TL;DR:
- Paul McCartney wanted the solo on a song from The Beatles’ Revolver to sound like Eric Clapton.
- Paul put a lot of feedback on his solo.
- He said he played the guitar differently from how George Harrison would have done it.
Paul McCartney put an Eric Clapton-inspired guitar solo in a song from The Beatles’ Revolver. Subsequently, some fans mistakenly thought George Harrison played the solo. Paul said George didn’t want to admit he didn’t play the riff.
Paul McCartney listened to Eric Clapton and B. B. King during The Beatles’ ‘Revolver’ era
During a 1990 interview with Guitar Player, Paul discussed how a friend of his indirectly influenced The Beatles’ “Taxman.” “I had this friend in London, John Mayall of the Bluesbreakers, who used to play me a lot of records late at night,” Paul said. “He was a kind of DJ-type guy. You’d go back to his place, and he’d sit you down, give you a drink, and say, ‘Just check this out.’”
Paul said Mayall showed him music by some legendary guitar players. “He’d go over to his deck, and for hours he’d blast you with B.B. King, Eric Clapton — he was sort of showing me where all of Eric’s stuff was from, you know,” he said. “He gave me a little evening’s education in that.” Paul decided to draw influence from Clapton for “Taxman.”
Paul initially wanted George to play the solo and create feedback for it. George wasn’t amenable to the idea, so Paul had to play it himself.
Why Paul McCartney played the guitar solo on the song instead of George Harrison
Paul discussed how he created the solo. “I was turned on after that and I went and bought an Epiphone,” he recalled. “So then I could wind up with the Vox amp and get some nice feedback. It was just before George was into that. In fact, I don’t think George did get too heavily into that kind of thing.”
Notably, George is the only credited writer of “Taxman.” For this reason, numerous fans assumed George played the guitar riff from the song. Paul said the “My Sweet Lord” singer didn’t like having to explain that wasn’t the case. Paul contrasted his guitar playing with George’s, noting he was a fan of feedback while George was “a little more restrained in his guitar playing.”
How The Beatles’ ‘Taxman’ and ‘Revolver’ performed in the United States and the United Kingdom
“Taxman” wasn’t a single, so it never charted on the Billboard Hot 100. On the other hand, its parent album, Revolver, became a huge hit. It reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200 for six weeks, staying on the chart for 94 weeks in total.
According to The Official Charts Company, “Taxman” never charted in the United Kingdom. Meanwhile, Revolver reached No. 1 in the U.K. for seven weeks and remained on the chart for a total of 34 weeks.
While George is the Beatle most responsible for “Taxman,” it wouldn’t be the same without Paul’s musical genius — or Clapton’s.
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