Polythene Pam

Infobox Song
Name = Polythene Pam


Artist = The Beatles
Album = Abbey Road
Released = 26 September 1969
track_no = 12
Recorded = 25 July-30 July 1969
Genre = Rock, Hard rock
Length = 1:12
Writer = Lennon/McCartney
Label = Apple Records
Producer = George Martin
Misc = Extra tracklisting
Album = Abbey Road
Type = studio
Tracks = ;Side one
#"Come Together"
#"Something"
#"Maxwell's Silver Hammer"
#"Oh! Darling"
#"Octopus's Garden"
#"I Want You (She's So Heavy)";Side two
#"Here Comes the Sun"
#"Because"
#"You Never Give Me Your Money"
#"Sun King"
#"Mean Mr. Mustard"
#"Polythene Pam"
#"She Came In Through the Bathroom Window"
#"Golden Slumbers"
#"Carry That Weight"
#"The End"
#"Her Majesty"

"Polythene Pam" a song written by John Lennon, although credited to Lennon-McCartney, and performed by The Beatles on their penultimate album "Abbey Road". The song continues the progression of the medley that begins with "You Never Give Me Your Money" on the album's B-side.

Background

The song was originally introduced during "The White Album" sessions; a demo from the Esher Sessions can be found on "Anthology 3". Lennon would describe this song, along with "Mean Mr. Mustard", in "The Beatles Anthology" as "a bit of crap I wrote in India".

Structured as a limerick, the song is superficially about "a mythical Liverpool Sexual s _sc. drugs when he showed them how to get high from the strips inside a Benzedrine inhaler. It was in this interview that John supplied the details of this event but refused to elaborate further.

On the album "Abbey Road", the song is linked with the previous song "Mean Mr. Mustard" musically, as the two run together without pause. The two songs are also linked narratively, since "Mean Mr. Mustard" mentions that the title character Mustard has a sister named Pam. Originally, the line "his sister Pam..." in the song was "his sister Shirley...", but Lennon would change the line to contribute to the continuity of the "Abbey Road" side two medley. The song "Her Majesty" was originally set between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam".

"Polythene Pam" segues into the following song, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window". At 0:47, someone picks up a tambourine and, in the right channel, Paul McCartney can be heard saying "Yeah," while Lennon says, "Great". Compositionally, "Polythene Pam" ends with the final notes of the guitar solo, at which point Lennon says, "We'll listen to that now." Lennon laughs, followed by "Oh, look out!" and a sudden, nearly-inaudible "You should..." before the transition. In 1976, Roy Wood of Electric Light Orchestra recorded the song for the musical documentary "All This and World War II".

References

*Turner, Steve. "A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song", Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 0-06-095065-X
* [http://www.icce.rug.nl/~soundscapes/DATABASES/AWP/pp.html Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Polythene Pam"]
* [http://www.columbia.edu/~brennan/beatles/anomaly.html What Goes On?]