Mean Mr. Mustard

"Mean Mr. Mustard"
Song

"Mean Mr. Mustard" is the name of a song written by John Lennon (although credited to Lennon-McCartney) and performed by The Beatles on their album, Abbey Road (also released on Anthology 3). Written in India, John 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.

Tony Bramwell offers a secondary interpretation: "There was an old 'bag lady' who used to hang around the Knightsbridge end of Hyde Park, London, close to the army barracks. She had all her possessions in plastic bags and slept in the park. I'm sure that she had something to do with the song."

In the original version of the lyrics, Mustard's sister is named Shelley. 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. Additionally, the original version of the song was a quieter acoustic rendition.

This song was recorded with "Sun King" in one continuous piece.

The version on the film version of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 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. It is also reported that Steven Tyler also performed in this version.

References

• Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song, Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 0-06-095065-X