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Taxman
From Beatles Wiki - Interviews, Music, Beatles Quotes
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'Taxman' was when I first realized that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes. It was and still is topical. |
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—George Harrison, 1980
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I brought my old Epiphone electric guitar out, which was like a cheap Gibson in the early days. It's the guitar that I played the opening riff of 'Paperback Writer' on, so it's a lovely guitar. It can be quite varied — sort of horny and hard, like the 'Taxman' solo; that was the other thing I used it on. George let me have a go for the solo because I had an idea -- it was the early Jimi Hendrix days and I was trying to persuade George to do something like that, feedback-y and crazy. And I was showing him what I wanted, and he said, 'Well, you do it.' |
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—Paul McCartney, "RollingStone Interview, 2005
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I helped out such alot in all the arrangements. There were alot of tracks though where I played bass. Paul played lead guitar on 'Taxman,' and he played guitar — a good part — on 'Drive My Car.' |
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—George Harrison, Crawdaddy Magazine, Feb 1977
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There was a bit of tension on that session [...] because George had a great deal of trouble playing the solo — in fact, he couldn't even do a proper job of it when we slowed the tape down to half speed. [...] So George Martin went into the studio and, as diplomatically as possible, announced that he wanted Paul to have a go at the solo instead. I could see from the look on Harrison's face that he didn't like the idea one bit, but he reluctantly agreed and then proceeded to disappear for a couple of hours. [...] Paul's solo was stunning in its ferocity — his guitar playing had a fire and energy that his younger bandmate's rarely matched — and was accomplished in just a take or two. It was so good, in fact, that George Martin had me fly it in again during the song's fadeout. |
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—Geoff Emerick, EMI Recording Engineer, Here, There and Everywhere, with Robert Massey, 2006
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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. |
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—George Harrison, Guitar Player Magazine interview, 1987
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I remember the day he (George) 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. He came to me because he couldn't go to Paul. Paul wouldn't have helped him at that period. I didn't want to do it. I just sort of bit my tongue and said OK. It had been John and Paul for so long, he'd been left out because he hadn't been a songwriter up until then. |
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—John Lennon, Playboy Interviews, 1980
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George wrote that and I played guitar on it. He wrote it in anger at finding out what the taxman did. He had never known before then what could happen to your money. |
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—Paul McCartney, Playboy Magazine interview, 1984
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