Polythene Pam – Genji Siraisi
Recorded on May 20, 2009, original version recorded on July 25-30, 1969.
Genji Siriasi: Vocals, Drums
Roger Greenawalt: Ukulele, Bass
Produced by Roger Greenawalt at Shabby Road Studio in Brooklyn, NY
About the Song
Polythene Pam is a song fragment by John Lennon from the final Beatle album, Abbey Road. It follows Mean Mr. Mustard and leads into She Came In Through The Bathroom Window.
Mean Mr. Mustard and Polythene Pam seem like connected writing assignments. That is, once Paul’s idea of making an extended suite out of the last 8 songs on Abbey Road became the agenda, John sort of lost interest and phoned it in a bit. There’s almost a malicious quality to the narratives of Mean Mr. M and P. Pam. They are a nasty pair. A Dirty Old Man and his drug dealing drag queen sister/son. Trying to ruin Paul’s pretty fantasy world.
Lennon was a pro. He wrote for a living, on a deadline. He preferred inspiration, like all sensible artists, but he did not rely on it. That’s because inspiration is for amateurs.
There’s a lovely poem of John’s that starts “A is for parrot which we can plainly see.”
Look it up. It reminds me of these tunes. Mean Mr. Mustard uses alliteration, a lazy but effective trope, which he continues with Polythene Pam. I imagine there is an N song, Naughty Nurse Nancy, and an O song Ono Ono, Oh No, written at the same time, that are lost in a notebook somewhere. Go find it Yoko.
“Well have you seen Polythene Pam? She’s so good looking but she looks like a man.”
“Well you should see her in drag, dressed in her polythene bag, Yes have you seen Polythene Pam?”
Lennon is an honest writer. And an honest singer. The lead vocal on Polythene Pam is persuasive. Believable. How you say something massively influences how you’re heard.
I’m from DC. I notice now that when I ask a favor from the waiter, or talk to a girl I like, I lapse into an exaggerated Maryland accent, a mannerism I’ve picked up in the last few years from my friends, The Pierces, who are Alabamazons. They use a thick southern accent whenever discussing private or personal things. So too Lennon here.
On Polythene Pam, Lennon is paving the way for Punk. First, in the use of his native, Liverpudlian Scouse accent. A decidedly down class accent. His pretend “real” accent. Not a voice he used much. This is juxtaposed with an extremely unsavory social outcast character study.
And the story? Lennon said that this song was about a threesome. Initiated by a poet who had first turned The Beatles onto Benzedrine. The lyrics seem to be about a drag queen drug dealer, and uses all sorts of gender/blender references, I particularly like the word “kilt”, a Scottish man’s skirt. “Get a dose of her in jackboots and kilt.” Drugs and sex are completely conflated here. Lennon sang it fast and in a weird accent to try to sneak it by the parents. But now we know better.
On a Gayness scale of one to ten, ten being Liberace, and one being John Wayne, having a threesome, two guys one girl, is an eight.
Please do not think I’m on some kind of “John is The Big Gay Beatle” agenda here, I’m just reporting. Lots of rumors flew when John jetted off on vacation in Spain with his rich, handsome, gay manager, leaving his new wife and child behind. It was no secret that Brian Epstein was obsessed/in love with Lennon. It is not beyond belief that John would deign to give a pity hand job to the man who had made him rich and famous. People do a lot worse than that everyday to achieve success, forget about The Beatles level of world wide unprecedented celebrity.
Much has been made of John Lennon’s “Lost Weekend.” These are the three years he spent in LA with May Pang, drunk constantly and occasionally behaving like a public disgrace. The lost years are not “lost” to us, the listener. We have all the amazing records he made and produced for others. The lost years are really 1975-80, living as a recluse with Yoko and Sean, and making no work. I hope the bread baking and diaper changing was therapeutic, but I would have preferred more songs and paintings and books. If only he had known he didn’t have long.
Ultimately “The Lost Years” are the 30 or so years he has spent being dead.
During the supposedly “Lost Weekend”, Lennon made lots of amazing records with his Famous Gay Friends On Drugs. Exhibit One. John singing Fame with David Bowie. Very Meta. Our very own David barratt of Roger and Dave remixed Fame in 1990 . Fame sylistically prefigured disco, a not un-gay genre. Subsequently, John sang background vocals on Elton’s a cover of the Beatle’s song Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds.
Lennon had another number one single during this period, Whatever Gets You Through The Night. This time Elton is singing backing vocals for him. The lyrics are very self-helpy, yet urgent, as if John is forgiving himself for being so damn bi-curious on blow at 4 in the morning.
Elton John dared John Lennon that if their version of Lucy went to number one, John would have to play the song live onstage with him at Madison Square Garden. Never thinking it would happen, Lennon agreed. But it did go to number one. Elton, ever ambitious, called in the bet. John nervously, did the gig. Elton orchestrated a reunion with Yoko backstage. It stuck. They had a baby. Weekend over.
Anywho….back to music.
I like how this song sounds. Drummers, take notice. Ringo does not touch his cymbals, or hi hats. Hero! Kick drum, tom tom, snare. Shakers and tambourines are overdubbed. The tambourine is not too loud! Remarkable. The acoustic guitar playing a Who-Like progression that substitutes for the hi hat. Lennon’s lead vocal is vicious and delayed in stereo. The backing vocals are ooh-has, and then go to “Yea Yea Yea,” a Beatle in joke, the hook of their breakthrough single She Loves You.
Our version of Polythene Pam features mighty drummer and vocalist Genji Siriasi. The initial conception was to do the tune Sex Pistols style, because PP is so proto-punk. But since I always liked Public Image Ltd. better than the Sex Pistols, that became the model. P.I.L teaches us to be as depressing as possible. Slow the tempo down to funereal. Add Reggae bass. Use a down class accent. But then we got carried away with all the pretty yea yea yeas, and of course, ukulele, the most cheerful of all possible instruments, hence, the results sounds improbably:
Happy.
As it should be. Sex and drugs are FUN!