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Polythene Pam
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
John Lennon:
Vocals, 12-string acoustic guitar
Paul McCartney: Vocals, bass guitar, lead guitar, piano,
electric piano
George Harrison: Lead guitar
Ringo Starr: Drums, tambourine, maracas, cowbell
Recorded
July 25, 28, 30 1969.
Available on:
Abbey
Road
The Beatles 1967-1970(The Blue Album)
Anthology 3
Written
by John Lennon in India, Polythene Pam was largely based
on a girl the Beatles had known in Liverpool during their
pre-fame Cavern Club days in the early 1960s. The girl's
name was not Pam, however, but Pat (then Hodgett, later
Dawson.) The only thing that directly links Pat to the song
was her unusual habit of eating polythene. In fact she used
to eat so much of it that she was known as "Polythene
Pat."
"I
just used to eat polythene all the time," she told
Steve Turner in his book A
Hard Days Write.
"I'd
tie it in knots and then eat it. Sometimes I even used to
burn it and then eat it when it got cold. Then I had a friend
who got a job in a polythene bag factory, which was wonderful
because it meant I had constant supply."
Polythene
Pam was considered for The
White Album in 1968, but never used. Instead, it was
linked together with Paul's She
Came In Through The Bathroom Window on Abbey Road. The
two songs were, like Sun
King and Mean
Mr Mustard, recorded as one continuous piece.
It was
a very strong group perfomance, although John Lennon was
unhappy with Ringo's drumming on the track, and made a sarcastic
remark that it sounded like Dace Clark. This upset Ringo,
who decided to overdub a new drum part the same night. After
several hours of hard work, Ringo managed to pull of the
perfect beat. Paul McCartney also overdubbed his bass line.
In later years, he often overdubbed his bass after all the
other instruments had been recorded, since it gave him more
freedom for creative experiments. On Polythene Pam, he even
played a little mistake, which they decided to leave in
just for fun.
Engineer
Geoff Emerick wrote in his book Here,
There and Everywhere that Polythene Pam was a fun track
to record, and that he at the time told Producer George
Martin that it sounded like old-style Beatles from around
1963. "You're right," Martin had replied, "You'd
never guess that the four of them actually can't stand each
other."
Polythene Pam
(John Lennon/Paul McCartney)
Well you should see Polythene Pam
She's so good looking
But she looks like a man
Well, you should see her in drag
dressed in a polythene bag
Yes you should see Polythene Pam
Yeh, yeh, yeh
Get a
dose of her in jackboot and kilt
She's killer diller when
she's dressed to the hilt
She's the kind of a girl
that makes the news of the world
Yes you could say she was attractively built
Yeah, yeah, yeah
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