Mean Mr

Mean Mr. Mustard

Lennon/McCartney

Lyrics:
Mean Mr. Mustard sleeps in the park
shaves in the dark, tries to save paper
Sleeps in a hole in the road
Saving up to buy him 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

Availability:
Abbey Road
Anthology 3

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

What Goes On? Anomalies

0:30-End
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.

Notes:

Written by Lennon, this song was inspired by a newspaper article about an old miser who would conceal his cash wherever he could hide it, to prevent others from forcing him to spend it. Another inspiration was a "bag lady," that Lennon observed one day who used to hang out in Hyde Park near Knightsbridge. She kept all her possessions in a plastic bag and slept in the park.