Watch The Beatles’ Brand New ‘Taxman’ Official Music Video
The Beatles’ music is constantly being remastered and restored as it remains relevant almost 60 years later. The special edition of the album Revolver by The Beatles is set to be released soon, and a music video for the song “Taxman” recently debuted on YouTube, giving fans a brand new visualization of this song.
‘Taxman’ is an underappreciated song by The Beatles
“Taxman” was released in 1966 as the first song on Revolver. The song was never released as a single by The Beatles and never charted in the UK or the US. However, Revolver was a successful album and was the highest-selling album of 1966 in the UK. In the US, Revolver was the eighth highest-selling album of 1966.
“Taxman” is not an iconic song by The Beatles but does have its own unique origin. It is written by George Harrison, who asked John Lennon to help him with the track. In the book, All We Are Saying: The Last Major Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Lennon said he didn’t want to work on “Taxman,” but did it as a favor to his friend.
“I thought, ‘Oh, no, don’t tell me I have to work on George’s stuff. It’s enough doing my own and Paul’s,’” Lennon said. “But because I loved him and I didn’t want to hurt him when he called that afternoon and said, ‘Will you help me with this song?’ I just sort of bit my tongue and said, ‘OK.’ It had been John and Paul so long, he’d been left out because he hadn’t been a songwriter up until then. As a singer, we allowed him only one track on each album.”
‘Taxman’ gets a music video after almost 60 years
On Oct. 14, the music video for “Taxman” was released on The Beatles YouTube channel. The video was directed by Danny Sangra and is an animated visualization of the song. It features psychedelic visuals, paired with the lyrics and images from the song. Its bright and eccentric style is a throwback to The Beatles’ style, and it is similar to the animation style in the Yellow Submarine movie.
The song is a criticism of the UK’s “super-rich” tax rate at the time and features lyrics where the “Taxman” is coming to tax you for anything that you use, including your feet. The audio also features a vocal wink to the Batman TV show theme song. The music video captures some of these themes in its visuals and emphasizes many of the song’s most meaningful lyrics.
The music video is paired with the ‘Revolver’ special edition
The music video debuts weeks before the release of the special edition of Revolver. This special edition follows a trend of other albums from The Beatles being remastered. Revolver includes the song “Taxman,” along with other hit tracks, including “Yellow Submarine,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and “Got to Get You Into My Life.” All 14 songs have been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and engineer Sam Okell in stereo and Dolby Atmos.
The Revolver special edition will be released on Oct. 28.
