What's the New Mary Jane
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| "What's The New Mary Jane" | ||
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| Song by The Beatles | ||
| Released | October 28, 1996 | |
| Recorded | August 14, 1968 (Basic Tracking) |
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| Genre | Psychedelic Rock/Musique concrète/Experimental music | |
| Length | 6:12 (released version) | |
| Label | Apple Records | |
| Writer(s) | Lennon/McCartney | |
| Producer(s) | George Martin | |
"What's The New Mary Jane" is a song written by John Lennon and performed by The Beatles. It was recorded in 1968 for the album The Beatles (aka "The White Album"), but never used. "What's The New Mary Jane" is similar to "Revolution 9" in many ways.
‘Mary Jane’ was recorded on August 14, 1968 during the recording sessions for the Beatles tenth album The Beatles (aka "The White Album"), with Lennon and George Harrison being the only band members playing on the track. Four takes were recorded with the final being marked as the best. It was later mixed in mono on 26 September with Glass Onion, Happiness Is a Warm Gun and I Will and on the 10 October before being added to the short list for the new album. However during the albums final mixing stage it was dropped due to time constraints, bringing the album to around 30 songs.
After the release of The Beatles Lennon was still adamant to see the song released. So on November 26, 1969, he and wife Yoko Ono recorded further overdubs with plans for it to be issued as a single by The Plastic Ono Band alongside another unreleased song at the time "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)" (which was issued as the B-side of The Beatles' "Let It Be" single in 1970). But when the other Beatles heard of John’s plans to release a Beatle track under his own band's name the single was pulled. After that, the song had finally been planned to be issued on the album Sessions in 1985, but the album was killed due to objections by the Beatles. The song was held off another 10 years, during which time it gained a certain aura of mystery. During this time, it could only be heard via bootlegs like Esher Demos, From Kinfauns to Chaos, Ultra Rare Trax Vol.5, and What A Shame, Mary Jane Had A Pain At The Party, which is an album that is solely dedicated to this song. A newly mixed version of the recording was finally officially released on the 1996 compilation Anthology 3.
Later, Lennon commented on "What's The New Mary Jane", saying, "That was me, Yoko, and George sitting on the floor at EMI fooling around. Pretty good, huh?"
[edit] Song Structure
It has two verses and a chorus (which is repeated about 9 or 10 times throughout the song) and then about 4 or 5 minutes of avant garde sound effects. The track ends with a comment from Lennon: "Let's hear it, before we get taken a[way]" before the tape ends abruptly.
The only chords used in the song are: D, G, Gm, and A.
[edit] Other Information
Another belief is that the song was influenced by Syd Barrett, the early leader of Pink Floyd, who were recording at Abbey Road Studios at the same time as The Beatles in 1967. A long-standing legend states that Barrett actually appeared on and co-wrote the track, leading to the song's tenuous inclusion on many Pink Floyd bootlegs. However, nobody who was actually present at the recording has ever corroborated this.
Also the phrase Mary Jane is generally considered to be slang for marijuana. Bob Dylan introduced The Beatles to marijuana (1964) in a New York hotel room when he offered the Fab Four pot as a consequence of his misconception that the lyrics in their hit song "I Want to Hold Your Hand" (from Meet the Beatles!) were "I get high" instead of "I can't hide".
