Taxman

"Taxman"
Cover of the Northern Songs sheet music (licensed to Sonora Musikförlag)
Song by the Beatles from the album Revolver
Published	Northern Songs
Released	5 August 1966
Recorded	20–22 April, 16 May and 21 June 1966, EMI Studios, London
Genre	Rock,hard rock,psychedelic rock
Length	2:39
Label	Parlophone
Writer(s)	George Harrison
Producer(s)	George Martin
Music sample "Taxman"

"Taxman" is a song written by George Harrison and released as the opening track on the Beatles' 1966 album Revolver. Its lyrics attack the high levels of progressive tax taken by the British Labour government of Harold Wilson.

Harrison said, "'Taxman' was when I first realised that even though we had started earning money, we were actually giving most of it away in taxes. It was and still is typical." 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 lyrics "There's one for you, nineteen for me", referring to the pre-decimal pound sterling which consisted of twenty shillings). In a 1984 interview with Playboy magazine, Paul McCartney explained: "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 he'll do with your money."

John Lennon recalled, in a 1980 interview with Playboy magazine: "I remember the day he [Harrison] 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, because 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." "Taxman", however, was the sixth song written by Harrison to be included on an album issued by the group.

The backing vocals' references to "Mr Wilson" and "Mr Heath", suggested by Lennon, refer respectively to Harold Wilson and Edward Heath; the former was the leader of the Labour Party and the latter the leader of the Conservative Party, the two largest parties in British politics. Wilson, then Prime Minister, had nominated all four of The Beatles as Members of the Order of the British Empire just the previous year. The chanted names replaced two refrains of "Anybody got a bit of money?" heard in take 11, an earlier version that was subsequently released on Anthology 2 in 1996.