"Taxman"
By 1966, George Harrison had become wealthy enough to qualify for the largest bracket of Britain’s steep tax system. The highest marginal rate for top earners exceeded 90 percent, leaving him frustrated that so much of his earnings disappeared to the government. Reflecting on the period, he remarked that it felt as if they were “giving most of our money away in taxes,” and wondered aloud whether they were being punished.
Harrison channeled this discontent into “Taxman,” a song he later described as his most autobiographical Beatles composition. John Lennon remembered it as “an anti-establishment tax song,” with its tongue-in-cheek warning that “if you walk the street, they’ll tax your feet.” Although Paul McCartney showed little interest in helping him with the song, Harrison found support from Lennon, who reluctantly agreed to collaborate out of loyalty to Harrison. The duo cranked out a song that Critic Steve Turner described as a wry piece of pop art.
The song generated slight controversy for naming Prime Minister Harold Wilson and Conservative leader Edward Heath, marking the first time the Beatles explicitly referenced contemporary politicians.
Musical Elements
The harmony is rooted in D major but often leans on the sharpened ninth degree as well as the♭7 scale degree (C-natural in the key of D major), creating a biting dissonance that hints at modal mixture, evoking shades of Mixolydian or Dorian. The rhythmic figure in the chorus recalls Neil Hefti’s Batman Theme from the hit 1966 television series, a connection underscored by the band’s emphatic cry of “Taxman!” As commentator Tim Gould observes, this framing casts the taxman as a kind of comic-book bureaucratic superhero.
The verse chord progression runs:
D7 / / / | D7 / / / | D7#9 / D7 / | D7 / / / | D7 / / / | D7#9 / D7 / |
(I7) | (I7) | (I7#9 → I7) | (I7) | (I7) | (I7#9 → I7)
C / / / | C / / / | G7 / / / | D7 / / / | D7 / / / |
(bVII) | (bVII) | (V7) | (I7) | (I7)
In harmonic terms, the verses are rooted in I7 (D7), occasionally spiked with a sharpened ninth (D7#9) for added dissonance. The middle section moves briefly to bVII (C), then to V7 (G7) before returning to I7 (D7). The reliance on the flat VII chord and the mix of dominant harmonies gives the song a modal inflection, one that leans closer to Mixolydian than to a strict diatonic framework.
What makes the form striking is its phrasing. Instead of adhering to the conventional 4- or 8-bar units common in pop and R&B, the opening material forms an irregular 3-bar phrase built around the D7 groove. This sense of imbalance carries forward into the B section, which begins with the C chord in measure 11 and unfolds as a 5-bar phrase before resolving back to D7. In total, the verse spans an unconventional 11 bars.
The rhythmic and stylistic palette draws heavily from American rhythm and blues. Author Ian MacDonald hears echoes of James Brown’s taut, syncopated funk, built from sharp accents and interlocking patterns. He also points to Lee Dorsey’s New Orleans R&B, with its loose swing and percussive drive, and the Spencer Davis Group, whose sound blended British beat music with American soul. Author Rob Chapman further connects Harrison’s riffage to the instrumental R&B of Booker T. & the M.G.’s, the house band for the Stax recording label, whose Memphis grooves married tight rhythms to melodic riffs. This influence of American R&B permeates other Beatles songs around this time such as the Motown inspired “Got To Get You Into My Life”
McCartney’s solo pushes beyond Harrison’s usual guitar vocabulary. Drawing inspiration from Jeff Beck’s exploratory work with the Yardbirds, he sought a rawer, more distorted timbre, closer in spirit to the emerging style of Jimi Hendrix, with its feedback, bent notes, and aggressive phrasing.
The result is a fusion of satire and style: a sharp critique of the British tax system delivered through grooves borrowed from the transatlantic world of soul and funk. This analysis begins at the very start of the recording (0:00) and covers the intro as well as the A section and B section of the verse.