Polythene Pam
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| "Polythene Pam" | ||
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| Song by The Beatles | ||
| from the album Abbey Road | ||
| Released | 26 September 1969 | |
| Recorded | 25 July-30 July 1969 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | 1:12 | |
| Label | Apple Records | |
| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
| Abbey Road track listing | ||
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"Polythene Pam" is the name of a song written by John Lennon (although credited to Lennon-McCartney) and performed by The Beatles on their final album, Abbey Road. Structured as a limerick, the song is superficially about "a mythical Liverpool scrubber dressed up in her jackboots and kilt", the kind of girl who "makes the News of the World", but in actuality was inspired by an evening that John spent with poet Royston Ellis and his girlfriend, Stephanie. The three wore polythene (a common British contraction of the word polyethylene) bags and slept in the same bed out of curiosity about kinky sex. Incidentally, John would later admit in the 1980 interview with Playboy that Ellis was the first person to introduce The Beatles to 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, the song is linked with the previous song ("Mean Mr. Mustard") both musically (the two run together without pause) and narratively (since "Mean Mr. Mustard" mentions that Mr. Mustard has a sister named Pam before launching into the song about her). "Polythene Pam" also runs directly into the next song, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window". Technically, "Polythene Pam" is over at the end of the guitar solo, at which point Lennon says, "We'll listen to that now," then Lennon laughs, next followed by "Oh, look out!"
At 0:47, someone picks up a maraca and, in the right channel, Paul McCartney can be heard saying "Yeah," while Lennon says, "Great".
In 1976, Roy Wood of ELO recorded the song for the ephemeral musical documentary All This and World War II.
[edit] References
- Turner, Steve. A Hard Day's Write: The Stories Behind Every Beatles' Song, Harper, New York: 1994, ISBN 0-06-095065-X
- Alan W. Pollack's Notes on "Polythene Pam"
- What Goes On?
