Recording: Taxman

Studio Two, EMI Studios, Abbey Road
Producer: George Martin
Engineer: Geoff Emerick

Although they had recorded four takes of the song on the previous day, The Beatles started work afresh on George Harrison’s ‘Taxman’, the song which opened Revolver.

Between 2.30pm and 12.50am the following morning, The Beatles recorded 11 takes of the song, the last of which was the only one to feature vocals, and which became the basis of the final version. Track one of the four-track tape featured guitar, bass and drums; Harrison added two lead vocal overdubs onto tracks two and three; and the fourth track had a lead guitar solo by Paul McCartney, tambourine by Ringo Starr, and backing vocals by McCartney and John Lennon.

The song’s count-in, which was included at the beginning of Revolver, was from take 11. The backing vocals, meanwhile, had Lennon and McCartney singing “Anybody got a bit of money?” in falsetto, instead of the “Mr Wilson/Mr Heath” parts which were added later. The song as it was at this stage was later mixed and included on 1996’s Anthology 2.

The following day a tape reduction mix was made to free up space on the tape, and more instruments and vocals were added.