#1340: The Beatles – Taxman

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‘Taxman’ would have been the track I heard first when deciding to go thorugh Revolver, having never heard it before, when I was in the depths of a Beatles discovery phase in 2009. Makes sense seeing as it’s the opening song on there. I’m sure I liked it then and there. I honestly wouldn’t be able to recall here how I felt about the song after that initial listen. It feels like it’s been around forever, I’ve heard it so many times since. But I’m sure I would have thought the ‘Taxman’ refrains were an obvious nod to the ’60s Batman theme tune and how similar the song ‘Start!’ by The Jam was to it. I usually see how ‘Taxman’ is talked about in the wider context of the Beatles’ discography. How it, and the rest of Revolver sort of marks a point where they were really blossoming into these fantastic songwriters, more than they were already, but with this newfound edge that clearly separated them from their peers. I mean, I’m sure all of that’s true. Just sounded like a cool song to me at the time.

People in the Beatles camp thought George Harrison had finally made a song worthy enough to begin a Beatles album, and so ‘Taxman’ did, and on it Harrison sings about the audacity the British government had in the mid-’60s to impose a supertax on the people with the highest taxable income in the country. The Beatles were four of those people, and they each were liable to give away 95% of their income to the taxman, hence the “one for you, 19 for me” lyric and Harrison’s general annoyance exuded in the song. Harrison further reinforces the preposterous nature of the titular taxman, who would tax the street, the seat, the heat, and your feet, if they could, for all the people who drive, sit, get too cold and go for leisurely walks. It’s quite comical how it’s written, I’m thinking Harrison felt the same way about the whole tax situation – but there’s definitely a seething undertone to it all, which makes it all the more emphatic of the political critique it is.

Online, you’ll find many a video detailing how the group recorded it and all the technicals. This one does, going into a dive as to who does the two count-ins you hear at the beginning of the song. For what it’s worth, before I saw it, I thought it was George doing the loud count-in and Paul McCartney doing the buried one. Now I think it’s Harrison doing both. Notable highlights in the song that I’d like to shine a light on is McCartney’s rapid-fire guitar solo about halfway through. It’s like a machine gun the way it comes out of the gate. It may also be out of frustration out of having to do it because Harrison couldn’t get the solo down himself. But that’s just my theory. His bassline isn’t too bad either, particularly those licks he pulls out during the middle eight. So, really, on a Harrison song, McCartney manages to take the spotlight somehow. And I just like the overall biting tone to that stabbing rhythm guitar that blasts the chords throughout. Got some real grit to it. And thankfully, the 2022 mix of it (above) did a good job of preserving all those things, just making it easier for listeners of the here and now. Or the here and now of 2022.

#1339: The Who – Tattoo

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It’s really come to this. The last song to represent The Who Sell Out in this series. It’s been a ride with that one, with a track from that album appearing in the ‘A’ section way back when. ‘Fun’ isn’t a word you’d use to describe a lot of albums by The Who, but if there was one that could be, Sell Out would probably be it. You’ve got the light radio concept throughout, a toe dip into that style of album before Pete Townshend fully went into the deep end for Tommy. Lighthearted songs with topics ranging from the importance of deodorant to baked beans to Scrooge-type characters. And it’s a showcase of the harmonies vocalists Roger Daltrey, Townshend and John Entwistle could execute, which kind of went away as the albums came along. And listening to the studio banter in alternate takes in that Super Deluxe Edition seem to show the bandmembers having a few laughs or so during the sessions. It sounds like a good time. Sell Out‘s still a bit of a overlooked album in the Who discography, but those who know really know.

‘Tattoo’ is the fifth song on The Who Sell Out and a very plainly told story about a boy and his brother who go to the parlor to get some tattoos to prove their manhood. The dad beats one brother, the mum beats the other. There’s no deeper meaning that what’s sung to you in the lyrics. I kind of remember hearing this one for the first time, on this old website called we7.com, back in the summer of 2010. The way Daltrey was singing, the subject matter, the nothing-left-to-interpretation-ness of it all. This was a very unusual song by The Who, very unlike anything you’d expect by them. It all sounded a bit silly to the 15-year-old I was then. Especially that “rooty-toot-toot” ending. Seemed like they were sort of making fun of what they were singing about. I can’t remember when the change happened that I suddenly saw the light, but I must have done because I can firmly say ‘Tattoo’ is one of my favourites on the entire album. The way Daltrey sings it is really a plus because of how un-Daltrey it is. Those descending harmonies by Townshend and Entwistle at the end of the choruses… just beautiful. Glorious stuff. And I feel like a mention to drummer Keith Moon occurs in a lot of Who posts I do on here, but he takes a backseat on ‘Tattoo’, which lets all the melodies really sink in.

So everyone, if there’s a lesson to be learned today, it’s to listen to The Who Sell Out. Myself, I’ve never been into the 2009 reissue / 2021 Super Deluxe Edition which I think use the original mix as it was from 1967. The 1995 Remix/Reissue, which is listed as being released in 1967 on Spotify and the like, was the edition that I listened to first and that I think contains the best mix out of all the re-releases that have been around. I’m sure that’s the version I’ve hyperlinked above, with the 23 tracks on there. It’s a damn shame that whoever split the songs for the remix of on streaming did a bad job, with the radio adverts playing at the beginning of songs rather than the end, because I feel each song would probably have a lot more plays if the alternate was the case. I did go through a period wondering whether I liked ‘Relax’ or not. By the time I was writing the R’s, I didn’t. But now I do again. So I’ll give that a mention. And the alternative version of ‘Mary Anne with the Shaky Hand’ with Al Kooper on organ. Much prefer that to the actual album version, actually. So, yeah. Wave bye to Sell Out, everybody.

#1338: The Used – The Taste of Ink

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I had a whole paragraph set out for this post where I was going on about the mix in this song’s music video being different from how it actually sounds on the album. Had a feeling Bert McCracken’s vocal was way more upfront. It may just be down to how the audio on YouTube videos is compressed automatically upon upload. So I guess it does sound different in a way, but not incredibly. But anyway, it was through the video for The Used’s ‘The Taste of Ink’ that I got to know the tune. It was just one day I was on the computer, MTV2 was on in the background, and there was ‘The Taste of Ink’ on the TV. I wasn’t really paying attention to it, but that “Here I am / It’s in my hands” chorus kicked in. It pricked the ear, I turned around and began to pay attention to the song. I write this and it sounds like it was this sort of cliché movie moment. Im pretty sure that’s how it all went down, though. And I think by that point I was into In Love and Death, so it was cool to hear another song by the band from another period of their time together.

‘The Taste of Ink’ is the second song on the band’s self-titled debut album from 2002 and was selected to be the band’s very first single. Quite suitably too ’cause of the song’s whole statement. McCracken sings about being stuck in a deadbeat town where there’s nothing to do and where chewing the tip of a pen is a choice of activity that helps pass the time. Hence the song’s title. But he’s had enough of it all, he’s ready to get out of there and just live life, do whatever he wants to do and have a good time while doing so. It’s a strong message. If you want to get things done, it’s all up to you. And I think it acts as a little love letter to fans too, as kind of a “If you’re with us for the ride, we’re gonna give you all we have” thing. Could also be a reach out to a person he was seeing, but I’m throwing something out with that suggestion. Musically, I’ve always dig the stop-start pattern in the instruments. The guitars and drums all play each downbeat and then all-out for the choruses. Cool dynamics going on. And it’s quite funny how they start to mess around with the chord progression just as the song begins to fade out. There’s probably a radio edit that edits that part out, but it’s all essential, I think.

So I really like ‘The Taste of Ink’. Not so much that I’ve gone on to check out the whole album it’s on, though. Am I missing something from not listening to The Used? Answers on a postcard, please. I don’t think it could get much better than In Love and Death. Even then, there are tunes on there I enjoyed a whole lot more in my adolescence than I do now. Another song from that album will be featured on here one of these days. But it would be interesting to hear how the band started out. By the time I heard ‘…Ink’ for the first time, I want to say Artwork was the band’s most recent album. Maybe Vulnerable. But by then, the type of music the band were making was on a completely different path from what I would have been listening to. Their original guitarist who had a huge hand in writing the songs was kicked out. It’s a whole story. What am I trying to say here? Maybe I’ll listen to The Used, maybe I won’t. It’s not something to dwell on.

#1337: Animal Collective – Taste

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“Am I really all the things that are outside of me?” is the first and last line of the song ‘Taste’ by Animal Collective. From my recollection, it was the only thing about the track I could remember after listening to Merriweather Post Pavilion for the first time in 2012 and being bewildered by the whole experience. I’ve written before about how I really had no context regarding Animal Collective before heading straight into hearing Merriweather…, how their live setup confused me, how it eventually became a favourite of mine etc. etc. It’s a story I won’t have to repeat again because ‘Taste’ marks the last time a song from the album will appear on here. But you get the idea, I once heard an album, didn’t get it, heard it again a couple more times, I began to understand it. And then I went into a whole Animal Collective phase that doesn’t need to be dug into here. What’s more important is the song at hand. So after Panda Bear opens the second half of Merriweather… with something of an ode to masturbation with ‘Guys Eyes’, Avey Tare takes things back to the more existential self-analysing route rather than a sexual one with ‘Taste’ straight after. The former merges into the latter with a sampled wind(?) of some kind before giving way to the looping, hypnotizing rhythm that anchors ‘Taste’ right up till its end.

I look at Genius, and it looks like ‘Taste’ goes way deeper than I thought it ever did. I kind of got the idea that it was about the topic of image. Being concerned by how the way we act, dress, look is perceived by other people. But then there are metaphors involving clothes in the song that adds a whole other level. What I’ve really appreciated about the song, though, is how, essentially from the first chorus onward, Panda Bear joins Tare on the vocals and sings an entirely different melody over the top. Not in a backup, harmonizing kind of way either, they really act as co-lead vocals. But, you know, you’ll see Tare’s lyrics everywhere because he is the “main” singer for this one. It’s just so fascinating how both vocalists diverge with their vocals, which then come together for the repeats of the final line as the song comes to its end. I always get lost in that moreso than the message. Not that that isn’t important. It’s kind of along the lines of, “Image is something we all think about. It’s just nature. But don’t go changing yourself to please other people.” And that’s pretty solid advice.

So, yeah, not the end of Animal Collective on here, but it’s the end for Merriweather Post Pavilion. It had its time. On some days, it’s my favourite by the group, but the majority of the time that title goes to Strawberry Jam. That is some good listening right there. Only four songs from MPP I managed to write about on here, and had the axes aligned and I’d gotten my act together, at least a couple posts for ‘Also Frightened’ and ‘Brother Sport’ would be found on this place too. Just use your imagination as to how those ones would go. I’m looking at this post for ‘Taste’ now and I’m thinking maybe I could have written a little more about it. I do think it’s a great song, but it came along as more a part of the package that MPP is rather than one I had a grand experience with that I needed to share, which you might in some other posts around the place. But I do appreciate it a lot, and really the song should do all the talking rather than these paragraphs underneath. When the group started playing ‘Taste’ live in 2007, it originally sounded very different. And you’ll find some people saying they prefer this earlier version. I’ll leave it to you.

#1336: The Strokes – Tap Out

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Man, I wish someone in the Strokes comes to a realization one of these days that there are more songs on Comedown Machine that are worth playing in a live setting. They’ve done both ‘Call It Fate, Call It Karma’ and ‘Welcome to Japan’ so little times you could count them on one hand. At the time of writing this, they were most recently performed at the Chelsea in Las Vegas. ‘One Way Trigger’, they’ve done a few times too and also in that Vegas show. But there are others on that LP that I feel so many fans would tear a limb off to witness. For me, ‘Tap Out’ is a frontrunner in that category. Whenever you have a Strokes album, the first track on there usually goes down as one of the best on there. It’s just a thing that’s known. ‘Tap Out’ has strong competition with the likes of ‘Is This It’, ‘Machu Picchu’, ‘The Adults Are Talking’, and the others which will get their posts on here so I’ve chosen not to link them. But ‘Tap Out’ holds its ground. In fact, I might even say it’s one of my favourite Strokes songs, period.

I remember how unceremoniously Comedown Machine was treated by all parties when it came around in 2013. The band, taking a media blackout stance, didn’t promote it in any way. A music video for single ‘All the Time’ was made, which has since been made unavailable on YouTube. Goes to show how they feel about that. Its cover art was giving off the impression to some that the package was more a kiss-off to the label they were on than a fully-focused project. To quite a few, actually. And critics were pretty dismissive of it too. Pitchfork had a streaming platform that let listeners hear the album a week before its official release. That platform is now gone. ‘Tap Out’ was the first thing I heard. And it seemed so strange. Here was this new Strokes album that was getting no hype at all, but here was its first track that was entrancing, groovy and had all the markings off a great Strokes song. It was different, but in a good way, and was a mark that this new album wasn’t going to be the Is This It/Room on Fire throwback that I recall people desperately wanted at the time.

To me, ‘Tap Out’ feels like Julian Casablancas reflecting on the overwhelming hype the band received at the turn of the 21st century when they were deemed the saviours of rock and roll by many a publication, a hype that’s there to a lesser extent today but still lingers, and detailing a feeling that this whole Strokes thing might have resulted in something a little more than he bargained for. Particularly being the subject to many a question from an interviewer that he can’t muster the energy to provide an answer to. But despite the annoyed sentiment that I perceive, like I said earlier, the song is a groove. Classic guitar interplay between Nick Valensi and Albert Hammond, Jr. occurs throughout. The track introduces the vocal technique of Casablancas singing in his normal voice, with a falsetto overdub over the top, which is used frequently throughout the LP. And over the years, I’ve grown a particular appreciation for what I think is the organ on the left side that comes in during the choruses. Adds a divine, floaty dimension to the song while the other bandmembers continue on with the tight rhythm. This song is tight. Tight, tight, tight. Here’s where I would paste a video of a band performing the subject song live, but for reasons I’ve stated, I can’t. But one day. One day.