Taxman

During the first half of the Beatles' career, it was producer George Martin who decided the running order of songs as they would appear on the group's albums.  For their seventh album, Revolver, the opening song he chose was not penned by the songwriting team of Lennon and McCartney, but rather by the budding composer George Harrison.  Harrison had only begun writing his own songs full-time one year earlier, and had a mere five solo compositions to his credit (six, if we count the unreleased You Know What to Do).  By contrast, John and Paul had probably each written this many songs before they even met.  But no one could deny that Taxman deserved its placement at the top of the band's most progressive album yet.

Harrison had become incensed when he learned how much of the group's income was going to taxes in the UK, and this knowledge inspired him to write a sharp, satiric rocker unlike almost anything else that he would ever produce.  At a session on April 20th, 1966, the Beatles make four attempts at recording the song, then spent a good deal of time discussing how to do it better.

At the next day's session, they began with a fresh take one, and laid down eleven takes before being satisfied with the result.  Only Ringo on drums, Paul on bass and George on rhythm guitar appear on these takes, as John sat out instead of playing on the basic track.  It is interesting to note that the arrangement on the best take came to a full stop at the end instead of fading out, as it does on the finished product.  George overdubbed his lead vocal and then double-tracked it, as Ringo added tambourine.  John and Paul provided strong backing vocals, including a somewhat clunky "anybody got a bit of money" during one verse.

George then spent quite a lot of time attempting to overdub a stinging guitar solo onto the track before it was decided that Paul could do it better.  No doubt this was embarrassing for the song's composer, but George always spoke graciously about Paul's brilliant Indian-flavored guitar burst ever after.  It is not known whether George or Paul played the other lead guitar phrases scattered throughout the verses.  Anthology 2 allows us to hear the song as it stood at this time (with the fake count-in, which had yet to be added).

They returned to the track for a third day in a row on April 22nd, something unprecedented for a Harrisong before this time, so everybody clearly realized how good the song was at this point.  Ringo added a cowbell to the mix, and John and Paul changed their "bit of money" backing vocals to the more pointed "Mister Wilson" and "Mister Heath" references. 

By May 16th, someone had come up with the idea of having a fake count-in to open the album, so it was duly recorded and tacked onto the beginning of the song, with Paul's actual count-in for take eleven heard faintly in the background.  Four mono mixes of the song were made on this date, but they were not used because of one more last-minute addition to the track.  This was the repetition of Paul's guitar solo in a fadeout at the end in place of the full stop.  After this was added on June 21st, the song was finally mixed for both mono and stereo.

In addition to its appearance on Anthology 2, Taxman's only other post-career inclusion was on the 1976 compilation album Rock and Roll Music, where it was a natural fit.  And, as pictured above, the song was one of the many featured on the group's ABC TV Saturday morning cartoon program in the USA.