‘Taxman’, the song which kicked off The Beatles’ 1966 masterpiece Revolver, was written by George Harrison and was a bitter attack on Britain’s supertax system.
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 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
When writing ‘Taxman’, 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
Let me tell you how it will be
There’s one for you, nineteen for me
‘Cause I’m the Taxman#IMeMine – The Extended edition pic.twitter.com/4Dqf26Gs0k— George Harrison (@GeorgeHarrison) August 14, 2017
In the studio
The recording of ‘Taxman’ 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 John Lennon and Paul McCartney’s repeated falsetto “Anybody got a bit of money?” The final version’s famous count-in, spoken by McCartney, was from this take.
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 song was mixed for mono.
George Harrison was pleased with McCartney’s guitar solo on ‘Taxman’, 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.
Although it has been claimed that the guitar solo was later reversed, slowed down a tone, edited and used during the instrumental break in ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, the two parts are quite different and were likely recorded on different days.
Are you sure its not John that plays tambourine?
If that’s George doing the count in, what did they do to his voice to make it that low (and slow)?
Nothing probably. That’s just George putting on a voice to do the fake count-in. In the background you can hear the real count-in by Paul.
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.
It hurts me that the solo on this is by Paul and not George. He played so much kick ass lead guitar, when George couldn’t. Good morining, Helter Skelter, Sgt. Pepper (song), Ticket to Ride, Drive my Car, Back In the USSR etc. It is a shame how he may the others feel. He really dominated them and this is the real reason they broke up. George really had a problem with Paul because of this and John was jealous of Paul’s abilities.
I don’t understand why you call it a shame. Paul’s musical abilities were miles above the other Beatles. But that they felt bad about it wasn’t really his fault.
It’s sad that us humans feel the need to shine ourselves, and fall into envy when someone more talented overshadows us.
I mean, have you seen Paul’s recent live shows? He goes seamlessly from piano, to acoustic guitar, to bass, to rhythm electric, to lead electric, and back again. Playing equally, or better, than his much younger band members while singing hit after hit. An amazing and timeless talent.
Paul’s talent is incredible, but it’s also because of his ego that he made some really poor albums at the beginning of his solo career. He felt as though he could do everything by himself and was wrong about that, while John and George both had fantastic starts to their respective solo careers.
Really poor albums at the beginning of his solo career??? Which one are those? Are there other albums besides McCartney and Ram in the early days of his solo career. If I’m not mistaken there are those two and then the Wings albums which included some of the best rock of the 70’s. Ram, btw, may be the best solo beatles record. Plastic ono band and all things must pass are on par. I believe that someday, ram will be recognized as the classic that it is. Anyway, I’m tired of people knocking paul’s solo years. He made fantastic records and to state otherwise is to appear willfully ignorant.
Well it’s not really a “solo” album, but “Wings Wild Life” is the earliest Wings LP, and it’s pretty damn weak.
I agree on Wild Life. Having said that, we should keep this page for Taxman comments, before Joe tells us we should use the forum for a more I depth discussion about Paul’s solo work.
It’s not weak, it sucks. I remember running out to buy it and could barely listen to it. I tried one more time and have never listened to it since.
Wings Wild Life , Ram and McCartney are all musically strong and innovative records. I love each of them. Dear Friend ( Wild Life ) is Paul’s definitive John track. Mumbo, Bip Bop, Love is Strange—— fabulous tunes
Just checked our Wild Life again to be sure. The whole damn album’s solid. I’m no Linda fan but she doesn’t hurt it one bit either.
I strongly agree that McCartney and especially Ram and two of Paul’s best.
Early 70s; Macca made songs so inferior they had to have a walking chair to get around. And even then they had problems conquering the edges of the pavements.
I like Ram, but better than All Things Must Pass?’ Mmm, not sure about that! Band On The Run speaks for itself as Venus and Mars (IMO), some of the others vary in quality at times to be fair, but the one thing you can’t take away from Paul is- he kept (and keeps going! Like a footy striker you occasionally miss, but make sure you’re there for the next one!
Paul apparently, has always felt inferior to Beethoven, who might have been slightly better as a composer and pianist, although Paul is still better on the bass.
Not sure if I agree with you on this one. Paul was not miles above John and George, and Paul is and never was anywhere in the same league as George on guitar. I’m sorry. I have complained about this endlessly on some blogs. I don’t understand why anyone would feel Paul is a better guitarist. He plays okay but come on. Harrison took chord structures, slide guitar and scales to a new height. Ask anyone who George played with including Clapton, Russell, Lynne, Petty or Dylan and you will get the same story. Harrison was a very gifted and excellent guitarist.
Yes but when you’re in a band situation you have to BE a band- on the one hand Macca was sad at the band slipping apart but you can’t suddenly ‘run it’ like a solo act with backing musicians and still call it ‘The Beatles’ – it just doesn’t work! On the one hand I can see and totally get Paul’s frustration- he’s really motivated, passionate etc and Lennon is sat there with a face like a squashed lemon. BUT- on the other hand he could’ve been more receptive to George’s songs – after all an extra songwriting hand in a group is an asset to EVERYONE involved – not just royalties, ego, self esteem etc. Easy to sit here 50yrs on of course, The Beatles and their peers were all the first apprentices to ‘the biz’ back then and it’s also easy to look at 1969 with its’ colour and long hair fashion, compared to the black and white of only a short time before and think of them as ‘grown up men’ etc, and why weren’t they ‘more ‘understanding’ to each other. But anyone who’s been in a ‘band situation’ will know full well that it doesn’t take much for resentment to kick in and overide everything else!
Actually, I believe it was George Martin who asked Paul to play the solo for “Taxman” because George just couldn’t get it right. I think George is a great guitarist, but Paul is still better in my opinion.
I think they both were good but Paul was the eager one. George was silent. I don’t know who asked Paul to play it but it was a good idea, the solo is graet. George Martin prefered Paul in my opinion.
George at the time was mastering sitar and lost interest in the guitar! Being that George devoted most of his time mastering the sitar it makes sense that he would be struggling with the solo. He gladly let Paul take over and put his ego aside for the good of the song.
It shouldn’t. The goal was to get the best possible solo. And Paul pulled it off.
Is it just me or does anyone else feel that the recorded quality of Taxman was inferior to all the other songs on the album? I’ve always thought the song sounded muddy, with the instruments not cleanly separated, perhaps the results of too many tape reductions or poor mixing. I’m talking about the US Stereo versions, not the UK Mono. Even the Anthology take seems “off” to me.
I always thought the song sounded better in mono.
That picture was from the Paperback Writer session.
It says here on this website that George was pleased with McCartney’s guitar solo.
Harrison also didn’t seem to mind when John played slide guitar on For You Blue or when Eric Clapton played lead guitar on While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Paul’s guitar solos with the Beatles comes nowhere near the number of Harrison guitar solos.
There are several reasons why the Beatles broke up and Paul’s bossiness is only one of them.
Name one good Harrison guitar solo that is pre 1969?
“Hey Bulldog”, “It’s All Too Much”, “Savoy Truffle”, to name three nice economical ones. None of which are as masterful as “Taxman” or “Good Morning Good Morning”, but whatever. George never seemed to have much interest in flash playing, even as he grew more accomplished.
Sgt Pepper Reprise, fixing a hole, til there was you, and your bird can sing, she said she said, Everybodys got something to hide except for me and my monkey, michelle, every solo on Beatles for Sale…I could go on forever about good Pre 69 goerge solos.
Some of those songs don’t really have “solos”, though – they’ve got leads, but that’s not necessarily the same thing.
ok if you want to get technical 3 of those songs dont have “solos” persay but I get the same relative satisfaction out a of a good guitar fill as i do a solo.
Sure, I can agree. Don’t mind me, I’m just being schoolteacherish.
I notice that many people on here, guitarists among them, seem to miss the distinction between compositional guitar and what I will call mimicry on the guitar. Paul may have been indeed able to learn certain pieces quickly and play them impressively in a very short period of time. Geoff Emerick stated this. But did Paul create the solo/lead on Taxman?
McCartney may have been better at mimicry than Harrison, but who cares?
The creation of melody is far more dear, i.e., rare than guitar mimicry.
There is a word (actually two) for people who are great at playing other people’s stuff; they are called session (or studio) musicians, and Harrison actually did some of that after he left the Beatles; he was no slouch technically on the guitar.
Patti Boyd later stated that Eric Clapton was, in her opinion, slightly better as a guitarist, in a technical sense, than was George Harrison. But Eric Clapton would give anything to be able to compose music on the guitar the way George Harrison did. Paul probably would too, given that most of his own songs were composed on piano, unlike John’s and George’s.
Bottom line, there is stuff that is almost impossible to play on the guitar and guess what, much of it sounds like crap. Technical difficulty means very, very little. Harrison’s riff at the end of Come Together doesn’t sound all that hard to play to me, but it gives me chills every time that I hear it.
Let’s all admit that the Beatles had 3 great composers and 3 1/2 great musicians in the band and try to avoid the sniping.
The Sgt Pepper Reprise and Fixing a Hole solos were played by Paul. Paul and George both recorded the harmonized solo of And Your Bird. The Michelle solo was played on bass by Paul (Luke, you need to brush up on your Beatles chops).
Fixing A Hole Was George. Check your own chops before you insult others
The solo in “Michelle” was George’s guitar, not Paul’s bass.
Sgt Pepper Reprise and Fixing A Hole were both played by George.
“Cry for a Shadow”, “Can’t Buy Me Love”, “I Saw Her Standing There” (especially the live version in Swenden’63), “Kansas City/Hey Hey Hey !!”, “I’m a Loser”, “Long Tall Sally” (the 2nd Bit, the 1st being by John), “Nowhere Man”, “I’m Only Sleeping”, “Savoy Truffle”, “Happiness is a Warm Gun” + “Nothin’ Shaking” (but the leaves on the trees), “Crying, Waiting, Hoping” and “Slow Down” form Live at the BBC + “Hello Goodbye” (the Anthology Version)
Till There Was You, you’re crazy if you don’t think that’s a great solo.
not only is till there was you a great solo (I’ve tried to play it) just watch George play it live on the Ed Sullivan clip – effortless – it’s on youtube
Yeah, that’s a good one – best thing about the song.
Blimey, what is all this kicking one down, building another up business? They were a BAND, a TEAM- doesn’t actually matter who did what in ‘the end.’ A regrouped middle aged Beatles may have had the perspective to see and do things differenrly- but we all know why that couldn’t happen.
I think it’s just me, but doesn’t it sound like there’s a guitar part played to the bass after the solo? Perhaps Lennon?
According to all of the books and sources that are respected for their accuracy, aside from backing vocals, the only contribution from John was the tambourine. Take notice that from Revolver onwards, Johns participation on George’s songs was very limited (in some cases none at all). John had little patience to learn George’s songs. There were a couple exceptions, like when EC came to play on While my Guitar, and when cameras were rolling during the Let it Be sessions. Both times John felt obligated to participate because Beatle outsiders were present.
Yes, for the most part that is true.
But there was no input from any of the other Beatles on George’s Indian songs except for backing vocals from John and Paul at the end of Inner Light.
John and Paul also encouraged George on his vocals for Inner Light.
John did contribute to George’s Piggies (tape loops and one lyric line).
It was John who mentioned to Klein that Something should be an A side single.
I’ve felt that John encouraged the Something “A” side in order to win George’s support in the battle against Paul. There’s a quote somewhere (Lennon Remember?) when John states that he knows how to manipulate people when he wants to and to get them to do what he wants.
George didn’t need much encouragement to join anyone in the “battle” against Paul. George was already in John’s camp and was with John at the Lyceum concert and appeared on Instant Karma.
Exactly, when Lennon was going for ‘the toppermost of the poppermost’ he drove everyone along. Once he lost interest, he didn’t give a crap for anyone else in the band- which was pretty immature and selfish really. Regardless of who wrote or did what from the start, they were all slogging it in Hamburg from the off, Ringo with R Storm and Hurricanes. George prob felt (rightly in my view) he was due a bit more encouragement when his songs startied to come thru- and I for one second that! I know Lennon was more considerate once the 70’s kicked in which was something at least.
I assumed that Paul continued to play the guitar after the solo, doubling his own bass line.
I’d swear on a Beatles Bible that it’s George’s voice on the Taxman count-in except possibly at the very end when you can I believe Paul shouting “three, four!” in the background. George is doing the “one, two, three, four” at the very start.
Yep, that’s George.
I always believed like you do that George counts it in but after listening closely one day I ended up realizing that it’s definitely Paul’s voice on the “1-2-3-4-1-2”, edited as said in the article in front of George’s “real” 3-4 counting… I can also recognize George’s coughing in the background during the “false” counting, which may tend to prove that another voice (Paul’s) counts in simultaneously…
You’re mistaken.
George does the false count-in AND the cough (from different takes obviously).
Paul does the fast 1-2-3-4 in the background.
Yep, this is correct!
A friend of mine told me that the bass was inspired by Batman’s theme (I guess the TV show)
What do you think about it??
“A friend of mine told me that the bass was inspired by Batman’s theme (I guess the TV show).What do you think about it??
Impossible, Batman first aired in the UK in late May 1966, after Taxman was recorded. Although it premiered in the US in January 66, none of the Beatles had been to the US since their summer tour in 65. They would not have known of Batman at the time they were recording Taxman.
sorry Michael – not impossible – in fact, Taxman was indeed inspired by the Batman single – which George was a huge fan of.
A bit of googling will unearth that fact. The Batman single came out in January.
Plus The Beatles would’ve been privy to any early pressings anyway, being that they were..them!
Taxman… electronically manipulated count in then goes into a funky riff over a distorted 7th/ sharp 9 chord (often called “The Jimi Hendrix Chord”). A highly distorted raga styled guitar solo. Song uses Oriental melodies and last verse contains some great unison riffing with its end using a looped guitar solo from original solo. The song fuses raga, funk, psychedelia and hard rock in one song.
The thing I would love to know is how it was decided to open Revolver with Taxman.
It’s a great opener – so there’s no complaint – it’s just opening an album with a George song was rather uncharacteristic of the Beatles – and this album was so groundbreaking – I just wonder how it got decided.
Consider, here they are coming out of Rubber Soul – they know they’ve done something completely new – they know the other songs on the album and they open with Taxman – fascinating.
Has anyone else heard Start by the Jam? It’s directly influenced by Taxman. I think and basically has the same bassline and rhythm guitar as Taxman. Good tribute to Taxman I think.
I think George’s wife and son should sue The Jam for “subconsciously plagiarising” Taxman.
Jam nothing, Ride swiped the bassline for “Seagull”.
And I love “Seagull”!
Also the Bangles swiped it for “I’m in Line”.
It was a deliberate homage which they openly acknowledged…I don’t think that counts as a rip off.
Did they openly acknowledge it with a royalty ? If not, it’s a rip off.
Nothing subconscious, Weller adores The Beatles and the bassline rhythm as The Modfather himself printed out, is ‘quite different.’ George was not a petty moneygrabber and would’ve been pleased that a young band like The Jam would’ve taken his and The Beatles’ influence to create something great like ‘Start!’ On the other hand, with the Mancs of the 90s lead vocalist being abusive, calling him names and offering ‘a fight on Primrose Hill,’ he wasn’t quite so forthcoming with the compliments!
One of the most technically impressive Beatles solos. Amazing lead guitar work by Paul. Great song, too.
I’ve always considered McCartney’s lead guitar playing – on this and others – to be (for lack of better words) “stiff” and “stabby,” lacking in fluidity. It might not be officially documented anywhere but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it was
sped up, as was the Beatles practice at this time.
Yeah, I suspect it was sped up as well. (And that listening to the “Tomorrow Never Knows” solo backwards approximates how the “Taxman” solo would sound at “normal” speed.)
Not sure I’d play a millifluous guitar solo in this unusually stabby song.
My hunch is that George played bass, John rythm and Paul the lead/solo. (The Anthology outtake is quite similar to the final.)
The bass line is very prominent, key to the song, and I find it hard to believe George wouldn’t play some on his own song. In ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, he plays acoustic, rythym guitar.
The electric rythym guitar on ‘Taxman” is classic John–very similar to his work on “She’s a Woman” and “While My Guitat Gently Weeps”, when he didn’t play entirely through the song.
If you listen to the count-in on “Taxman”, it sounds as if Paul is nervously playing a bit of his lead fills–as he would often do with his bass before a take. Regarding his solo, I think it is very good and well-suited to the song. And, heck, if it’s good enough for George, it’s certainly good enough for me.
A great, groundbreaking song. Kudos to George Martin for making it the lead song, and for John and Paul not to object.
I would be curious what mjb thinks of the above.
Sorry, for sure that’s Paul on the bass.
Check out the fast notes in the “middle-eight” (“if you…”), that’s typical Paul style.
And it’s definitely the Hofner sound.
Has ‘Sir Macca’ himself not confirmed this or otherwise?
After seeing a rare photograph of the Revolver sessions seeing George with a bass and John and Paul on guitars at the newly release ” Eight Days a Week” movie I came to the same conclusion. It is reported that George played bass on She Said She Said, but that was in absence of Paul. With Paul in, it must have been Taxman. If it´s true, this amazing track not only features on of the best guitar solos on the Beatles´catalogue, by Paul, but also one of the best ever bass performances, by George !
George plays the choppy rhythm part,Paul plays bass, and solo and lead fills to the end of the song..I could believe John might be playing along with George or might have contributed something that ended up being wiped but that’s not clear from any account. Also.. on While My Guitar Gently Weeps… George plays acoustic and a 12 string electric which doubles the bass part during the “I don’t know how…” segments!
I just saw a photograph of the Revolver sessions with Paul and John on guitars and George playing bass. I think you´re right and they were recording Taxman.
Sorry Pablo, but The Beatles would jam in- between takes so realistically that pic could’ve been them playing really,- just sayin!
You might be right paulbass….I don’t know for sure; however, listen to “Old Brown Shoe” (particularly the middle), on which George says (in Cream Magazine interview) he played the bass. See if you don’t hear some similarities.
Well, there are not many similarities, apart from the fact that there is one main bass riff in both songs.
But, in contrast to Taxman, the one in Old brown shoe remains quite “static”, meaning the same repeated, without variations.
Plus it doesn’t have a very clear bass sound, it sounds more like a heavy guitar.
Taxman, on the other hand, has a brilliant (Hofner) bass sound plus the mentioned improvisations, which are, like I said, typical for Paul.
I’m glad somebody mentioned Paul’s brilliant bass playing on this song. The middle eight changes are complex and difficult if not impossible for almost any but the best bassists. I’m surprised nothing of it was mentioned in the article about this song. It must have been truly ground-breaking when it first came out.
I can’t be sure and I haven’t read it anywhere, but I strongly believe Paul played the Ric on Taxman. He did mention in an interview somewhere that as of Rubber Soul he used the Ric extensively because it stayed in tune better (he later came back to the Hofner). On the other hand, I play bass and have owned a number of different instruments throughout the years, including a couple of hollow-bodies. I’ve been trying to emulate the Taxman bass sound for years (is it any wonder I haven’t quite got it yet? ha ha). Getting that punchy sound and sustain (also very prominent in “The Word”) out of a hollow-body bass is next to impossible. Furthermore, the Ric is well-known precisely for that kind of attack and sustain due to it being a neck-through instrument. I believe he used flatwound strings on it in the early years. Cheers, mates.
I agree, it definitely sounds like George on the count in. This has often puzzled me when listening to it. George was often prone to go into those freakish goon-style voices from time to time in interviews or conversations. It’s also worth noting that the 1234 on I Saw her Standing There counts in the Beatles initial beginnings. The 1234, 12 on Taxman counts them into a new dawning of sonic experimentation.
Agreed. Meanwhile it was Paul doing the “real” 1234 count-in.
This is the definitive answer I was looking for.
John was a great mimic, and I’d read that the “1-2-3-4-1-2” was him, doing an impression of George’s speaking voice. But I’d always just assumed it was George, and I was suprised to see information to the contrary.
Thanks for the confirmation!
I´m sure that you have all heard the story of George trying for hours to record the solo for Taxman, not quite getting it right. George Martin grew tired and asked Paul to give it a try and he (Paul) nailed it in one take! Impressive, n´est pas?
There is an interesting YouTube clip where the channels are separated and you can hear Paul preparing for the solo all the way through the song and suddenly bursting out and playing it. Amazing, indeed! I don´t think it was speeded up, I can play it in the original tempo!
Whoever claimed none of George’s solos were as masterful as Good Morning Good Morning and Taxman.. Hold on! All of Paul’s guitar solos are essentially the same bendy, aggressive style. None of them beat George’s flawless One After 909 solo, either.
Also, I’m fairly sure George did both the count-ins after hearing it apart. It really sounds like him, but I may be wrong.
I have just spent hours working out Paul’s fantastic solo. I had to slow it down to 50%, but can’t currently play it faster than 70%. There are some lessons on youtube where guys play it up to speed, but its sounds rushed – they don’t achieve the same definition that you hear on the original. For that reason I’m fairly convinced it was recorded at half or three quarters speed – after all, I’ve read that hours of studio time were wasted while George was trying to produce a decent solo, and this involved giving him the opportunity to play it at half-time, so presumably Paul would have had the same opportunity. Paul did a brilliant enough job conceiving this solo, but in an era when Hendrix had only recently arrived in London, there were few, if any, players who could play that fast, and I don’t think Paul was one of them.
boy u guys sure like to slam Beatle players. they were all great, doesn’t matter who played what. they TOGETHER made a fantastic team. wow, guys come on. Im a Macca fan myself but he doesn’t always play fantastic stuff. Yeah he did great drums on MY DARK HOUR with Steve Miller and he always plays great bass(most of the time). his guitar playin is good but so is George’s.
I don’t normally notice the difference between stereo and mono, but the difference in this (and Eleanor Rigby) seems enormous to me. The guitar and vocals seem so distant in stereo; the song’s always seemed a bit limp to me because of it. But I’ve recently heard the mono version, and ah, there it goes, much better!
As for Eleanor Rigby, Paul makes it one syllable into the first word before the vocals are yanked unceremoniously apart. It’s always sounded rather brutal to me, and it’s reproduced on the 2009 version. Meanwhile, in mono, his vocal is unmolested and sounds nicer. All in all, I wish the 2009 mono albums were sold separately…
Beatles have never included a song in a record if they didn´t agree 100%. So there´s no controversy at all to me. In my opinion George couldn´t find a way to create a good solo and Paul could.
The line “Now my advice for those who die/declare the pennies on your eyes” has got to be John, right?
Paul was the best musician of The Beatles. It is well known how much he practiced and played many instruments. The rest of The Beatles were lazy and did not want to practice or tour anymore.Also, this was not just because of the screaming and noise, it was also because they had money now and where not as comfortable with live gigs. Paul was the only one that wanted to play live again. When the Beatles split, Paul McCartney released album after album and played live and started touring until this very day. The rest of the Beatles could never keep up with his drive and musical ability. How many times did John or George play live during the 70s?Not many times and the productions and sound was terrible compared to a McCartney concert. I have seen him play live and I can tell you that The Beatles songs that he sings live in concert sound better today than they did over 40 years ago.
I just finished reading all the responses for the above song ‘Taxman’. I cannot believe how many fans really get upset about who played a better solo, or who is a better singer, or who is the most talented! The bottom line is all of them were talented in their own way. They all brought something to the table. We need to love the group as a whole. It’s like driving your car. You love to drive it but think about all that’s going on in the engine and all the parts working together to give you a nice ride. The Beatles were the sum of four parts. When they were together, they were untouchable and that’s all that matters!
okay, a little late joining the party here’s. my $.02 (american currency) as a musician. I’m little grumpy today, so no flames intended, but I have to comment:
“bass copied from Batman theme”
Naaah, Taxman is an incredible funky riff, while Batman bass was a simple repeated 3 note repetition.
The Batman vocal was repeated over and over, against the 3 chord changes, which gave it its charm. Taxman just emphasized the single chord for most of the song (and the occasional ‘Foxy Lady’ chord)
“Hofner bass”
agree with PhilMat, the sound is closer to a Rick. Plus the Hofner got notoriously out of pitch the higher up the neck you played it- and I’m pretty sure the note patterns for Taxman are played WAY high up the next.
“Paul is a better guitarist than George”
What does better guitarist even mean? In his young-man-on-testosterone mode, Paul was excellent at IN-YOUR-FACE, bursts of energy solos, spontaneously (I assume) fired out- the common characteristic of all his work mentioned above. George puts out exquisite, melodic, well thought out solo’s- but apparently has to take time to develop them, putting him at a disadvantage in the alpha-male environment of the John and Paul – led sessions. (Hey Bulldog being in the list of exceptions) Listen to some of his earlier rock stuff, solos he had time to develop over many performances – like the 2nd ‘Long Tall Sally’ solo- blisters the paint off the wall.
Ahh, that’s enough rantings of a grumpy old bassplayer. Damn great song, incredible performance, thats all that really counts, isn’t it?
Think what you will of Pauls “bossiness”. When “the boss” died the Beatles started to come apart. People who were there (not you) say that if Paul had not taken some kind of control, the others would have never got off their asses and made another album. We would have never had Abbey Road or Let it Be. Thank you Paul. Paul didnt break them up. Johns jealousy did. Just a little insight into Johns jealousy, not only did John bring Yoko to the studio, he forced her to follow him everywhere, including the bathroom, so she wouldnt talk to any other guys. He was a very phoney, petty, and jealous man. Look at all the nasty s**t he has said about Paul. And what has Paul ever said about him? Nothing but good things. Besides, they wernt getting along before Paul took over anyway. All Paul did was produce two more albums from a band that was breaking up anyway. Some of you need to do some reading before voicing opinions.
Since all the Beatles were under contract to produce music, there would have been albums made in 1969. Not only out of financial necessity but there was also a new lucrative contract on the horizon.
As for John and Paul? They got over their bad times and made amends.
As for voicing opinions, this is an open forum for anyone whether they have read a Beatles book or not.
I have always been a Mcartney fan. His bass lines are amazing, as also his lead guitar solos. Taxman being one of them. When you break down alot of Lennon songs, when they went solo, Paul’s songs are so better structured than Lennon’s or Harrison’s. Could Lennon or any of the others ever written songs like “Live and Let Die” or Band on the Run” . These songs like many Mcartney solo songs have 3/4 parts to them. I’ve recently listened to Lennon solo stuff again and found that they are mostly 12 bar songs and quite boring. Obviousley I will get slaughtered for this comment by Lennon fans but it is only my opinion.
The McCartney solo songs you mentioned were inspired by Lennon songs such as “Happiness Is A Warm Gun” and “God”—songs that had 3/4 parts to them written years before Paul got around to writing “structured” songs.
So “Jealous Guy”, “Love”, #9 Dream”, “Instant Karma”, “Mind Games”, “Out The Blue”, and “Bless You”, among others are “boring” songs. Get real.
Your opinion only, as is Paul M’s.
I love “Wild Life”. Side 2 mainly. If they had flipped the album around, more people might like it
Lets just say that Paul played a solo that fit the song the way George H & George M wanted at the time. All Pauls solos were quick and flashy, George’s were very tasteful and fluid, John’s were basic, simple rock n roll.
I was just listening to the Anthology verison tonight, and I’ve come to believe that the bass line is sped up. If you listen closely, you can hear some almost impossibly fast bits (especially during the “Tax the street” bit). I also noticed that the high D note in the basic pattern is double-picked and it has the signature of something that’s been sped up.
I’m 99.9 percent sure that it’s Paul on bass and lead guitar; George on rhythm guitar; and Ringo on drums. As someone mentioned earlier, John rarely participated instrumentally in the recordings of George’s songs and I’m sure this was no exception. And during this period, Paul was almost always the dominant instrumentalist no matter whose song it was so he was most likely involved in the recording of the basic track and then later overdubbed the lead guitar. Also, keep in mind that if the basic track was rhythm, bass, and drums, then that would require there to be three Beatles playing (no John) which of course would have George, Paul , and Ringo on their respective instruments.
I’m sorry, but John actually tended to diversify his instrumental contributions to George’s songs, something that so many biographers ignorantly overlook and perhaps because they want to exaggerate the myth that he would purposely avoid the sessions for George’s songs when it clearly isn’t true. According to John C. Winn, John did contribute rhythm guitar to “Taxman”.
George himself stated in an October 1966 interview that John and Paul actually gave him a lot of encouragement in his songwriting as well as very good feedback and both men’s statements in 1967-1968 don’t see them publicly trash George’s songwriting at all.
Paul did state that he had an idea for the guitar solo and George asked him to play it.
As it’s been stated, George asked for help in writing this song, and I believe it to be as powerful as any Beatle song. Sometimes in songwriting the writer becomes too connected with the project and with Paul having the talent to play everything, ripped that solo perfectly. My personal favourite rock guitar riff of all time is from Day Tripper, and that was by Lennon. So, no matter who plays what, they all added their talents to the pool and on top of it all, they had George Martin to peel the onion as it were.
George gets little credit for his songwriting abilities, but I like most of his songs as much as those of Lennon & McCartney. I think “Here Comes The Sun” and “Something” are right at the top of any list of Beatle masterpieces. The pressure of competing against L&M to get a song on a Beatles album was immense. If George Martin wasn’t around to force the issue, it’s not unlikely that L&M would have shut him out completely. I give him lots of credit for persevering and then showing the world his songwriting talent with All Things Must Pass.
Frank Sinatra said that “Something” was “the greatest love song of the past 50 years” but mistakenly credited L & M. That’s a pretty good reference for Harrison’s songwriting talent.
I’m noticing that George is fairly often listed as playing lead guitar when he didn’t (like here), and often when there are no guitar leads in the song. I’m guessing maybe that came from studio notes that habitually called him lead guitar. If the world were exactly how I wanted it to be, the descriptions would say “acoustic rhythm guitar” or “electric rhythm guitar” or “guitar solo.” Then I would be a truly happy person 🙂
Anyone hear the similarities to Taxman and new show in 1966 Batman….
Let me tell you how it will be…Batman, i mean Taxman
There’s one for you 19 for me….Bat..Man. Just sayin
Funny comment – but yes, its possible that the tv-serie theme affected to George, if maybe only unconviously.
On the other hand, several riff-based songs were by that time composed both by John and Paul. Taxman is an other in the line.
I’ve always thought the same….Batman! Taxman!
There’s an error here:
the first mentioning of a living person in a song is on Beatles For Sale:
Ringo sings on Honey Don’t: Rock on George, for Ringo one time
So George is the first mentioned living person
19/- 6d nineteen shillings and sixpence equates to 97 1/2P NOT 95 pence. It’s a tax rate of 97.5%.
“He came to me because he couldn’t go to Paul, because Paul wouldn’t have helped him at that period.” – John…. Was there a serious issue Paul had with George?
Does someone know what guitars were used to record the song?