CBB - TAXMAN (r) cover The BEATLES
Please for better listening to stereo effects use headphones
All rights reserved to owners, authors, composers and record companies.
MIKE - chitarra ritmica & solista , voce
GIUSEPPE - voce
LUCIO - basso
CARLO - batteria , tamburello , campanaccio
from album " REVOLVER" - 1966
The lyrics of the song are a sarcastic attack on the tax authorities and the upper echelons of the British government at the time. Revolver is the album in which Harrison begins to stand out, not only composing three songs on the LP, but also receiving the honor of the opening track. The song begins with a cough over which Paul McCartney's pulsating bass and Harrison's guitar overlap. When Harrison realized that most of the money earned by the Beatles was going to taxes, he decided to write a song to denounce and mock the absurdity of the British tax system. The Beatles' lavish earnings had made them jump to the top of the list of targets for tax collectors in Great Britain, with the band forced to pay a "super tax" of 95% of total earnings, introduced by the Labour government of Harold Wilson. Harrison received help with the lyrics from John Lennon, who wrote a few verses for him. In 1980, Lennon recalled in an interview with Playboy magazine: "I remember when [George] called me and asked me to help him with Taxman, one of his best songs. [...] I wrote down a few verses to help him get the song going. He came to me because he knew Paul wouldn't help him at the time. I didn't want to either. [...] but because I loved him and didn't want to hurt him, I bit my tongue and said OK." On the second of the three days that the Beatles spent recording, the composition was complete in its skeleton; however, the introductory count, the backing vocals and the final guitar solo by Paul McCartney were still missing. The background vocals mention "Mr. Wilson" and "Mr. Heath", respectively the then British Prime Minister Harold Wilson (who had awarded them the honour of MBE just the year before) and Edward Heath the opposition leader, who later became Prime Minister. Wilson and Heath were the leaders of the two major British political parties, Labour and the Conservatives.
Lennon's lines "Ha, Ha, Mr. Wilson; Ha, ha, Mr. Heath" replaced the sped-up "Anybody got a bit of money?" refrain from take 11, as can be seen in the early version of the song that was later released on Anthology 2 in 1996.
In 1987, Harrison said that he was pleased that McCartney wanted to play the guitar solo on Taxman. Referring to McCartney's famous solo, Harrison said: "I was pleased that Paul played on Taxman. If you notice, he gave it a little Indian touch in my honor."
