Deconstructing Taxman - The Beatles (Isolated Tracks)

Описание: The opening song of Revolver, Taxman, was written by George Harrison. It was the first time one of his songs served as an album opener. The inspiration behind the song is straightforward—George explained, "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 nineteen 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… It was, and still is, typical."

John Lennon later claimed partial credit for the song, saying in 1980, "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."

However, in 1987, George responded, "I didn't say he'd written one line of Taxman, but I also didn't say how I wrote two lines of Come Together or three lines of Eleanor Rigby, you know—I wasn't getting into any of that."

Recording for Taxman began on April 20, 1966, with four takes, none of which were used. The next day, on April 21, a ten-hour session took place to complete the song. It took 11 takes to record a solid basic track, featuring Paul on bass, Ringo on drums, and George on guitar. Take 11—starting with George’s count-in—was chosen as the best take.

Next came the vocal overdubs, with George singing lead while John and Paul provided backing vocals. This take included a distinctive deep, croaky count-in.

There's been some debate over who performed the count-in at the beginning. After isolating the vocal tracks from take 11 on the Revolver box set, I believe it was George. It makes the most sense since he was likely closest to the mic, and his first vocal lines come in shortly after.

Afterward, the three doubled their vocals, with a cough audible at the beginning of the tape. Next, the group recorded a major overdub track, featuring Ringo on tambourine, Paul on guitar—including the solo—and the "Anybody got a bit of money?" backing vocals by John and George.

According to Geoff Emerick, George struggled to come up with a proper guitar solo, frustrating both George Martin and Paul, who allegedly told him off. However, I think this is likely an exaggeration of what really happened.

According to Paul, "If you had a good idea for something, you'd say it, but often the other guy would say, 'Well, you play it,' y'know. There was a lot of freedom. So, we did that a lot. Like I think I talked a lot to George about the solo on 'Taxman.' And I think that's what happened. He said, 'Well, you play it!'...I wouldn't have thought about it or written it or anything. It'd just be like, the track's so cooking, that if we're going to have a solo, it should be just ridiculous."

George was happy with the end result saying in 1987, "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."

With all four tracks filled, the vocals were combined into one track. The last overdub was Ringo’s cowbell, which is strangely inconsistent across different mixes. The mono mix features significantly more cowbell than either the 1966 or 2022 stereo mixes.

Additionally, new "Ah, ah, Mr. Wilson” and “Ah, ah, Mr. Heath” lines were recorded at the same time. Since the "Anybody got a bit of money?" backing vocals were still present on another track, that track had muted when the new vocal lines came in. Muting Paul’s guitar and Ringo’s tambourine in the process.

With that, the song was ready for mixing. Originally, it had a solid ending, but during mixing, the solo section was repeated at the end and faded out.

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Intro (0:00)
Drums (0:06)
Cowbell (2:32)
Tambourine (4:08)
Bass (6:02)
Vocal Track 1(8:32)
Vocal Track 2 (10:52)
Overdubbed "Ah ah Mr..." Lines (13:12)
Unused Money Line (13:22)
Chatter During The Solo (13:32)
George's Guitar (13:43)
Paul's Guitar [No Solo] (16:04)
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George Harrison – Lead Vocals, Guitar (1961 Sonic Blue Fender Stratocaster)
Paul McCartney - Bass Guitar (1964 Rickenbacker 4001S), Guitar (1962 Epiphone ES-230TD Casino), Harmony Vocals
John Lennon - Harmony Vocals
Ringo Starr – Drums (1964 Ludwig Super Classic Black Oyster Pearl), Cowbell, Tambourine
#thebeatles #paulmccartney #georgeharrison #johnlennon #ringostarr #taxman