Taxman

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Overview

Background

Pattern analysis

Recording

Mix variants & recording techniques

Mix variants

• 1966 UK mono LP (5 August 1966, Parlophone PMC 7009, A-side track 1) — The released mono master is the 21 June 1966 edit of mono remixes 5 + 6 from take 12 (per Lewisohn p. 84 session header + K/R p. 421 verbatim). The end-solo of the released master is a TAPE COPY of the middle-eight solo, not a separate performance: per K/R p. 421 verbatim, “The group were apparently dissatisfied with the ending of the song, and it was decided that Paul’s guitar solo should be copied and placed once more at the end.” This raised an edit problem: per K/R p. 421 verbatim, “George’s last line ‘And you’re working for no one but me’ overlapped into the guitar solo section; if they simply appended the solo onto the end of the song at the appropriate spot, the ‘me’ would have been chopped off.” The fix per K/R p. 421: “George apparently overdubbed a new ‘me’ onto Track 4 at 1:11. This ‘me’ could then be turned down while mixing the first part of the song, and turned up when they remixed the solo section for inclusion at the end (with the ‘me’ doubled via ADT).” The released mono master is therefore a TWO-PART edit (RM5 = first part of song + RM6 = remixed solo-section copy with new “me”).
• 1966 UK stereo LP (5 August 1966, Parlophone PCS 7009, A-side track 1) — The released stereo master is the 21 June edit of stereo remixes 1 + 2 from take 12 (per Lewisohn p. 84 session header + K/R p. 421 verbatim). Same two-part edit structure as the mono (RS1 = first part of song + RS2 = remixed solo-section copy). Per K/R p. 430 area panning analysis, the stereo mix uses Emerick’s 1966 music-Left-and-Right / vocals-Centre approach (per K/R p. 430 verbatim Taxman is bundled with “Paperback Writer”, “She Said, She Said”, “Good Day Sunshine”, “For No One”, and “Got To Get You Into My Life” in the standard music-L/R + vocals-Centre stereo configuration).
• 1966 US mono LP (8 August 1966, Capitol T-2576, A-side track 1) — Released three days after the UK pressing. Mono, sourced from a copy tape of the UK mono master. Per §1 less-specific-when-uncertain, neither Lewisohn 1988 nor K/R 2006 enumerates the Capitol US T-2576 disc-cutting equipment chain.
• 1966 US stereo LP (8 August 1966, Capitol ST-2576) — Continues the 1966 stereo master (RS1 + RS2 edit) onto the US Capitol release. Same two-part edit and music-L/R + vocals-Centre panning.
• Anthology 2 (1996, Apple/Capitol) — alternate mix of take 11 — Per K/R p. 421 verbatim, “A mix of Take 11 as it stood at the end of that first day [21 April 1966] can be heard on Anthology 2.” The Anthology 2 mix therefore captures Taxman BEFORE the 22 April reduction-and-Mister-Wilson-Mister-Heath overdub, with the original “Anybody got a bit of money” backing vocals on T2 still intact at full level. No cowbell, no “One, two, three, four” count-in (added 16 May), no copied end-solo (added 21 June), no new “me” overdub on T4 at 1:11. This makes the Anthology 2 mix an unusually well-defined snapshot of the song’s take-11 state on one specific evening.
• 2009 Stereo Remasters — Revolver (9 September 2009, Apple/EMI) — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey / Steve Rooke 24-bit flat transfer of the 1966 stereo master. Preserves the RS1 + RS2 edit, the music-L/R + vocals-Centre panning, the “One, two, three, four” count-in, the cowbell + “Mister Wilson, Mister Heath” vocals, and the copied end-solo unchanged.
• 2022 Revolver Special Edition (Giles Martin / Sam Okell remix, 28 October 2022, Apple/UMe) — Post-Lewisohn remix using machine-learning-assisted source separation (the “MAL” demixing system developed by Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films during the Get Back documentary). The Giles Martin / Sam Okell remix isolates the Track-1 bass + drums + guitar stack into separate stems, allowing the 1966 music-L/R hard-pan panning to be re-mixed toward a more modern centre-anchored stereo field. Per §1 less-specific-when-uncertain, this remix sits outside the Lewisohn 1988 / K/R 2006 primary-source canon; the technical demixing approach is documented in the box’s liner notes rather than in the Tier-1 sources.

Recording techniques

• 20 April 1966 (Wed) — takes 1–4 abandoned + structural discussion captured on tape (Lewisohn p. 75 verbatim) — EMI Studio Two, 2.30pm–2.30am. Recording: Taxman (takes 1–4). P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Per Lewisohn p. 75 verbatim, “Also recorded on this day were four rhythm track takes of George Harrison’s superb new song ‘Taxman’. Only two were complete, and at the conclusion of the fourth there was much discussion, caught on tape, about how the song might best be structured. When it was picked up again the next day they started afresh with a new take one.” The 20 April takes are therefore NOT the seed of the released master — they were superseded by the 21 April fresh start.
• 21 April 1966 (Thu) — fresh take-one start through take 11 + lead vocal at take 11 (Lewisohn p. 76 verbatim + K/R p. 421 verbatim) — EMI Studio Two, 2.30pm–12.50am. Recording: Taxman (takes 1–11). P: George Martin. E: Geoff Emerick. 2E: Phil McDonald. Per Lewisohn p. 76 verbatim, “Takes one through to ten concentrated solely on the rhythm track, the first vocals being introduced at take 11.” Take 11 four-track layout per K/R p. 421 verbatim: T1 = electric guitar + Ringo’s drums + Paul’s bass in lockstep; T2 = Ringo’s tambourine + John/Paul “Anybody got a bit of money” lightning-fast backing vocals + Paul’s overdubbed electric guitar including the fierce lead solo; T3 + T4 = George’s double-tracked lead vocal + Paul/John backing harmonies. The decision to put bass and drums on the SAME track (T1) is notable given that the previous Revolver session for Paperback Writer just a week earlier (13–14 April) had isolated bass to its own track — per K/R p. 420 verbatim, the bass-isolation strategy was not yet universal: “Of course, the bass and drums could still be recorded to the same track even if they weren’t passing through the same compressor, and on several Revolver songs (‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, ‘Taxman’, ‘She Said, She Said’), the bass and drums did indeed share a track as they had in previous years.”
• Paul-McCartney-plays-the-lead-guitar-solo on a Harrison composition — central editorial spine (K/R p. 421 verbatim) — The lead guitar solo on Taxman is played by Paul McCartney on his Epiphone Casino, not by George Harrison. Per K/R p. 421 verbatim Paul: “George [Harrison] let me have a go for that solo because I had an idea. I was trying to persuade George to do something… feedback-y and crazy. And I was showing him what I wanted, and he said, ‘Well, you do it’. Even though it was his song, he was happy for me to do it.” Per K/R p. 421 verbatim George: “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.” The solo was overdubbed onto Track 2 of take 11 alongside the tambourine + “Anybody got a bit of money” vocals in a single Track-2 pass. Both the middle-eight occurrence of the solo (1:11–1:22 in the released master) and the end-of-song occurrence (1:53–to fadeout) derive from this single Paul-Epiphone performance — the end-of-song occurrence is a TAPE COPY of the middle-eight performance, edited at the 21 June final-remix stage (see Mix variants).
• 22 April 1966 (Fri) — tape reduction take 11 into take 12 + cowbell + “Mister Wilson, Mister Heath” overdub (Lewisohn p. 76 verbatim + K/R p. 421 verbatim) — EMI Studio Two, 2.30–11.30pm. Recording: Taxman (tape reduction take 11 into take 12, SI onto take 12). Per Lewisohn p. 76 verbatim, “Overdubbing of a cowbell and the ‘Mister Wilson, Mister Heath’ parts onto take 12 of ‘Taxman’, a reduction mix of take 11.” Per K/R p. 421 verbatim, the lyric replacement strategy was a deliberate reduction-mix workaround: “In particular they wanted to replace the ‘anybody got a bit of money’ vocals with a finger-wagging reference to British Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. Ideally, the new vocals would have simply been dropped in on Track 2, neatly replacing the older vocals in the process. However there was instrumental content immediately before and after the vocals they wished to replace; attempting a punch-in could have easily resulted in portions of that content getting wiped, particularly if it took several passes to adequately perform the new part. It was decided that a reduction mix would have to be carried out to free one more track on which to record the new vocals. During the reduction, George’s two lead vocal tracks were combined into one. Additionally, the ‘Anybody got a bit of money’ vocals were quickly turned down at each appropriate spot during the reduction, as were some guitar notes by Paul during the second verse. With one free track now available, they recorded their new ‘Ah Ah, Mister Wilson… Ah Ah, Mister Heath’ vocals, taking the opportunity to also add cowbell on the same track.” The take-12 four-track layout per K/R p. 421: T1 = bass + drums + electric guitar (unchanged); T2 = tambourine + reduced (turned-down) “Anybody got a bit of money” + Paul’s electric guitar + lead solo (unchanged); T3 = combined George lead vocal + backing harmonies (the previously-separate T3 + T4 vocals bounced to one track); T4 = newly freed track holding cowbell + “Mister Wilson, Mister Heath”.
• Paul-Epiphone solo NOT the source of the TNK backwards solo (K/R p. 413 verbatim) — A long-running secondary-source claim holds that the backwards guitar solo on Tomorrow Never Knows is the Taxman solo reversed and dropped into the TNK track. K/R p. 413 verbatim explicitly debunks this: “The part was almost certainly played by Paul, as the tone of the guitar and the style of the playing are virtually identical to that of the solo he had contributed to ‘Taxman’ the previous evening. The similarity of the two parts has even prompted some writers in the past to claim that the solo on ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’ was in fact the ‘Taxman’ solo, reversed and dropped into the track; this is not true.” Per K/R p. 413, the TNK backwards solo is a separate Paul-Epiphone performance recorded the evening of 22 April 1966 during the ‘Mark I’ SI session onto take 3 (Lewisohn p. 76 session header confirms the same-evening sequence: Taxman reduction-and-SI 2.30–11.30pm followed by ‘Mark I’ SI onto take 3 within the same Studio Two booking).
• 27 April 1966 (Wed) — rough mono remix 1 from take 12 (Lewisohn p. 77 verbatim) — Studio Three (control room only), 6.00–11.30pm. Mono mixing: Taxman (remix 1, from take 12) + 10 other Revolver-era remixes that evening. Per Lewisohn p. 77 verbatim, “Eleven remixes in one evening — and none was chosen for inclusion on Revolver. The Beatles were starting to attend the mix sessions and were making their presence felt.” Mono remix 1 of Taxman was therefore an early-stage attempt that was abandoned in favour of the final 21 June remix.
• 16 May 1966 (Mon) — final SI added the “One, two, three, four” count-in (Lewisohn p. 78 verbatim) — EMI Studio Two, 2.30pm–1.30am. Recording: Taxman (SI onto take 12). Per Lewisohn p. 78 verbatim, “‘Taxman’ finally received its ‘One, two, three, four’ intro.” The famous spoken count-in that opens both the released master and (by extension) the Revolver LP is therefore a 16 May 1966 overdub onto take 12, recorded almost a month after the 21 April basic-tracking. Lewisohn p. 78 also records that mono remixes 2–5 from take 12 were cut on 16 May, of which per Lewisohn p. 78 verbatim “None of the four mono mixes of ‘Taxman’ was ever used.”
• 21 June 1966 (Tue) — final mono + stereo remixes with the copied end-solo edit (Lewisohn p. 84 verbatim + K/R p. 421 verbatim) — Studio Three (control room only), 2.30–6.30pm. Mono mixing: Taxman (remixes 5 and 6, from take 12). Editing: Taxman (of mono remixes 5 and 6). Stereo mixing: Taxman (remixes 1 and 2, from take 12). Editing: Taxman (of stereo remixes 1 and 2). Per K/R p. 421 verbatim, the released master is a two-part edit in both formats: “The stereo mix is a combination of RS1 (the first part of the song) and RS2 (the remixed solo section), and the mono mix is a combination of RM5 and RM6.” The end-solo copy + new “me” overdub on T4 at 1:11 are the load-bearing technical decisions of this session (see Mix variants — 1966 UK mono LP bullet).
• Lewisohn-flagged remix-numbering anomaly (Lewisohn p. 84 verbatim note) — Per Lewisohn p. 84 verbatim note: “Mono remixes five and six of ‘Taxman’ should have been numbered six and seven.” The EMI session-sheet numbering on 21 June was off by one: mono remix 1 of Taxman had been cut on 27 April and mono remixes 2–5 had been cut on 16 May (all unused), so the 21 June pair were the SIXTH and SEVENTH mono remixes of the song, but were entered into the session sheet as remixes 5 and 6. This is a Lewisohn-noted documentary correction rather than a substantive issue with the master.
• Music-Left-and-Right / vocals-Centre stereo panning (K/R p. 430 verbatim) — Per K/R p. 430 area Revolver panning analysis, Taxman is bundled with “Paperback Writer”, “She Said, She Said”, “Good Day Sunshine”, “For No One”, and “Got To Get You Into My Life” as Revolver-era Emerick stereo mixes that follow the standard music-Left-and-Right / vocals-Centre approach. This was the Norman-Smith-era stereo convention that Emerick continued to apply on roughly half of the Revolver tracks; the other half use Emerick’s newer music-Centre / vocals-hard-panned-Left-or-Right approach.
• 20 April aborted vs 21 April fresh-start — documentary takes vs released-master takes (Lewisohn p. 75 + p. 76) — The 20 April takes 1–4 and the 21 April takes 1–11 share the take-numbering label “1” but are distinct sessions on distinct evenings: the 20 April takes were abandoned, and the 21 April session restarted at a new take 1. Per Lewisohn p. 75 verbatim, “When it was picked up again the next day they started afresh with a new take one.” This is a documentary point worth flagging because compiled-tape-bootleg listings sometimes treat the 20 April takes as continuous with the 21 April sequence — per Lewisohn p. 75 + p. 76, they are not.
• Cross-reference — the same-evening Paul-Epiphone double on Taxman + TNK (K/R p. 413 + Lewisohn p. 76) — The 22 April 1966 Studio Two booking (Friday 22 April, 2.30–11.30pm per Lewisohn p. 76 session header) covered TWO Paul-Epiphone Casino overdubs: (a) the Taxman tape-reduction take 11 → take 12 + the cowbell + “Mister Wilson, Mister Heath” vocals SI onto take 12; and (b) two further overdubs onto Mark I (the working title of Tomorrow Never Knows) take 3 — “a whining sitar played by George and an additional Lennon vocal, again put through a Leslie speaker” per Lewisohn p. 76 verbatim. K/R p. 413’s observation that Paul’s TNK backwards solo “was almost certainly played by Paul, as the tone of the guitar and the style of the playing are virtually identical to that of the solo he had contributed to ‘Taxman’ the previous evening” therefore correctly identifies the chronology: Taxman solo overdub = evening of 21 April; TNK backwards solo overdub = evening of 22 April. Both performances were captured on Paul’s Epiphone Casino within ~24 hours of each other in the same studio.

Legacy & release history

Mono & stereo

• Mixed primarily in mono at Abbey Road; the Beatles attended only the mono mixes through Sgt Pepper.
• Stereo mixes from this period were prepared (often without the band present) and are now considered secondary by purists.

Documented alternate versions

• Anthology 2 (1996) — alternate take or mix
• 2009 Stereo Remasters — Allan Rouse / Guy Massey remaster

Released on

• Revolver — LP, 5 August 1966

Cross-references

Other songs sharing themes (protest, supertax, paul-solo, opener, george-original)

Other songs led by the same vocalist

Other songs from this era

protestsupertaxpaul-soloopenergeorge-original

Cultural appearances

On screen with the same title

Related songs