He's wearing pink pajamas 'cause he comes from a farm He said, 'I don't like 'Her Majesty,' throw it away,' so I cut it out – but I accidentally left in the last note. He apparently hadn't fully developed this bridge at the time, the lyrics consisting of “Mean Mr. Mustard, he's such a dirty, dirty” repeated three times. “Mean Mr. Mustard”
[3] In that version, Mustard's sister is named Shirley. However, at this point, the first half of the medley was deemed complete and this session was over at 2:30 am the following morning.
Chris Stein of Blondie shares photos and stories from his book about the New York City punk scene. October 28th, 1996 was the release date for the album “Anthology 3” which contains the original demo of “Mean Mr. Mustard” that John recorded at George's 'Kinfauns' home on May 28th, 1968.
And so, on July 24th, 1969, The Beatles started recording a composite John Lennon track with the working title of “Here Comes The Sun-King,” the first half of which was a mellow song we would eventually refer to as “Sun King” and the second half being the more up-tempo two verses of “Mean Mr. Mustard.” After the rolling introductory drum fill from Ringo, the instrumentation of the first verse consists of the following: John on double-tracked lead vocals, electric rhythm guitar and subtle piano, Paul on bass played through a fuzz box and double-tracked harmony vocals (which appear in measures eleven and thirteen), George on electric rhythm guitar and Ringo on drums and tambourine (which first appears in measure four and continues throughout). This Lennon quote from his 1980 Playboy Magazine interview specifies that his inspiration for “Mean Mr. Mustard” came from something he read in a newspaper article. Beatles songs that were centered around fictional characters were almost always written by Paul, this being his forte. With the song “Her Majesty” now removed from the running order, “Mean Mr. Mustard” needed to be followed immediately by “Polythene Pam” to keep the medley going.
"Mean Mr. Mustard” was, however, passed over for inclusion on the “White Album,” but John did resurrect the song during the January, 1969 sessions that eventually became the “Let It Be” film and soundtrack album. I said to Paul, 'What shall I do with it?' Since they were isolated from most civilization during their stay, thereby not having access to newspapers, John was no doubt recalling one of the above mentioned articles that he had read shortly before he left home.
Other noteworthy elements on this demo include how the main character's sister was originally named “Shirley,” inspired possibly by Shirley Evans who was the accordionist that appears in the “Magical Mystery Tour” film, this inspiration suggested by Ian MacDonald in his book “Revolution In The Head.” Also, we hear one of John's double-tracked vocals utter the word “sheeps” before the lyric “sleeps in a hole in the road.” Since the released version of the song does reveal Lennon singing “sheeps,” this suggests that John was possibly referring to the song's main character defecating in the hole in the road. Likewise, Ringo had to quickly switch from using his timpani beaters on the “Sun King” section to his usual sticks in time for the opening drum fill on “Mean Mr. Mustard.” With the rough edit of the “Abbey Road” medley complete, the session ended at 2:30 am the following morning. Therefore, on the following day, July 30th, 1969, they prepared a trial run.