verse 1]

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

[Verse 2]

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

Other versions
The version in the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band film was performed by Mean Mr. Mustard (played by Frankie Howerd) and his evil robot companions named the Computerettes. As with the performance of "She's Leaving Home" also in the film, the computerized singing of the Computerettes was performed by the Bee Gees.

Credits

 * John Lennon - piano (1905 Steinway Vertegrand), rhythm guitar (1965 Epiphone 230TD Casino), lead vocals
 * Paul McCartney - fuzz bass (1966 Fender Jazz Bass), harmony vocals
 * George Harrison - lead guitar (1957 Gibson Les Paul Standard)
 * Ringo Starr - drums (1968 Ludwig Hollywood Maple), tambourine