Beatles | 'Taxman' Intro from 'Here, There & Everywhere'?

Hi all,

For years I've been convinced that the 'joke' count-in to The Beatles' "Taxman" is actually from a take of "Here, There and Everywhere", cross-faded with the true count-in for "Taxman". I believe the following can be inferred from examination of the audio:

• the 'joke' count-in is from a recording of "Here, There and Everywhere" (take unknown). Rationale: the count-in's tempo is consistent with the initial tempo of that song, and the bass guitar can be heard playing the root of its opening chord (G);

• the 'joke' count-in is likely spoken by Lennon, who not only had a known penchant for such things, but also because it was he who opened the performance of "Here, There and Everywhere" with a G-chord strum on the electric guitar. If correct, the cough heard during the 'joke' count-in is possibly McCartney, clearing his throat before singing "Here, There and Everywhere"'s opening line;

• the 'proper' count-in is the actual count-in for "Taxman";

• the two pieces of tape were cross-faded, creating a similar effect to the cross-faded introduction to "Get Back" (LP version).

Does anyone know if this has been discussed elsewhere? It would be interesting if Giles Martin were able to confirm/deny the theory by examining the 13 takes of "Here, There and Everywhere".

 

A few things:

1) The fake/slow count-off sure sounds like George to me.

2) The vocals to Here, There And Everywhere were not recorded live with the backing track. Thus, any count-off would be off mic (as the real count-off to Taxman is), and not upfront and clear as the fake Taxman count-off is.

3) A minor point, but it's not a cross-fade. The real count-off is playing throughout the entire intro, *plus* the fake count-off. It isn't as if it switches from one to the other.

I'd say it's extremely unlikely.

 

Yeah, the "fake" count off is definitely George--he probably did it when he was getting ready to record his vocal on "Taxman". So I'm voting no to the "crossfade" theory. And speaking of crossfades, I don't think The Beatles ever used a crossfade...

 

Do you mean within a song? Because there are certainly a number between songs on Pepper, The Beatles, Abbey Road, and Let It Be.

 

Hmm. Here, There and Everywhere (14 June 1966) was recorded two months after Taxman (20 April 1966) was recorded, and a full month after Taxman received the count-in intro (16 May 1966). So, it seems highly unlikely that the count-in was somehow taken from a later session and song. Lewisohn doesn't go into many details about the HTE session, other than remarking on the harmonies. He mentions a later bass overdub and such, but never mentions electric guitar, lead or rhythm. Finally, John doesn't play guitar at all on the song. Paul on acoustic, George on electric. Ron

PS I agree with Luke that it sounds like George doing the count-in, not John.

 

The tone of the guitar snippet heard in the "Taxman" intro is different from the guitar tone heard in "Here There And Everywhere." The guitar tone in the snippet before "Taxman" sounds like noodling on a distorted guitar, played quietly (not strummed hard, so less distortion is apparent). The guitar tone in "Here There And Everywhere, " although similar, is a cleaner tone, fuller bodied, more equal in bass and treble, with less distortion even when strummed fully. While it could well be the same amp and the same guitar, same player (George) it's clearly two different sessions on two different days, with two different sets of amp and recording console settings. George plays the rhythm guitar on "Here There And Everywhere," not John.

 

Extended discussion of the subject:

Beatles Taxman – count in is Paul?

 

And this post on the thread linked above are the count-ins isolated. Both sound like George to me.

Beatles Taxman – count in is Paul?

 

Then George doing the count in in time with the first strum of HTE would make even more sense

 

There's no acoustic in the song. The early takes did have the rhythm guitar played on acoustic as heard on bootlegs. But that later changed to an electric as heard on the released version.

 

It really surprised me to find out there are people who think either of the two Taxman count-offs do not sound like George.

 

Sounds like George to me, makes sense it's his song. Perhaps John with some audio manipulation

 

The real count in from the actual backing track session in the background is George. It's his song after all.
The fake half tempo count in sounds like Paul (George coughing between "...four, one..."). Paul used similar voice for Listen To What The Man Said intro:

 

In the studio
Recording for the song began on 20 April 1966, when The Beatles taped four takes, two of which were complete. They rearranged it overnight, and the following day recorded 11 new takes, the first 10 of which were of the rhythm track only.

The Anthology 2 collection features take 11 of the song, the first with vocals. The most notable difference between this and the Revolver version is the replacement of the 'Mr Wilson, Mr Heath' section with Lennon and McCartney's repeated falsetto "Anybody got a bit of money?" The famous count-in, spoken by Paul McCartney, was from this take.

On 22 April Ringo Starr added his cowbell part, and the 'Mr Wilson, Mr Heath' lines made their appearance. Then the track was left alone until 16 May, when the song was mixed for mono.

George Harrison was pleased with McCartney's guitar solo, particularly the Indian-influenced descending scale at the end. It was recorded on 21 April, and the solo was repeated to close the song during a mixing and edit session on 21 June.

Although it has been claimed that the guitar solo was later reversed, slowed down a tone, edited and used during the instrumental break in Tomorrow Never Knows, the two parts are quite different and were likely recorded on different days.

https://www.beatlesbible.com/songs/taxman/

fwiw

 

It doesn’t, for the reasons outlined earlier.

It’s not clear where the information about it being Paul comes from, but according to Lewisohn, the count-in was added on 16 May to take 12, the final overdub to the song.

 

That's what I get for listening to bootlegs!!! Thanks, Onder

 

Beatles Bible is hardly infallible, of course. I've come across clearly erroneous statements there. To my knowledge there is no external evidence available about who does either count-in. All we have is the recording itself, so any statement of fact is going to be based solely on opinion. As I said, I'm surprised there are people who think it's not George on both count-ins, but then I was also surprised by the "aaahs" in A Day in The Life debate.

 

In the other thread this was the cite that kind of stopped the convo. (It was another poster. I borrowed this) I thought it was settled. I guess not. Paul does some good deep voices on Ram though in his defense.

I'm almost scared to say it but I love Georges aahs. (It was him right?)

 

George overdubbed the fake count in at the same time as his lead vocals; they’re on the same track of the 4 track. That low hum in the background is from Paul’s bass.

 

No, the vocals were recorded onto take 11 on 21 April, while the count-in was recorded onto take 12 on 16 May.

 

I hope you're joking. If not, you've added a new twist to that debate, which centered around whether it was John or Paul. In this case though the debate is relatively settled, as the evidence on the isolated tracks as well as statements/paperwork from the remix producers establish clearly that it's Paul with some John-style echo on his voice.

 

I wasn't joking. I have always heard George there. But I'm not debating. I know nothing.

 

The actual count off of "Taxman" (not the overdub) sounds like Paul to me. Lots of bands have the drummer or another rhythm section member count off the tempo of a track. George wrote "Don't Bother Me" but if you listen to the outtakes, it's clear that he's not the one determining the song's tempo. He keeps complaining that it's too fast. You can even hear a muffled "It's too fast" on the start of the actual recording if you listen closely.

 

For me it comes down to the fact that it clearly sounds like George's voice, with his distinctive intonation and slightly nasally tone. In terms of logistics I suppose it could plausibly be any of them, but since it's George's song and it sounds like George to me, I never saw the need to consider otherwise. And FWIW, I don't think Paul's voice on Listen to What The Man Said resembles the voice here, aside from being deep.

 

Strange as it may seem... George said at the time that “John did the counting bit on Taxman”.