Mean Mr. Mustard Lyrics



Lennon/McCartney


Mean Mister 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

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

 
Lead Singer: John

Recording: 7/24/69, 7/25/69, 7/29/69
Mixing: 7/30/69, 8/14/69, 8/21/69
Length: 1:06
Take: 35

Anomalies

0:30-End * NEW *
Up to here the tambourine playing was solid. But, from 0:24 onwards, as Kent Rodway put it, " for the last half of the song, it fades out, quits, hits out of beat, overall, a very poor effort. Or perhaps they cut it and meant it that way..." In fact, on listening to it, what is actually happening is that the tambourine fades down every time Paul adds his backing vocal lines, beginning with two "Mean old man" lines, and then for every line of vocals onward where Paul joins in on harmony. This seems like a compressor problem, everytime the vocal comes in (louder than the tambourine) it drives down the level of the tambourine.

John Lennon wrote most of this when he was in India at the Maharishi's meditation camp with the other Beatles.
Lennon got the idea for this from a newspaper story about a mean man who hid his money.
The Beatles recorded this as one song with "Sun King." It's part of a suite of songs at the end of Abbey Road.
The Beatles considered using this on The White Album, but decided not to.
 
Abbey Road Lyrics   

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