Music Reissues Weekly: The Beatles - What's The New, Mary Jane

“What's the New Mary Jane” is a nursery rhyme-like song, one of John Lennon’s most peculiar offerings. It was recorded for late 1968’s double album The Beatles (i.e. the White Album) but, literally, did not make the cut. Nonetheless, John Lennon would not let it go.

A year on, he moved ahead with getting “What's the New Mary Jane” onto a single. That too did not happen. The first official release came with 1996’s Beatles’ archive set Anthology 3. Now, the thoughtful and well-packaged What's The New, Mary Jane album is dedicated to multiple versions of “What's the New Mary Jane.” Nothing else. They vary in length, have different overdubs, were mixed or remixed at various times. Although each one is not the same as the other, it’s pretty close to a “What's the New Mary Jane” mega mix.

On one hand, as it includes numerous versions of a challenging song, this album is hard going. On the other, it’s fascinating testimony to how an off-cut refused to be brushed under the carpet. Whatever the ins and outs, the “What's the New Mary Jane” story is integral to appreciating the messiness of the drawn-out disintegration of The Beatles. Above all, though, the What's The New, Mary Jane album is a huge amount of fun. (pictured right, the front cover of the What's The New, Mary Jane album)

The first the world knew of “What's the New Mary Jane” was when a new single on the Beatles’ Apple label was scheduled for release on 5 December 1969. Its A-side was to be “You Know my Name (Look up the Number).” On the flip, “What's the New, Mary Jane.” In preparation, editing, mixing, overdubbing and mastering sessions for both tracks were held at Abbey Road on 11 September and 26 November 1969. The resultant single was to be credited to the Plastic Ono Band. It never came out.

“You Know my Name (Look up the Number)” was a John Lennon-driven song recorded on 17 May and 7 June 1967. It was worked on in the wake of the completion and release of the Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The initial “What's the New, Mary Jane” session was on 12 August 1968. There was mixing on 26 September and 14 October 1968 with a view to its inclusion on the White Album.

All of this raises questions about what blocked the release of 1969’s “You Know my Name (Look up the Number)” / “What's the New Mary Jane” single. As the leading Beatles scholar Mark Lewisohn has pointed out, both tracks were Beatles recordings not Lennon extra-curricular ventures. It is therefore highly probable the other Beatles and/or EMI, their label, did not want the two rejected tracks to come out with the words “Plastic Ono Band” on the label. Or, maybe, to come out at all. In the end, “You Know my Name (Look up the Number)” was shoved onto the B-side of “Let it be,” the final Beatles single.

“What's the New, Mary Jane” was set adrift. It began turning up on bootleg albums in the early Seventies. The first was probably 1973’s Mary Jane (also known as Spicy Beatles Songs). As the digging continued, it became clear there were alternate versions. An official release came with 1996’s Anthology 3. In 2018, a demo of “What's the New, Mary Jane” was included on the White Album box set. This was recorded in May 1968 at George Harrison’s Esher home along with a raft of other then-new songs which ended up on the White Album. (pictured left, the back cover of the What's The New, Mary Jane album)

It’s probable – as with other songs taped at Esher – that “What's the New Mary Jane” was written in India. It is also probable that, like “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill,” “Dear Prudence” and “Sexy Sadie," it draws from experiences of being in India. Mary Jane, whoever she was, had a “pain at the party.” She had “good contacts” and was “making with Apple an contract.” Suggestions it is about Yoko Ono might also be plausible.

As the Esher demo shows, despite its peculiarity, “What's The New Mary Jane” is structured. It has a form. Nonetheless, this oddity is a bizarre, queasy, see-sawing recitation with lyrics which make sense on a line-by-line basis but taken together amount to more of a jumble than those of “I am the Walrus.” Eighteen months or so after it was recorded, former Pink Floyd member Syd Barrett was taping solo material along the lines of “What's the New Mary Jane.” This extraordinary song is impossible to fully pin down. Despite the appearance of the terrific What's The New, Mary Jane album, it remains an insoluble conundrum. Perhaps, had he lived, John Lennon would be happy with this.

• Next week: Just One More Chance – Anthology 1965-1968. Aptly titled double CD dedicated to in-the-margins British Sixties band The Outer Limits
  
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