Written by: Harrison
Recorded: 20-22 April, 16 May, 21 June 1966
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick
Released: 5 August 1966 (UK), 8 August 1966 (US)
George Harrison: vocals, lead guitar
John Lennon: backing vocals
Paul McCartney: backing vocals, lead guitar, bass
Ringo Starr: drums, tambourine, cowbell
Available on:
Revolver
Anthology 2
The song which kicked off Revolver, The Beatles' 1966 masterpiece, was a bitter attack on Britain's supertax system written by George Harrison.
Inspiration for Taxman came after Harrison discovered how much of The Beatles' earnings went straight to the Treasury.
I had discovered I was paying a huge amount of money to the taxman. You are so happy that you've finally started earning money - and then you find out about tax.
In those days we paid 19 shillings and sixpence [96p] out of every pound, and with supertax and surtax and tax-tax it was ridiculous - a heavy penalty to pay for making money. That was a big turn-off for Britain. Anybody who ever made any money moved to America or somewhere else.
Anthology
In writing the song, Harrison was grudgingly helped by John Lennon. It was Lennon's suggestion to use the names of both prime minister Harold Wilson and opposition leader Edward Heath, the first living people to be directly named in a Beatles song.
I remember the day he 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 thought, Oh, no, don't tell me I have to work on George's stuff. It's enough doing my own and Paul's. But because I loved him and I didn't want to hurt him when he called that afternoon and said, 'Will you help me with this song?' 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.
All We Are Saying, David Sheff
In the studio
Recording for the song began on 20 April 1966, when The Beatles taped four takes, two of which were complete. They rearranged it overnight, and the following day recorded 11 new takes, the first 10 of which were of the rhythm track only.
The Anthology 2 collection features take 11 of the song, the first with vocals. The most notable difference between this and the Revolver version is the replacement of the 'Mr Wilson, Mr Heath' section with Lennon and McCartney's repeated falsetto "Anybody got a bit of money?"
On 22 April Ringo Starr added his cowbell part, and the 'Mr Wilson, Mr Heath' lines made their appearance. Then the track was left alone until 16 May, when the count-in was added and the song was mixed for mono.
George Harrison was pleased with McCartney's guitar solo, particularly the Indian-influenced descending scale at the end. It was recorded on 21 April, and the solo was repeated to close the song during a mixing and edit session on 21 June.
The guitar part was later reversed, slowed down a tone, edited and used during the instrumental break in Tomorrow Never Knows - it is recognisable mostly by the octave leap in the solo.
Thanks for the info about the guitar part which was altered and used for Tomorrow Never Knows.
Are you sure its not John that plays tambourine?
Is there an official, authoritative source confirming that Paul's "Taxman" solo found its way into "Tomorrow Never Knows"? 'Cause I've heard that before and don't believe it. I've listened to TNK's five guitar segments sped up, reversed (i.e. played forwards) and in various juxtopositions; and, aside from that octave leap, can't find any substantial sequence of notes in common between the two recordings. Besides, wasn't TNK famously the FIRST song recorded for the Revolver sessions? It was finished April 22, and Paul didn't record his "Taxman" solo until May 16!
I think Ian MacDonald was the first to point it out, in Revolution In The Head. However, there are a number of minor errors in that book, and this may be one of them. I confess I haven't tried reversing the TNK solo to hear the differences.
The dates may match up. The Taxman solo was recorded on 21 April (the second solo at the song's end was a repeat, edited in on 21 June). Maybe they used a different take from the same Taxman session for the TKN solo, adding it on 22 April.
(...OK, May 16 is incorrect, please ignore. That's the date that was given at the top of the page when I posted that; it's since been corrected.)
My full detailed (boring) analysis on the Tomorrow Never Knows page...
Everett’s take:
The first four tracks were filled with drums, bass, George’s distorted rhythm guitar and his overdubbed vocal with John & Paul’s backing vocals in the chorus and bridge.
These were reduced to two tracks with the vocals mixed together (George’s vocal being heavily compressed and treated with ADT) and the signal from the drums / bass track split between the guitar and vocal tracks.
Following the reduction a third track was given a tambourine and Paul’s distorted Casino with heavy Bigsby and feedback through the Vox amp. The fourth track was filled with cowbell.
With the tracks again filled John & Paul wished to add more backing vocals so they punched out part of the Casino / tambourine track to add the “Ha Ha Mr Wilson…” bits.
The “count in” (left, right and centre) was added to the beginning of the song and the ending was created by splicing an alternate mix of the Casino solo – heard this time with cowbell – onto a previous cold ending.