Paul with fiance' Nancy Shevell 2011.

This blog has asked Paul to remember one word in the future for something like this: PRENUP.  However, all kidding aside, it seems by all accounts that Ms. Shevell is the real deal. First of all, she's already rich. It's hard to imagine her as anything remotely like Heather Mills, the gold digging shall we say, lower socio-economic type that Paul married last time. Secondly, she is highly refined and educated. Thirdly, she herself is getting out of a bad marriage. So, from this blog's perspective, you would think both would want this one to work out.

Trivia: Interestingly, Paul plans to marry this wonderful woman at London's Marylebone Register's Office; the same place he married Linda on March 12, 1969. Furthermore, Marylebone is the section of London where the opening scenes to "A Hard Day's Night" were filmed with the boys running from the fans and the train station scene. One more thing: John Lennon was arraigned there too for his pot bust. Fans will recall that famous picture of John and Yoko emerging from the Resister's office with cops and fans all around the two. Yep, same place.

Trivia II: Is it me or do these Beatles love American women?  Paul's first wife was American Linda Eastman. If he marries Nancy, that will be two out of three wives who were/are American with Heath Mills being the lone Englishwoman. John's second wife was Yoko, an Americanized Japanese woman. His lover May Pang, although Chinese, was born in New York City. George's second wife, Olivia, although a Mexican who was born in Mexico City, grew up in California. Presumably she got her American citizenship at some point. Ringo's second wife, Actress Barbara Bach is American.

God Bless you both from BeatleTracks and all Beatle/Nancy Shevell fans around the world.

By John Haberstroh  (Bassist for BeatleTracks)  Find us at www.beatletracksband.com for more cool blogs and Beatle information.

Paul at the 9/11 concert.


Paul's "Concert for New York" was actually held shortly after the actual terrorist acts of 9/11, in October of 2001. Weirdly, the movie was held up for 10 years and only this past weekend released. As Paul noted repeatedly in the movie, he happened to be at New York's JFK airport that very morning and was literally taxiing down the runway for takeoff when the two planes slammed into the Trade Towers in Manhatten. 

Paul, “But out of the window on the right side of the airplane, you could see the twin towers,” he said. “You could see one plume of smoke. Then you could see two, shortly thereafter. And I said, ‘That’s just an optical illusion.’”  It wasn't of course, it was a real assault on sovereign US soil and it was hard to imagine for anyone that it was actually happening.

In any event, Paul generously threw together a tribute show with many guest stars such as David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Billy Joel, Elton John  James Taylor, Eric Clapton, Bon Jovi, among others. All well and good. And if we could have seen the bulk of the concert it would have been even better. Instead, we got 80 of the 90 minutes in black and white featuring Paul talking about himself as well as 9/11 and a few snippets of rehearsal time. The actual concert footage was exceedingly brief and even during that, the camera continually cut to Paul backstage with his daughter Stella talking about the acts on stage through a TV monitor. Bill Clinton and James Taylor show up and chat up Paul, make jokes all while the show is going on. What???

We finally see Paul on stage performing his then new song, "Freedom" that he wrote apparently on the spot while witnessing the 9/11 travesty. What was nice, in the exceedingly brief concert footage (mercifully shown in color), were sweeping images of the firemen and their families in the crowd holding up pictures of their dead comrades/fathers/brothers. It was quite touching as was the entire movie for that matter. Many cops and firemen were invited on stage for the song written for them. That stuff was great. Even some of the black and white footage of Paul meeting and greeting fans on the street were actually fun. But, this special could have been 100 times better if it had focused on the real issue, which was the concert itself. One mildly amusing moment came when bassist Will Lee (Bassist for David Letterman and The Fab Faux Beatle Tribute band) was caught chatting with his idol. Lee was without his now trademark glasses but he clearly looked nervous and fidgety in the presence of Paul. Trust me, I would have too. He mentioned his new band at the time, The Fab Faux and let's just say Paul McCartney didn't exactly swoon over the fact. {"Oh great, another tribute band making a living off me!" Was what he was probably thinking.    }

Paul McCartney was billed as the "Executive Producer" of the film and that explains a lot to your correspondent. We all remember Paul's first cinematic foray, which was the bizarre one hour film, "Magical Mystery Tour" subsequently judged to be the Beatles first actual bomb. Years later Paul thought he would throw together( and I mean throw together)  a movie called "Give My Regards To Broad Street." Another commercial and critical bomb. And now we have this. The movie is still worth a look but one wonders what might have been if Paul wasn't so intent on talking about himself for an hour and 20 minutes. It is very reminiscent of John Lennon's comment after the release of the "Let It Be" movie: "It was a movie conceived by Paul for Paul." 

As for the song, "Freedom," as simplistic and cliche' ridden as it was, it was nevertheless written in great spirit and heartfelt love for the US by one of America's most famous British friends. The song was released in the direct aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy and in the hue and cry of the moment, one could assume it would have done well. It didn't. The song peaked, if that's the word for it, at #97 in the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for one week and disappeared. Released also in the U.K, it never charted.

Intensions were great and I love and thank Paul for even thinking of this charitable event. I just wish we all could have seen more of the concert with all the other acts. They generously gave their time and talents to this worthy cause. As such, they should have been seen and thus appreciated by the fans.


By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks)  Find us at www.beatletracksband.com for more cool blogs and information.

God Bless.

We draw today from "FAB: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney," by Howard Sounes, Da Capo Press, 2010


In the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS section at the end of the book, Mr. Sounes drives home his main point one last time, lest the reader missed it earlier. I'll quote directly from the book for this paragraph:

"With this book, I set out to write a better-balanced, more detailed and more comprehensive life of Paul McCartney than has previously been achieved. I did not have an agenda to find fault with Sir Paul, nor did I seek to glorify his career  glibly. Rather I have tried to tell the epic story of his life truthfully and fairly was I have found the facts to be from studying him closely, as an entomologist might put another kind of beetle under a microscope."  

Mission accomplished as far as your humble correspondent is concerned blogsters. I absolutely LOVED this book. Just when you thought, "Jesus, what more can be said about any of these guys?!?!?!"  - we have here an honest bio. Mr. Sounes pulls no punches, if an album, song or action wasn't up to snuff, Sounes says so right up front. He both praises and criticizes McCartney throughout. Not to worry, over all, Paul comes out looking great as usual. Let's pull a few quotes to illustrate the point:

1) On the Liverpool Institute (high school) that Paul went to in Liverpool: "Yet he loved the 'Inny' and came to recognize the head start it gave him in life. 'It gave you a great feeling of the world was out there to be conquered, that the world was a very big place, and somehow you could reach it from here.' It was at the Inny that Paul acquired the nickname Macca, which has endured."

2) His mother's death: "Paul was 14, Mike was 12. Mum died on 31 October, 1956, Halloween, aged 47. Over the years, however, it became plain that Paul saw his world shattered by that autumn night in 1956. The premature death of his mother was a trauma he never forgot, nor wholly got over."

The McCartneys in the late 1940's.

3) On playing guitar: "It was only when he saw a picture of Slim Whitman playing guitar the other way around (Whitman having taught himself to play left-handed after losing part of a finger on his right hand) that Paul thought to restring his instrument and accordingly began to make progress. Schoolmate Ian James also played guitar, with greater proficiency, and gave Paul valuable lessons on his own REX acoustic." *When James apporached retirement in 2006, and his pension fund wan't as healthy as he'd hoped, he asked Paul to authenticate the REX as the guitar he'd learned on. Paul gladly did so and with that endorsement he sold the instrument at auction for an astounding 333,000 Pounds ($509,490 U.S.)!  (*Comment: See, it pays to save things for 50 years! Cool trivia too.)

4) On songwriting: "John's (Lennon) voracious reading accounts, in part, for his lyrics being generally more interesting than Paul's." 

5) On playing music: "Both (John and Paul) had good voices, John's possessing more character and authority, which Paul made up for by being an excellent mimic. He was particularly adept at taking off Little Richard."

6) In Hamburg: "By all accounts there was a virtual nightly orgy at the Bambi Kino (after they stopped playing). George losing his virginity in their squalid digs while the others lay in their cots nearby: ' . . . . after I'd finished, they all applauded and cheered.' "

7) Stuart Sutcliffe leaves the Beatles: " Stuart left the band. As neither John nor George wanted to take up Stuart's bass - the least glamorous instrument in a band - this job fell to Paul, who needed a new instrument. To get him started, Stuart generously loaned Paul his expensive Hofner bass." (*Comment: The problem here was the bass looked and felt weird upside down and left handed.) " Later, Paul bought the smaller and cheaper Hofner violin bass, which became his signature instrument. It is a mark of Paul's talent, and strength of personality, that despite being on the backline instrument, he remained an equal front man with John."

8) On success as a Beatle: Above and beyond talent, timing and luck - three other prerequisites are also required in any successful career - a large part of the Beatles' success, and thereby Paul McCartney's, can be put down to the fact that the boys worked with first-rate people from the start. Naive though he was, Brian Epstein was an honest and devoted manager. Add to that, George Martin who was intelligent, sophisticated and cultured. He is the sort of man about whom almost no one has a bad word to say, and he was an excellent record producer."

9) On Elvis:  "In many ways, Elvis was an example of how not to conduct a career. Elvis' highest placed single in the US Billboard charts for 1965 was "Crying in the Chapel" that peaked at #3 in May, 1965. The Beatles, in the alternative, scored five US #1's  in the same year { I Feel Fine (Jan.), Eight Days A Week (March), Ticket to Ride (May), HELP! (Sept.) and Yesterday (Oct.) }  

10) On Lovely Rita: "This slight work inspired by the experience of being given a parking ticket by a traffic warden named Meta Davis."  *cool trivia that.

11) Paul visits with The Jefferson Airplane in late Spring, 1967: "To Marty Balin's eyes, the visiting Paul McCartney looked very square. The musicians showed Paul around the trippy Haight-Ashbury distric - he took many pictures - then invited him back to their house. 'Well, what's new with the Beatles?' Balin asked. In reply, Paul took a tape from his pocket and played A Day In The Life. Not so square! 'Holy Christ! This is Amazing. I totally, literally did not know what to say, except Fuckin Great!!! I just couldn't believe it . . . .'  having reduced his American friend to a jibbering wreck, Paul replaced the tape nonchalantly in his pocket and sauntered on his way."

12) On teaching Mary Hopkins how to sing Those Were The Days: " ' I kept showing her the way she should sing it and generally working on it and suddenly she got it . . . .'  said Paul, who instinctively felt he knew best. *He didn't like her interpretation of the song so he insisted she sing it HIS way.  As with Badfinger, he was right again. When Mary Hopkins sang the song Paul's way, it went to #1 in 13 countries."

 Paul with Mary Hopkins, 1968.

13) The White Album: "The White Album is a boldly, unapologetically ambitious and arty record. Gone are the corny songs of Beatlemania, The Beatles were now men making mature, reflective music, the quantity and variety of which sets the White Album apart as one of their greatest achievements."  (*Comment: I couldn't have said it better myself. )

14) On Yoko: "Then John suggested Yoko dub a backing vocal - instead of Paul. McCartney gave John a look of total disbelief and then walked away in disgust. Before long, Yoko was in the control room, venting her opinion on what they'd recorded so far. ' Well, it's pretty good,' she told George Martin of one take of Revolution, 'but I think it should be played a bit faster.'  A LINE had been crossed. John was allowing this strange little woman, with whom he'd become infatuated, to enter into and meddle with a band that, aside from small disagreements, had hitherto been four friends united against the world. It was a SHOCKING breach of eitquette. 'It just spoiled everything,' lamented Tony Bramwell, who blames Yoko ultimately for the break-up of the band. 'Yoko was the exacerbation in the studio that caused the split between all of them. George called her the witch; Ringo hated her; Paul couldn't understand why somebody would being their wife to work.' " (*Comment: Bizarrely, Paul would do just that for the duration of his band Wings dragooning Linda into the band for 10 full years.)

15) On Paul and Linda Eastman: "The couple formed a tight unit that mirrored John and Yoko. Apart from being his lover, Linda also had the makings of a steadfast lieutenant in the Beatles wars. 'She watched his back,' Peter Brown said. 'She was very, very vigilant in watching his back, totally and utterly loyal and looked after his needs domestically and in every other way . . . .' Another quality Paul appreciated was that, having come from money, Linda didn't seem interested in his wealth. She preferred the simple life, as he did too, to a degree.  Both were relaxed about sex. They told each other everything about their past (*trust me, there was a lot to tell from both). Linda dug rock and roll in a way Jane Asher never had, and unlike Jane, this American Girl wasn't uptight about drugs. And, she was more than ready to settle down with a man who could look after her and her daughter Heather. "

 Paul and Linda on their wedding day, March 12, 1969.


16) On suing his fellow Beatles: "The McCartneys were still in L.A. when, on March 12, 1971, Justice Stamp (the judge) ruled in Paul's favor at the High Court of London. Stating, in part, 'The appointment of ABKCO (Klein's company), without the concurrence of Paul, was, in my opinion a breach of the terms of the Partnership Deed.' There was no evidence that Klein had actually stolen money from the Beatles, but he had received excessive commisions (Comment: the excessively high commisions were uncovered by Paul's tireless forensic examination of Apple and ABKCO's books.) and McCartney had grounds to distrust the American, whose statements read 'like the irresponsible patter of a second-rate salesman.' Under the terms of the Partnership Act, the judge appointed an accountant named James Douglas Spooner, to manage the Beatles' affairs until a full hearing on the issue dissolving the partnership took place. McCartney conducted his case well, with the help of a first-class legal team, showing himself to be a formidable courtroom adversary, one whom judges tended to side with in the future, appreciated his sensible, civil responses to difficult situations."

17) More from accountant James Spooner: "James Spooner therefore became the Beatles' new court-appointed manager, though his role was strictly that of a disinterested professional, not a pop svengali. He didn't move into Apple either, rather staying at his desk in the City of London. Spooner got along well with Paul, the little he saw of him, and tended to agree with McCarntey's view that Allen Klein was a crook, while the accountant considered John Lennon simply impossible. ' John Lennon was a popular hero, a brilliant man, but terribly tiresome' he observed likewise declaring McCartney was correct to sue his band mates.  'They'd have been bust otherwise. The others foolishly took on this crook called Klein as a manager and Klein firstly ripped them off something shocking, by taking a percentage of the GROSS rather that off the NET, after expenses.' Sir (Spooner was later knighted) Spooner conceded that KLein negotiated an adventageous royalty deal with EMI, 'the percentage that the Beatles were getting out of EMI was FAR higher than ANYBODY had ever achieved before (Comment: and jusifiably so, considering it was the Beatles) but the trouble was that Klein, as I say, took his cut before any expenses of any sort or tried to. If Paul hadn't sued the Beatles, the band would have drowned in debt. ' " 

18) Tony Bramwell on Paul: "When Paul asked Tony Bramwell what he thought of London Town, he didn't like the answer he got. "I said, "Well, it'll be all right when it's finished." Paul replied, 'What the f*ck do you know? I f**king brought you down from Liverpool.' Is what he used to say in the old days at Apple, to Peter Brown and others when he was pissed off. Bramwell was not given the job of promoting London Town and the men didn't speak for over ten years."

19) The Eastman's renegotiate Paul's deal with CBS: "In signing with CBS, he had recently been given a sweetner; the Frank Music Catalogue. The deal made Paul the owner of the works of Frank Loesser, American author of Guys and Dolls, and added to a publishing portfolio that included the Buddy Holly songbook, the rights to a raft of hit shows including Annie, Hello-Dolly!, and A Chorus Line, which were all earning the star big money."

20) On Give My Regards to Broad Street: "All told, this celluloid misadventure had been a calamitous mistake, one which Paul would excise from his CV, hardly ever referring to it and according to Webb,( Peter Webb, the director) refusing permission for its DVD release in the UK. Unfortunately, as David Puttnam (Producer)observed, Paul didn't possess the will to make that extra effort, preferring to get by on talent. It is a character flaw that has marred his entire career."

21) On the Press to Play LP: "As work on Press to Play dragged on month after month, Hugh (Padgham, record producer who produced LPs for Phil Collins and the Police) discovered what other producers had before him: he couldn't tell Paul anything. Also, Paul's charm wore off. Years ago Paul hardly talked about the Beatles at all. Nowadays, he told the same old Beatle Stories again and again, until they were frankly boring, and nobody had the courage to tell him he was repeating himself. Also, he seemed obsessed with what the public thought of him in relation to John Lennon. As well, Paul's penchant for smoking dope  meant that recording a McCartney album could drift on almost indefinitely."

22) On being a Beatle: "Most people couldn't behave normally around a Beatle. John and Paul had chosen as their partners gutsy women who treated them as normal people. Yoko, Linda and Heather (Mills) were all three a match for their dominant, wilful partners. John and Paul had become so famous, so rich and so powerful that they were inevitably slightly monstrous. They were only comfortable with equally monstrous women."

23) On divorcing Heather Mills: "The gothic towers of the Royal Courts of Justice were cloaked in London fog as Sir Paul McCartney was driven down the Strand on Monday 11 Feb. 2008. Sir Paul ordered his driver to take him round the back way. He was familiar with the building. It is where he came in 1971 to sue his fellow Beatles.  . . . . Justice Bennet read his 58 page judgement aloud to the McCartneys. The headline result was that Sir Paul should pay Lady McCartney a lump sum of 16.5 Million Pounds ($25.2 M U.S.) meaning that, with the wealth she had acquired during their marriage, the charity worker would walk away with cash and assets worth $37.1 M U.S., which was $100 Million less that she'd asked for. " (*Comment: Paul went on a subsequent  compacted world tour which, as the book laughingly points out, paid for the entire divorce with change to spare!)

Blogsters, I am truly, merely scratching the surface here with this awesome book. Do yourselves a favor and grab it, you won't be sorry. You all trust me by now, don't you??

By John Haberstroh (Bassist for BeatleTracks Band)  Find us and more great blogs at www.beatletracksband.com      

Helen Shapiro pictured above with legenday empresario Ed Sullivan in October, 1962 when she starred on his popular variety show; 1.5 years before the Beatles rocked the western hemisphere on the same show.


We draw today from a great article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal music section by Marc Myers, July 27, 2011.


Helen Shapiro (b. Sept. 28, 1946) possessed a low, mezzo-soprano voice that resulted in a sultry, soulful delivery and in the process catapulted her to the top of the UK charts back in the early 1960s. Earlier this very year, EMI released a gorgeous retrospective called "The Ultimate Helen Shapiro," a three disc CD collection featuring 90 tracks of music celebrating her career.

While having two UK #1 hits for herself, the so-called "British Invasion" took over pop music, rolling over the United States like a musical tsunami lead by the Beatles themselves. In the process, Ms. Shapiro was left behind. With her trademark "beehive" hairdo, extremely young face and a Jewish last name she refused to change, Helen's ability to penetrate the US market faltered when compared to the long, cool, mature female pop stars like Petula Clark (Downdown) and Dusty Springfield (Wishin' and Hopin') that were joining in the Brit Invasion and helping the Fabs and other British bands sweep the US charts. Slightly after the first wave of Brits came other British females such as Lulu and Cilla Black who did well too.

Helen Shapiro formed her first band at the age of 10 in 1956 (your correspondent's birth year) which was very progressive for a gal in those days. Joining in were a cousin and some friends including a one Mark Feld, later to become a glam rock sensation as "Marc Bolan and T-Rex" in the early 1970's. After winning a number of talent contests, Ms. Shapiro finally got a more formal musical education at the Maurice Burman School of Modern Pop Singing in 1959. At the Maurice school Helen learned the fundamentals of mic technique, clear enunciation while singing, carrying oneself on the stage to say nothing of proper singing technique.

1960- 61: Helen is signed to Columbia Records on a six month contract. She recorded "Don't Treat Me Like A Child" in January of 1961. Together with a timely appearance on a British TV show, the song shot up the charts where it peaked at #3. Not bad for a 14 year old. Her follow up song was "You Don't Know" that was released in June that hit #1 in August selling 500,000 copies. Not surprisingly, Helen became tabloid fodder due in large part to her good looks and extremely young age. She finally dropped out of high school at the age of 15, at the end of 1961.

Meanwhile, back in the studio, she released her third single in September of 1961 called "Walkin Back to Happiness." Yet another smash #1 hit that topped the UK charts in October. This song became her signature hit. In the US, "Walkin' Back To Happiness" peaked at #100 on the Billboard Charts.

1962: Ms. Shapiro's next single was released called "Tell Me What You Said." This tune stalled at #2 in March of 1962. At this point management felt teen rock films were the order of the day so she was cast in two forgettable teen movies. Helen did a hugely successful "World Tour" that included Australia, New Zealand, Canada and finished up with the before mentioned appearance on the "The Ed Sullivan Show" in October. As Helen herself admitted, "Being on the show was a big deal, but it didn't have that big of an impact. Before the Beatles, British acts on American TV were thought of mostly as music hall."  Ms. Shapiro's final top 10 hit in the UK (the only song she recorded to ever chart in the US was Walkin' Back To Happiness ) was the ballad "Little Miss Lonely" that peaked at #8.

1963: Finally, a UK tour was organized for Helen. This tour was arranged for February through March and it featured five other acts including the Beatles, who were billed dead last. That is to say, the Beatles were the first act on stage essentially opening for everyone else, including Helen Shapiro. Says Helen, "I had a big crush on John, but he was secretly married at the time and we all knew but had to keep quiet about it." 

 With Lennon, that old smoothie.


When "Tell Me What You Said" failed to get to #1, it was an omen of things to come for Ms. Shapiro, although she nor anyone else knew it at the time. Her career was already on the way down. First, John and Paul had written a song expressly for her called "Misery," but Columbia turned the tune down flat and wouldn't allow her to even record it. The real shocker came about mid-way through the tour when the Beatles' own "Please Please Me" hit #1 in several UK charts. *(Back then, there were 5 major British Pop Charts. The most important being Record Retailer. The Beatles topped the other four, but only got to #2 on Record Retailer and thus, Please Please Me has never been considered a true #1 for the Beatles. Add to that, while it is hard to imagine now, the Beatles had barely been out of Merseyside at that point except for the slave driving Hamburg shows. They were still largely unknown to the UK, yet promoter Arthur Howes liked the look of them and sneaked them into the Shapiro tour as an afterthought). The sudden star power of a #1 hit immediately put the Beatles on equal status with Helen Shapiro. By the end of the tour, the Beatles were getting as much applause and screaming as Helen Shapiro.

"Helen was the star," says Ringo. "She had the telly in her dressing room and we didn't have one. We had to ask her if we could watch hers. We weren't getting packed houses, but we were on the boards, man."

When the tour ended, the Beatles went their way and Helen went hers; off to Nashville, Tenn. as it turned out. She was there to make her next LP with saxophonist Boots Randolph and the Jordanaires, Elvis' backing vocal group. One song stood out above the rest from these sessions, it was called "It's My Party." It concerned a girl's tearful hurt over a cheating boyfriend. Once again Columbia record executives butted in and refused to release this song as a single, deeming it too bratty and juvenile. This decision prooved to be a career breaker for Helen. The judgemental mistake proved to be onerous. The singer Leslie Gore recorded a cover version which shot to #1 on the coveted US Billboard charts. Helen handled the screw up with dignity and grace saying Gore's version was much better than hers anyway. If you say so Helen.  The next highest charting song for Helen Shapiro ever, was 1963's "Queen For Tonight" that peaked at #33 in the UK.

After 1963: The Beatles, as we know, shot ever higher from that point on and haven't landed yet as far as your humble correspondent is concerned. Helen's career slowly fizzled in the wake of the British Invasion and the Beatles mega-stardom. She continued to record, appeared on stage in the West End, sang with jazz players and even managed to tour the world with her music. In 1987, she became a Messianic Jew -viewing Jesus as the Messiah, after which she released several popular gospel albums. The last single Helen released was 1967's "Stop and You Will Become Aware" - it completely failed to chart.

God Bless, Helen. Best Wishes from BeatleTracks and all the Beatle fans world wide.

By John Haberstroh (bassist for BeatleTracks) Find us and more great blogs at www.beatletracksband.com

Above: George Harrison with wife Patti in that oh-so groovy mid 1966 Mod, Swinging London look.

We draw again today from "Recording the Beatles," by Brian Kehew and Kevin Ryan, Curvebender Press, 2008.


April 21, 1966: The Beatles got down to work on George Harrison's latest offering, an ascerbic commentary on the oppressive tax situation in Great Britain. This was no joke; in their income bracket, the Beatles were obliged to hand over 95% of their income to the Tax Service. It was a crushing tax debacle for the well heeled at the time. The "Revolver" sessions were well underway and mid-period Beatlemania was still at a fever pitch. This song represented one of Harrison's early major compositions and it was a winner through and through.

The band recorded 11 takes of the rhythm track that consisted of electric guitars and Ringo and Paul's lockstep drum/bass backing. All of this was recorded onto Track 1. Take 11 was deemed "best." After this, George double tracked his lead vocal onto Tracks 3 and 4 while John and Paul added backing harmonies. Onto Track 2 Ringo added tambourine while John and Paul contributed some lightning-fast backing vocals consisting of the phrase "Anybody got a bit of Money." *this early backing vocal, that was eventually NOT used can be heard on the Anthology 2 disc. On the same track, Paul added a blistering lead guitar solo played on his Epiphone guitar. Says Paul, "George let me have a go for that solo because I had an idea. I was trying to persuade George to do something -feedbacky and crazy. And I was showing him what I wanted, and he said, 'Well you do it.' Even though it was his song, he was happy for me to do it." Harrison apparently agreed; "I was pleased to have Paul play that bit on 'Taxman.' If you notice, he did like a little indian bit on it for me."

Following this overdub, all four tracks were full, and the song was virtually complete.

April 22, 1966:   Returning to the studio the next day, the band all agreed the song needed more polishing. In particular, they wanted to scrap the scat singing part ("anybody got a bit of money") and lambaste the Prime Ministers recently and currently in power: Harold Wilson and Edward Heath. (Your humble correspondent jumps in here and admits that, if not for this song, who outside the UK would know, remember or care who was Prime Minister in those years??)   A reduction mix was called for so that a new, open track could be available for the new backing vocals. Thus, during the reduction mix, George Harrison's lead vocals from Tracks 3 and 4 were bounced down onto one new track. He was still double tracked, but the actual sounds of his voice were now on one new track instead of two tracks. Since there was music being played on the original Track 2 along with the "anybody got a bit of money" vocals; the fix here consisted of leaving that basic track as it was but the "anybody got a bit of money" vocal lines were turned way down along with some of Paul's 6 string guitar work. With one track now totally open and available, the boys recorded the now famous, "Ha Ha, Mister Wilson . . . . . Ha Ha Mr. Heath" lines. They also took the opportunity to add cowbell here as a last minute inclusion.

  Mr. Wilson, mid 60's.


Not content to skewer just the reigning Prime Minister, the band went after the prominent MP (Member of Parliment) and future Prime Minister too:

Sir Edward Heath.


The recording process shook out like this:

Take 11:

Track 1: Drums, Bass guitar, Electric 6 string guitar
Track 2: Tambourine, "bit of money . . ." scat vocals, more Electric guitar
Track 3: Lead and Backing Vocals
Track 4: Lead and Backing Vocals

Take 12: (reduction mix)

Track 1: Drums, Bass guitar, Electric guitar
Track 2: Tambourine, Electric guitar
Track 3: All Lead and Backing Vocals (bounced onto this one track)
Track 4: New "Ha Ha Mr. Wilson . . . " backing vocals and cowbell overdubs

Mixing:   The song was now almost complete. The band was dissatisfied with the ending of the tune and it was decided to add a copy of Paul's blistering lead solo as an outro to the piece. This was done in short order and the song was complete to everyone's satisfaction.

I find it amazing how the entire band had a built in, instinctive "quality control" feel to all of their work. This song typifies their work ethic. Any other artist would have been proud and satisfied with the work completed on the first day and only the first day. But not the Beatles; they had to keep polishing and re-polishing until this song, like all of their songs, were elevated to classic music status. Such is the nature of the group genius on display in this band. All artists must also know when to stop. They have to know when and where the last stroke of a brush occurs; the last chisle stroke; the last word in a book or in the Beatles' case - the last note and overdub. Clearly, this band always knew that too. 

By John Haberstroh  (Bassist for BeatleTracks)   Find us and more great blogs at www.beatletracksband.com