TAXMAN (+ new alt mix)

[Lord Reith]

Thank you for the insight into your thinking!

There is method in the madness!

[Kwai Chang]

Many thanks for he new tracks Lord Reith Robert
KC - I don't remember what guitar was used on TNK but as far as I remember from photographs, Paul used his Fender Telecaster for the solo on Taxman. Right me if I'm wrong. Thanks for the 1966 Epi catalogue!

It was suggested to me that the guitar heard in TNK was actually samples of Taxman solo by McCartney that were sped up, slowed down and overmodulated...distorted, slapped-back, bent, straightened, dropped, forced and leveraged where they fit or sounded good. The recent post of Taxman had one comment about more cowbell! I had heard the same change in the sound. It is ultra suble but undeniablely a different sound with better ambience. It made me reassess the entire track. We are all familiar with the count in at start of Taxman. I was intrigued by Lord Reith's insight regarding the intro. While I wondered if the count-in had been added to Taxman once it was determined to open the album, Lord Reith tells me that it is supposed to recall the sound of the Tax Collector counting money. I was floored as I read it. In the blink of an eye, I knew I agreed with him. Other finery was reconsidered. I guess I had never fully appreciated the album. The genius of it all is fearsome. For example...the album title...is supposed to refer to the record on the turntable as its destiny is realized. In other words, the record inside isn't really REVOLVER unless it's being played. Without the turntable, the title must refer to LIFE itself as being cyclic. The planets revolve...the vinyl record cycles back into the cover then back to the turntable as the REVOLVER begins then ends! As the cycle of the tax collector counting your refund. The guitar solo sounds like a coins being thrown into a bag and as the last note bends it becomes the draw string tightened and hitched. The Taxman is cyclic and true to form, reminds us that cycles end where they begin. Hence the Taxman guitar solo thrown into TNK, seems to say "You didn't pay enough"! That's just the beginning. Check out the cover! Black and White...it seems well crafted...but it is subtle and the there is a very simple point that it is making. It might alude to a turntable...but that was just the easiest way to appease the masses. Those that are more inclined to indulge the image will be slightly unbalanced about it. The image is the faces close up as line-drawings and the hair connects the four into one. But the hair transitions to and fro and those shadows and waves are photos of the Beatles. A collage that needs combing. So, the four CURRENT pictures are caricatures and each one is in a different 'phase' of becoming less cartoon-like or more cartoon like. George is nearly non-cartoon. His eyes and mouth are from a real photo. So, the current main image is of a group that is changed. The collage is the old Beatles as we remember them. What is going on? Are they each coming on to the effects of something that alters them. Are they permanently different? Will they return to the real photo phase again? The image unwittingly suggests that the four Beatles have become new in a way that is permanent. The old Beatles are in their heads(memories?). The new Beatles look the same but fairy tale qualities are a part of eachj one in varying amounts. Are they only going through a cycle of revolving? Are they enlightened or maybe halfway plugged in? Are the going to collect the taxes from all the lonely people? Is their existence a game to be played? Does it end or just begin again? Will they ever be colorful again? Have they left us behind and don't want to tell us? Is it not dying? Of the beginning...everything is REVOLVING and the turntable isn't even spinning. The cycle will be of amazement and the nuance that leaves you enlightened, and in the dark and colorful and in black and white and how the guitar sound of the Taxman will collect, not the pennies on your eyes but a last reminder that lasts 40 minutes and leaves you unsure about anything except that you have been changed by a cartoonish group that isn't even named on the front cover. Despite production methods, this is the most incredible album ever made. By anyone! For love is all and love is every one. It is knowing! And all the while...the world keeps turning. A nother cycle has ended!
KC

[jpa]

Many thanks for your essay KC. I am going to copy and save it so I can always read it again!

[RLester]

Kwai Chang made some inspired observations. Here's one additional thought about the Revolver cover. It's very hard to imagine that Voormann wasn't aware of the great artist Paul Klee. Can this possibly be coincidence?

14937213_1135000486537851_756411839185826121_n.jpeg (63.93 KiB) Viewed 955 times

Many thanks for he new tracks Lord Reith Robert
KC - I don't remember what guitar was used on TNK but as far as I remember from photographs, Paul used his Fender Telecaster for the solo on Taxman. Right me if I'm wrong. Thanks for the 1966 Epi catalogue!

It was suggested to me that the guitar heard in TNK was actually samples of Taxman solo by McCartney that were sped up, slowed down and overmodulated...distorted, slapped-back, bent, straightened, dropped, forced and leveraged where they fit or sounded good. The recent post of Taxman had one comment about more cowbell! I had heard the same change in the sound. It is ultra suble but undeniablely a different sound with better ambience. It made me reassess the entire track. We are all familiar with the count in at start of Taxman. I was intrigued by Lord Reith's insight regarding the intro. While I wondered if the count-in had been added to Taxman once it was determined to open the album, Lord Reith tells me that it is supposed to recall the sound of the Tax Collector counting money. I was floored as I read it. In the blink of an eye, I knew I agreed with him. Other finery was reconsidered. I guess I had never fully appreciated the album. The genius of it all is fearsome. For example...the album title...is supposed to refer to the record on the turntable as its destiny is realized. In other words, the record inside isn't really REVOLVER unless it's being played. Without the turntable, the title must refer to LIFE itself as being cyclic. The planets revolve...the vinyl record cycles back into the cover then back to the turntable as the REVOLVER begins then ends! As the cycle of the tax collector counting your refund. The guitar solo sounds like a coins being thrown into a bag and as the last note bends it becomes the draw string tightened and hitched. The Taxman is cyclic and true to form, reminds us that cycles end where they begin. Hence the Taxman guitar solo thrown into TNK, seems to say "You didn't pay enough"! That's just the beginning. Check out the cover! Black and White...it seems well crafted...but it is subtle and the there is a very simple point that it is making. It might alude to a turntable...but that was just the easiest way to appease the masses. Those that are more inclined to indulge the image will be slightly unbalanced about it. The image is the faces close up as line-drawings and the hair connects the four into one. But the hair transitions to and fro and those shadows and waves are photos of the Beatles. A collage that needs combing. So, the four CURRENT pictures are caricatures and each one is in a different 'phase' of becoming less cartoon-like or more cartoon like. George is nearly non-cartoon. His eyes and mouth are from a real photo. So, the current main image is of a group that is changed. The collage is the old Beatles as we remember them. What is going on? Are they each coming on to the effects of something that alters them. Are they permanently different? Will they return to the real photo phase again? The image unwittingly suggests that the four Beatles have become new in a way that is permanent. The old Beatles are in their heads(memories?). The new Beatles look the same but fairy tale qualities are a part of eachj one in varying amounts. Are they only going through a cycle of revolving? Are they enlightened or maybe halfway plugged in? Are the going to collect the taxes from all the lonely people? Is their existence a game to be played? Does it end or just begin again? Will they ever be colorful again? Have they left us behind and don't want to tell us? Is it not dying? Of the beginning...everything is REVOLVING and the turntable isn't even spinning. The cycle will be of amazement and the nuance that leaves you enlightened, and in the dark and colorful and in black and white and how the guitar sound of the Taxman will collect, not the pennies on your eyes but a last reminder that lasts 40 minutes and leaves you unsure about anything except that you have been changed by a cartoonish group that isn't even named on the front cover. Despite production methods, this is the most incredible album ever made. By anyone! For love is all and love is every one. It is knowing! And all the while...the world keeps turning. A nother cycle has ended!
KC

[Mixerrog]

Great info KC!

Rog

[Lord Reith]

Interesting observations Kwai! And i also agree with Mr Lester about Paul Klee (though I wasn't aware of him till now). Revolver must be one of the greatest album covers of all time. Pepper got all the attention but i think Revolver is just as good in its own unique way.

[jpa]

Thank you RLester - I will add your note with the Klee drawing to my KC Revolver file!

[RLester]

Extremely proud to contribute!

Thank you RLester - I will add your note with the Klee drawing to my KC Revolver file!

[Kwai Chang]

Interesting observations Kwai! And i also agree with Mr Lester about Paul Klee (though I wasn't aware of him till now). Revolver must be one of the greatest album covers of all time. Pepper got all the attention but i think Revolver is just as good in its own unique way.

Thank you, all! I appreciate your appreciation. Most of REVOLVER's headiness had eluded me until the counting of money was brought to my attention by Lord Reith! I have to admit I am non-profit...and accept ALL donations. The best part is...this forum is very much a hovercraft of organic deduction. Bird of a feather flock together. I don't ever write anything except when I'm here. The polarity is real and suddenly my brain is like a pin ball machine. To be possessed by Beatles nuance is all that's happening. I couldn't do it for money...it just doesn't inspire or sort the logic properly. But, this forum is very unusual...like my fingerprints on a cheerleader...the discourse of many great thinkers is a catalyst and there is no egotism anywhere. I have many more new visions that will be written down very soon. They are just as good. But Lord Reith's note above: Pepper got all of the attention...I love the picture of the group taking a break from work to examine the satin swatches that the Pepper uniforms will be tailored from. The REVOLVER equivalent would be Klaus at the stationery store selecting the proper pens and glue sticks for the cover. And that's how much the two albums have in common. Psychedelic IS black and White! Parody is satin. It's not a game because everyone wins.
Stay tuned!
KC

[Lord Reith]

Something I hadn't noticed until now is how many Revolver songs mention death:

Taxman
Eleanor Rigby
Love You Too
She Said She Said
For No One
Tomorrow Never Knows

Clearly they were in a morbid state of mind!

Something else mildly funny is that for most of my life I could not understand the line "He'll make you" in Dr Robert. I don't know about anywhere else, but when I was growing up, to "make" someone was to have sex with them. I thought that was pretty kinky even for John.

Of course, now that I am older and less stupid I realise he's actually in Yoda mode, putting words at the start of sentences that belong at the end: "He'll make you well".