Polythene Pam

"Polythene Pam" a song written by John Lennon, although credited to Lennon/McCartney, and performed by The Beatles on their penultimate album Abbey Road. The song continues the progression of the medley that begins with "You Never Give Me Your Money" on the album's B-side.

Background
The song was originally introduced during The White Album sessions; a demo from the Esher Sessions can be found on Anthology 3. Lennon would describe this song, along with "Mean Mr. Mustard", in The Beatles Anthology as "a bit of crap I wrote in India".

Structured as a limerick, the song is superficially about "a mythical Liverpool scrubber dressed up in her jackboots and kilt", the kind of girl who "makes the News of the World". The song is also sung in a very strong Liverpudlian "Scouse" accent. In actuality it was inspired by an evening that John spent with poet Royston Ellis and his girlfriend, Stephanie. The three wore bags made of "polythene", a common British contraction of polyethylene, and slept in the same bed out of curiosity about kinky sex. Incidentally, John would later admit in the 1980 interview with Playboy that Ellis was the first person to introduce The Beatles to drugs when he showed them how to get high from the strips inside a Benzedrine inhaler. It was in this interview that John supplied the details of this event but refused to elaborate further.

The name 'Polythene Pam' came from the nickname of an early Beatles' fan from the Cavern Club days, names Pat Hodgett (now Dawson), who would often eat polythene. She became known as 'Polythene Pat'. She said in an interview, "I used to eat polythene all the time. I'd tie it in knots and then eat it. Sometimes I even used to burn it and then eat it when it got cold."

On the album Abbey Road, the song is linked with the previous song "Mean Mr. Mustard" musically, as the two run together without pause. The two songs are also linked narratively, since "Mean Mr. Mustard" mentions that the title character Mustard has a sister named Pam. Originally, the line "his sister Pam..." in the song was "his sister Shirley...", but Lennon would change the line to contribute to the continuity of the Abbey Road side two medley. The song "Her Majesty" was originally set between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam".

"Polythene Pam" segues into the following song, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window". At 0:47, someone picks up a tambourine and, in the right channel, Paul McCartney can be heard saying "Yeah," while Lennon says, "Great". Compositionally, "Polythene Pam" ends with the final notes of the guitar solo, at which point Lennon says, "We'll listen to that now." Lennon laughs, followed by "Oh, look out!" and a sudden, nearly-inaudible "You should..." before the transition.

In 1976, Roy Wood of Electric Light Orchestra recorded the song for the musical documentary All This and World War II.