Taxman

Composition and recording

Harrison said, "'Taxman' was when I first realised that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes. It was and still is typical." As their earnings placed them in the top tax bracket in the United Kingdom, the Beatles were liable to a 95% supertax introduced by Harold Wilson's Labour government (hence the lyrics "There's one for you, nineteen for me", referring to the pre-decimal pound sterling which consisted of twenty shillings). In a 1984 interview with Playboy magazine, Paul McCartney explained: "George wrote that and I played guitar on it. He wrote it in anger at finding out what the taxman did. He had never known before then what he'll do with your money."

John Lennon recalled, in a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine: "I remember the day he [Harrison] called to ask for help on 'Taxman', one of his first songs. I threw in a few one-liners to help the song along, because that's what he asked for. He came to me because he couldn't go to Paul, because Paul wouldn't have helped him at that period. I didn't want to do it ... I just sort of bit my tongue and said OK. It had been John and Paul for so long, he'd been left out because he hadn't been a songwriter up until then." "Taxman", however, was the sixth song written by Harrison to be included on an album issued by the group.

The backing vocals' references to "Mr Wilson" and "Mr Heath", suggested by Lennon, refer respectively to Harold Wilson and Edward Heath; the former was the leader of the Labour Party and the latter the leader of the Conservative Party, the two largest parties in British politics. Wilson, then Prime Minister, had nominated all four of The Beatles as Members of the Order of the British Empire just the previous year. The chanted names replaced two refrains of "Anybody got a bit of money?" heard in take 11, an earlier version that was subsequently released on Anthology 2 in 1996.

Recording began on 20 April, but this was left unused and ten new takes occurred on 21 April, the four tracks being filled that day with drums and bass, Harrison's distorted rhythm guitar, overdubs of his vocal and Lennon and McCartney's backing vocals. The ending was created on 21 June.

As the lead track on Revolver, "Taxman" represents the only time a UK-issued Beatles studio album opened with a Harrison song or lead vocal.

Musical characteristics

The song is in the key of D major and in 4/4 time. The recording begins before the actual song with coughing and counting (pointedly cut short — the real count being heard in the background) that McCartney described as sounds that were on the tape, and that Lennon "thought [the listeners] would like to hear." The counting, sounding like a half-speed 'tape-effect' version of the brisk 'live-effect' "one-two-three-four" that opened their first LP record, has been described as an "elaborate conceptual joke" with hints of "self-mockery."

The chords stress the flat VII scale degree (C-natural in the key of D major) and frequently involve a major/minor I chord (D/Dm) in the harmony, which consequently evokes either Mixolydian or Dorian modes. There is one flat-III (F chord) near the end, but unusually no V (A) chord. The song is also notable musically for its use of both a 5th-string voicing of the dominant seventh sharp ninth chord to embellish the tonic D7 chord at the end of each two-line verse (at 0.12 and 0.19secs), and a 6th-string form to create a complementary "jarring dissonance" with the lyrics in the subdominant (IV) G chord (to a G7#9) at 1.29 (after the solo) on "Cause I'm the taxman, yeah — I'm the taxman". This also accentuates the comic comparison between this "civil servant superhero" and the hero of the popular 1966 television series Batman. McCartney's bass line has been considered to imitate Motown bassist James Jamerson in its active lines and glissandi (at 0.55-1.08) In the third verse McCartney doubles his own pentatonic bass line while outlining the jarring Iflat7 chord in octaves (at 1.32-1.44).

McCartney's guitar solo uses what musicologist Alan W. Pollack describes as "fast triplets, exotic modal touches, and a melodic shape which traverses several octaves and ends with a breathtaking upward flourish". Walter Everett considers that McCartney's solo is in the same Dorian mode adapted by Harrison in "Love You To". In 1987, Harrison stated: "I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on 'Taxman'. If you notice, he did like a little Indian bit on it for me." Ian MacDonald praised McCartney's contributions to the song saying his guitar solo was "outstanding" and his bass part was "remarkable".

Legacy

In the show Love, the guitar solo was sampled in the piece "Drive My Car"/"The Word"/"What You're Doing".

"Taxman" was included in Harrison's concert repertoire during his solo career; on his tour of Japan in 1991 with Eric Clapton, "Taxman" was on the set list. "It's a song that goes regardless if it's the sixties, seventies, eighties or nineties," Harrison declared. "There's always a taxman." Harrison added more lyrics on that tour, such as "If you're overweight, I'll tax your fat."

In the U.S., radio disc jockeys and TV news reporters annually feature the song in the days leading up to 15 April, the date by which US income tax returns must usually be filed. Some post offices have even been known to sardonically play the song on in-house audio systems for the long lines of last-minute tax filers. In 2002 tax preparation service H&R Block used a slower-paced cover version of the song in television commercials.

In 2006, Virginia State Senator and future Republican gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli introduced an amendment to make "Taxman" the state song of Virginia, stating that taxes were an important part of Virginia history. He gave the example of Patrick Henry's strong opposition to British taxation during the American Revolution. The measure did not pass.

A cover version by Stevie Ray Vaughan was included on his posthumous Greatest Hits album.

Personnel

Personnel per MacDonald

Other versions