Taxman
"Taxman" is a song by The Beatles written by George Harrison and released as the opening track on The Beatles' 1966 album Revolver. The song's lyrics sarcastically attack the high levels of progressive tax taken by the government. Richie Unterberger of allmusic said that Revolver is where Harrison "came more to the fore, not only writing three songs but also getting honored with the album-opener."
Composition
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." The Beatles' large earnings placed them in the top tax bracket in the United Kingdom, with the band liable to a "supertax" of 95% on top income that had been introduced by Harold Wilson's Labour government. In a 1984 interview with Playboy magazine, Paul McCartney agreed with Harrison's depiction of the circumstances surrounding the writing of "Taxman": "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."
Harrison got some assistance in the lyrics from John Lennon, who wrote a few one-liners on the song for him. In 1980, Lennon recalled in an 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."
The backing vocals include references to "Mr. Wilson" and "Mr. Heath", lyrics added by Lennon and referring to then Prime Minister Harold Wilson (who had nominated all four of the Beatles as Members of the Order of the British Empire just the previous year) and Edward Heath (Leader of the Opposition, later also Prime Minister). Wilson and Heath were the leaders of the Labour Party and Conservative Party respectively, the two largest parties in British politics.
"Ha, Ha, Mr. Wilson; Ha, ha, Mr. Heath" replaced two refrains of "Anybody got a bit of money?" as heard in take 11, an earlier version that was later released on Anthology 2 in 1996.
In 1987, Harrison stated that he had been pleased McCartney agreed to play the guitar on "Taxman". In reference to McCartney's famous guitar solo, Harrison said, "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".
The release, and after
The song was released on Revolver; although Lennon and McCartney had always been the more prolific songwriters, they made allowance for a few Harrison songs on each album, in much the same way they would attempt to ensure at least one album track always featured drummer Ringo Starr's singing. Because it was the first track, a fake count-in was added at the beginning. A heavily distorted voice counts along with Harrison; if one listens closely, McCartney can be heard shouting the actual count-in underneath the distorted one (in the stereo version, McCartney's count-in is in the left speaker). There are minor differences in the stereo and mono versions, particularly the entry points for the cowbell and tambourine.
In the show Love, the guitar solo was sampled in the piece "Drive My Car"/"The Word"/"What You're Doing", being primarily in the key of D major, like the rest of the song.
"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 April 15 (or one to three days after the 15th due to weekends and holidays), the date by which U.S. income tax returns must 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.
Personnel
George Harrison – vocal, lead guitar
John Lennon – backing vocal
Paul McCartney – backing vocal, bass, lead guitar
Ringo Starr – drums, tambourine, cowbell
George Martin – producer
Geoff Emerick – engineer
Personnel per MacDonald
Other versions
The song has also been played and recorded by Junior Parker, Black Oak Arkansas, Bill Wyman, The Music Machine, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Nickel Creek, Les Fradkin, Garrison Starr, Rockwell, Mutual Admiration Society and Power Station.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers played the song in tribute to Harrison at 2002's Concert For George.
"Weird Al" Yankovic recorded a parody of this song in late 1981 called "Pac-Man", during the height of the game's popularity. It was released on the compilation Dr. Demento's Basement Tapes No. 4. Beatallica recorded a parody called "Sandman", which also was a parody of a popular Metallica song, "Enter Sandman".
Translation
The word "Taxman" occurs as such in the following languages: English, German, Spanish, French, Norwegian (Bokmål), Norwegian (Nynorsk), Portuguese, Russian, Swedish.
Translation(s) in other languages: Italian: Taxman (brano musicale), Dutch: Taxman (The Beatles), Japanese: タックスマン.
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