Talk:Taxman

New lyrics

According to this, Harrison added more lyrics to this song after The Beatles recorded it. (The video is of him and Eric Clapton, Live in Japan, 1991, so who knows when the lyrics were added.) Anyway, I figure the addition should be mentioned in the article. They also changed the names (Mr. Wilson and Mr. Heath) to something more current (I presume, as I'm not too familiar with UK officials, especially from back then).

The new lyrics, from what I can gather, are:

If I reduce it down, you'll see (Taxman/I promise, you'll see)

You'll get back more with the VAT (ah, ah, Mr. Bush)

'Cause I'm the taxman

Yeah, I'm the taxman

If you get a head, I'll tax your hat

If you get a pet, I'll tax your cat

If you wipe your feet, I'll tax the mat

If you hold the weight, I'll tax your fat

—Gordon P. Hemsley→✉ 08:37, 25 August 2006 (UTC)

Batman

Since there is no doubt that the similarity between this song and the "Batman" TV series theme song are intented and obvious, I have restored the passage about this which Night Gyr removed for no apparent reason. --Sangild 20:42, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

Show me a source and I'll believe you, otherwise it's just your own beliefs, which is original research. Night Gyr (talk/Oy) 20:44, 8 November 2006 (UTC)

The source is the song itself. It is a satirical musical quote that anyone can hear if they know the TV theme song. It is not an interpretation, not "my own beliefs", but rather a fact. If you want sources for all evident facts there would never be a Wikipedia. For whatever it is worth, look here or here. What do you want? A scholar stating in a peer reviewed article that the quote is in fact a quote? Or a specification the the very unusual chord and rhythm are identical and that the Batman theme was very popular and well known at the time and that George Harrison watched it? These are all facts, not beliefs. --Sangild 11:12, 11 November 2006 (UTC)

I note that the Batman reference has been removed, and rightly so in my view. The idea that it's a "fact" that Taxman "quotes" Batman is highly debatable. There are very few objective "facts" when it comes to musical quotations, and Sangild's suggestion that the "very unusual" chord used in Taxman is "identical" to that in Batman suggests to me that he or she doesn't know much about music. The chord is certainly not identical, and doesn't even sound particularly similar to my ears. The chord in question in Taxman is a D7+9 (or D dominant seventh sharp nine to give it its full title), whereas the chord in Batman sounds like a G7 to me, in other words apart from being in a different key - an admittedly minor difference - it is a completely different chord. It is certainly possible that Harrison was inspired by Taxman - consciously or subconsciously - but it is far from being an objective fact. Both songs are loosely based the 12 bar blues format and as anyone with any knowledge of the popular music of the 20th century can testify, there are thousands - if not tens of thousands - of songs with that structure. Brooklyn Eagle (talk) 04:37, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

Who played bass?

The recent "Harrison set the record straight ..." comment in the article appears to be a reaction to a change where I moved the bass credit from Harrison to McCartney. In the Crawdaddy article, Harrison does not say he played bass on "Taxman". He says he sometimes played bass—which we all knew—but his specific comment about "Taxman" says only that McCartney played the lead guitar. That's pretty well-known and not in dispute. (Ian MacDonald says McCartney played the solo, but gives credit to Harrison for lead guitar also, presumably for playing lead parts elsewhere in the song.)

MacDonald says that McCartney played bass on the song. (WP:OR warning: it sounds like Macca to me.) The Crawdaddy interview does not contradict that. Is there specific evidence that Harrison played bass? If not, the bass credit should be given to McCartney. I will do that, and cite MacDonald, subject to further discussion here.

John Cardinal 17:02, 18 September 2007 (UTC)

As soon as you mentioned Ian MacDonald, I went back and re-read the Crawdaddy piece. I agree with you, and I made the change in the text body and the "credits" section.

Vytal 05:57, 22 September 2007 (UTC)

Artist

Why is the artist in the sidebar thing listed as Leo K?

Shj95 (talk) 09:32, 10 May 2008 (UTC)

95% tax

It says here that Harrison's song was in response to the 95% tax, but I always thought the "one for you, nineteen for me" line was an exaggeration or a joke. Why is there nothing on Harold Wilson's page talking about the 95% tax rate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 220.245.1.161 (talk) 05:27, 18 December 2008 (UTC)

It was 95% but only charged on income over and above a specific level. It didn't kick in until you were earning (in terms of today's money) millions, and it was only charged on the bit ABOVE the limit, not on the entire earnings! Its a bit like the 50p tax band introduced a couple of years ago and recently removed by Osbourne. It was widely reported as "an increase of 50p on tax", when it was actually an increase of 10p, and only on the income earned over £150,000 a year. Everyone deliberately gets this wrong. People are bloody thick. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.225.149.5 (talk) 13:27, 23 January 2013 (UTC)

Triplets?

I'm pretty sure the "Anybody got a bit of money" lines in the Anthology version aren't triplets. They sound like straight 16ths. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.255.158.227 (talk) 23:03, 27 June 2009 (UTC)

Yep, they're not triplets. Good spot.Brooklyn Eagle (talk) 17:09, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

Batman

I AGREE WITH Sangild, Obviously both song are very similar, and probably the ispiration of a "tax-man" was a "bat-man" —Preceding unsigned comment added by 189.188.212.9 (talk) 07:00, 5 July 2009 (UTC)

Cough

Not sure how to list this, but the cough at the beginning of the song was done by Swinging Radio England disc jockey Ron O'Quinn. There aren't sources for this type of info. Ron is my father. He accompanied the Beatles for the full duration of their 1966 US tour. He was in the studio at Abbey Road during the recording of Taxman. The cough was done by Ron O'Quinn, but I have no way to source this info other than asking my father. Any ideas of what I can do for citing? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Seminolechief (talk • contribs) 12:16, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

We need a reliable source for something like that. Are you sure there are no sources for it? I assume there were magazine articles about O'Quinn; none of them describe the cough? — John Cardinal (talk) 14:33, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Are we sure that George sings it?

It sounds like John to me. In fact it sounds very like John, and not remotely like George. It's possible that it was George - it was one of his early songs and he was strongly under John's influence at that time (he might well have copied his style) - but I'd be interested to know the source for stating that George was the lead vocalist and John the backing vocalist, rather than the other way round. Brooklyn Eagle (talk) 04:53, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

Well, we could list the source(s) that state George is the lead vocalist but we'd have to list every source, every book, periodical and newspaper article that discusses the song and of course the album liner notes themselves which clearly state that George is the lead singer but that would be quite the list. There is no ambiguity here: all sources confirm without question that George sings lead on this song. freshacconci talktalk 11:28, 30 July 2011 (UTC)

That sounds pretty definitive all right! I'm happy to defer to the liner notes. Brooklyn Eagle (talk) 16:52, 8 August 2011 (UTC)

Citation errors

According to Ian MacDonald, George played lead guitar on "Taxman" and John C. Winn says that John played guitar on the song as well. I have reverted an edit. 203.63.142.15 (talk) 07:28, 4 October 2018 (UTC)

Core justification for the song

The lead notes that "[the] lyrics attack the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson." In fact, this document makes clear that the Surtax rates by tax year were:

• 1948-49 to 1964-65 = 50%
• 1965-1966 = 55%
• 1966-67 to 1971-72 = 50%

Effectively this mean that for one year only the overall rate for high earners like the Beatles increased by 5% overall. Obviously that was "high," but it was only marginally higher than had been the case for the previous 17 years. The wording in the lead, though, implies that Wilson imposed excessively high rates, rather than simply a minor tweak to existing high rates. Nick Cooper (talk) 15:59, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

The basic point about Harrison's inspiration for the song is that he was upset about high taxes for his tax bracket. This is not a political or economics article. We don't need details about the percentage of tax increases for specific years. It detracts from the rest of the article, which is about a song and the person who wrote it. Feel free to add the information to another article about British taxes. Sundayclose (talk) 00:09, 15 March 2020 (UTC)

It's called "context." At the moment the article states:

• "its lyrics attack the higher level of progressive tax imposed by the Labour government of Harold Wilson."
• "As their earnings placed them in the top tax bracket in the United Kingdom, the Beatles were liable to a 95% supertax introduced by Harold Wilson's Labour government"

These one-sided statements lack the context that what Wilson's government did was increase the top rate from 90% to 95%, that they had only done so in the April 1965 to March 1966 tax year, and that it was for that year only. In fact, by the time the record was released, the top rate had actually reverted to the previous 90%, which it had been since 1948. We can't just state what the rate was increased to, without stating what it increased from. This is especially the case given that the current top-rate is 45%, having previously been 50%, so it is not unreasonable to assume that some readers may misunderstand the real nature of the change Harrison was complaining about. Sure, having their after-tax income cut in half was severe, but it would not be nearly as severe as going from 45 or 50% to 95%. The fact that the rate being complained about had been reversed before the record was release is also a important clarification. Nick Cooper (talk) 19:24, 22 March 2020 (UTC)

IIRC there was a point in the 1970's when the top income rate in Britain was 90% -perhaps when National Insurance was added on this could have amounted to a marginal rate of 95% ? Given that this was over a decade after the song was first released though it is perhaps not terribly relevant. 2A00:23C7:70C:EF00:9D50:8D41:46B5:5C84 (talk) 18:21, 29 January 2021 (UTC)

Taxman is hard rock?

The article says that Taxman is hard rock. Seriously? A Quest For Knowledge (talk) 13:06, 12 August 2020 (UTC)

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:The Taxman which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 17:33, 15 October 2020 (UTC)

Versions

Stevie Ray Vaughan did a cover of the song.

Move discussion in progress

There is a move discussion in progress on Talk:Taxman (disambiguation) which affects this page. Please participate on that page and not in this talk page section. Thank you. —RMCD bot 00:03, 30 November 2021 (UTC)

Solo

Harrison didn't play the solo because he wasn't always very good at performing solos in the studio. The first hand evidence is Geoff Emerick - he was there, he engineered the song, and he said McCartney played it because the band were fed up with Harrison's lacklustre solo. Completely disregarding a first hand account, in favour of some random biography (one of hundreds that exist on the band) isn't very good evidence gathering, and smacks of trying to rewrite history a bit — Preceding unsigned comment added by 176.255.43.17 (talk) 21:55, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

Ian MacDonald is one of the most authoritative sources in existence. Referring to him as "some random biography" is like referring to Elizabeth II as an obscure world figure. Your claiming that Emerick said something doesn't make it true. You have not provided a source (claiming that Emerick said something without referencing a source is meaningless). Non-issue. Sundayclose (talk) 23:15, 31 December 2021 (UTC)

"One for you, nineteen for me"

From Background and inspiration: 'As their earnings placed them in the top tax bracket in the United Kingdom, the Beatles were liable to a 95% supertax introduced by Harold Wilson's Labour government; hence the lyric "There's one for you, nineteen for me"' The lyric specifically refers to the fact that the supertax rate takes 19 shillings from each pound taxed, leaving one shilling for the person or business being taxed, one pre-decimal shilling coin being equivalent to five decimal new pence. Robert P Connolly (talk) 16:40, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

@Robert P Connolly: Please add a reliable source for your edit. See WP:V. Thanks. Sundayclose (talk) 17:28, 21 January 2023 (UTC)

Harrison's "riff"

The article refers twice to a "guitar riff" by Harrison. I can't hear him playing anything but chords in this song. Surely what is meant is "Paul's bass riff". Which is the part that the Jam borrowed and the part that most people associate with this song so how is Paul not credited with songwriting is beyond me. 86.63.168.150 (talk) 01:13, 9 February 2024 (UTC)