Mean Mr. Mustard

This piece, Mean Mr. Mustard, introduces us to a peculiar character, a stingy man who cleverly hid his money. The inspiration for this story came to John Lennon while he was in India, after reading a newspaper article. It spoke of a man named John Mustard, who lived in Enfield, and who had the peculiarity of shaving in the dark, according to a headline from June 7, 1967, in the Daily Record. Lennon imagined this guy hiding five-pound notes in unexpected places so that no one would take them. Curiously, Lennon himself considered this composition to be "a bit of rubbish" he had written on that trip.

The recording of Mean Mr. Mustard was done alongside Sun King, as a single continuous piece, forming part of the medley on the album Abbey Road. It was recorded between July 24 and 29, 1969, at EMI Studios in London, with George Martin as producer and Geoff Emerick and Phil McDonald as engineers. A demo version, recorded in May 1968 at Kinfauns, George Harrison's home in Esher, and featured on Anthology 3, reveals an interesting detail: Mustard's sister was named Shirley. Lennon decided to change the name to Pam to facilitate the transition to the next song on the album, Polythene Pam, making it sound more connected. Originally, the song ended with a D major chord, intended to link to Her Majesty, but with the latter moved to the end of the record, Mean Mr. Mustard directly joins Polythene Pam. The total duration of the song is 1:06.